Have you ever heard of the Intensive English Program (IEP) before? IEP is a magical place where English Language Learners can take flight while they are learning English. When you want to begin your new life journey, including your career, your friendships, and challenging your mind, you can come to IEP to help us build our family.

Located in the Roselawn building at EMU, IEP is like a family home to its 75 students and 10 teachers. Every day, we have break time with coffee and tea, and we often have potlucks and other meals to share. We play games together too, such as “Never Have I Ever” and “Scattergories”; we also play intramural sports and go on wonderful field trips. In this program, we make many new friends, build a relationship with them, and have countless conversations together and give advice to each other. We share our knowledge, culture, and life experience with each other and help new people learn how to be successful in the program and in the United States. It is like adopting people into the IEP family.

There are many students with challenges at IEP. Often, students have jobs and families in addition to their studies here, and sometimes our students welcome new babies into their families! The teachers make an effort to understand and help all students no matter what their challenges are. In addition, learning a new language (sometimes English is a student’s third or fourth language), trying to pronounce words with an American accent, learning a new culture, and learning about a new country are all difficult to do! But students are ready to cross every difficult route.

IEP is an open-minded, friendly, and welcoming environment. People generally respect each other with no discrimination. This is a place where we feel comfort and solace in the face of our challenges as we fulfill our goals. The teachers have an open heart for all the different people who study here, and they show us a lot about American life and culture. The doors are open for everybody who is willing to learn the English language.

Learning English helps us begin a new journey. IEP shows students how you can study in college, university, or technical school after you finish at this program. It also gives you an opportunity to study in the US; before, we couldn’t imagine doing this, but now it’s real!

Through learning English, we earn wings to fly to higher education. 

IEP is a special program which facilitates intercultural and interlingual connections, and we even engage in interreligious conversation and practices. In this place, we are building one  family together. We have an invitation for you: we always need help from tutors and conversation partners, and we have room to welcome more students. We encourage more people to join us to help us learn English at IEP!

Meet our class. . .

Razia is from Afghanistan, speaks Dari and Pashto, and her hobbies are drawing, cycling, and playing volleyball.

Djo is from Congo, speaks five languages, and his hobbies are writing, reading, discovering, and soccer.

Anna is from Ukraine, speaks Russian and Ukrainian, and enjoys learning English.

Florine is from Cameroon, her favorite food is rice, she laughs a lot, and she doesn’t stress about most things.

Abdul is from Afghanistan and says, “I love all you guys.”

Leon is from Congo, speaks six languages, and likes dogs, taking car trips, and having intensive debates. His advice is to “Forgive, pursue unity, and love.”

Kamal is from Afghanistan, and he is an extroverted person who wants to make more friends and is very kind. 

Lucky is from South Sudan, and speaks Arabic and Swahili. He wants you to know that in South Sudan, the sun is “ever shining during the dry season.”

Kevin is from Nicaragua and one of his favorite hobbies is listening to music. He would like to speak English fluently and have the confidence to enjoy American culture.

Tutu is from Congo, and says that having a humble attitude is important in the community. He loves his family and he always does his best for them. He says to you, “God bless you all!”

Omeed is from Kurdistan, Iraq, and likes to be a useful person for everyone. His family is important to him and he tries to do everything for them.