Howard Community College

CON-ED CONNECTIONS 18 Howard Community College English as a Second Language HCC's English Language Center Caters to International and Community Students with Diverse Goals Andrea Alegria Roa earned her pediatric nursing license in Chile, but when she moved to the U.S., she was unable to secure a job in her field due to limited English language abilities. She turned to the English Language Center (ELC) at Howard Community College for support. Like Alegria Roa, people from all over the world are turning to the ELC to improve and fine-tune their communication skills for times when they need to use their second language: English. Offering five levels of instruction with intense focus in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, pronunciation, and grammar, the ELC keeps busy, with students representing 80 to 90 countries in a typical year. "The students who come to the English Language Center have very different goals and we are structured in a way that allows us to respond to what each student wants or needs," said Rebecca Price, former director of the ELC. "We have classes for people who have no English skills, where we focus on numbers, letters, and the true basics. And then we have courses for scholars and scientists who want to brush up on their English skills as they are preparing for a professional presentation or dissertation. And of course, we offer everything in between." Alegria Roa eventually passed her board exam and secured a registered nurse (RN) license in the U.S. She went on to work for two years in the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Maryland Medical Center, and today, is the organization's Spanish-RN interpreter. "Stories like Alegria Roa's really show the impact of what we are doing here at the English Language Center," said Minah Woo, who serves as associate director of the center. "This is why we do what we do and are so committed to continuously growing this program." In academic year 2014 – 2015, over 2,000 students enrolled in courses at the ELC. Woo says that in some ways, the ELC provides an eye-opening experience for people who come to campus to take a class, without having spent any time previously at HCC. "We see students enroll for a class or two at the English Language Center and then they are exposed to all that HCC offers and they decide to stay," said Woo. "Some transition to the college as international students and go on to graduate. Others gain the skills they need to transfer to other colleges or secure jobs in areas that were once unattainable because of language barriers."

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