Hear what ELI students have said about their ELI experience:
Abdulaziz Alswilm – Saudi Arabia
Abdulaziz was chosen as the Valedictorian (excellent student that represents the graduating students) for session I 2014. He wrote and delivered the speech in this video at the ELI graduation ceremony, talking about his experiences at the ELI:
Abdullah Alahmad – Saudi Arabia
“Since I graduated from the ELI, there has not been a period where I didn’t wish I could go back to my ELI life. The joy I had with my international friends, my ELI teachers, and local Delawareans, everything was simple back then…I have faced so many international students who have been struggling at American universities due to the lack of English skills. So, whenever I get asked how my English is better than my fellow internationals, I always refer to the ELI.”
Andrés Home – Colombia
“These 6 months for me were an amazing experience to learn about different cultures, make friends, see new and exciting places and also to learn English. Even though sometimes any experience in our life has good and bad moments, the important thing is what we learned from this opportunity that life gave to us. Thank you very much Dr. Stevens, because of this opportunity, I´m a new human being with new objectives, goals and a capacity to see the world as a mixture of different cultures, where the most important thing is listen and open the mind to every new thing that every person has to tell us. In this exercise you can find the most extraordinary wisdom. Any experience that I received from you was for me a blessing.”
Hyeyoon Seo – Korea
“I like the kitchen class tutoring cluster. You can learn recipes and a lot of vocabulary. I can then try the recipes in my apartment.”
Pedro Rodriguez – Colombia
“I like the tutoring program because you have an expert in front of you who wants to help you improve your listening skills.”
Meshari Alenezi – Kuwait
“I like the ELI because it improves my English language.”
Sebastian Gelhaus – Germany
“I like the atmosphere in the classrooms. I have fun. It’s much better than in Germany where you learn just for the final exam.”
Shuichi Nakata – Japan
“I like the teachers. Besides teaching the classes they are very helpful outside the classroom and they give you advice.”
Xiaoqing Zhang – China
“My favorite part of ELI is there are so many activities I can join, and they are great!”
Abdullah Al-Balushi – Oman
“What I like most about the ELI is meeting people from different countries and cultures.”
Joana Aguiar – Brazil
“What I most like about living in America is living in a small city like Newark and about the classes is that we have small classes which are super helpful with the learning of English.”
Xiaonan Sui – China
“I like the CAP program. The ELI EAPVI class is almost like a university class. It’s very helpful.”