Staff at Embassy

New location for Embassy Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale’s new centre location was unveiled for its first day of classes on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010.  Our brand new, state of the art facility is a welcome neighbour to movie theatres, the Modern Art Museum, historic downtown, restaurants, outdoor cafes, jazz and night-clubs, trendy shops, and beautiful waterways.  

Camilo Fontecilla, Centre Director, is excited about the move and shares, ”students love the current school, but everyone is thrilled to be moving into our brand new facility, with cutting-edge technology in all of the classrooms and sleek interior design throughout the space.”  

The facility features interactive whiteboards in all 13 classrooms, free wireless internet access, a large media centre, and a comfortable, spacious student lounge. Current students are enjoying classes at the new location, only a short five minute walk from the previous Las Olas Blvd site.  All new and upcoming students will be directed to the new address:

Embassy Fort Lauderdale
Las Olas Circle
200 SW 1st Avenue
Suite 108

Ft Lauderdale, FL 33301

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Read more about the Fort Lauderdale school on our main website.

New Fort Lauderdale school project is all systems go

In Fort Lauderdale in Florida, the building project for the new Embassy school is progressing very well. The state-of-the-art building is starting to take shape and will be opening on the 14th of June. The new facility is very close to the current school and has the advantage of a prominent street-front location in the bustling Riverwalk District on prestigious Las Olas Circle. 

The new school is just a five minute walk away from the current building but has the added advantage of being right next to cinemas, restaurants, night clubs and trendy shops.  It’s also in a great location for sightseeing as it’s a minute’s walk away from the Museum of Modern Art and the historic downtown area.  

Camillo Fontecilla, the recently appointed Centre Director, is excited about the move.  

“Students love the current school, but everyone is thrilled to be moving into our brand new facility, with cutting-edge technology in all the classrooms and sleek interior design throughout the space. The streetfront position will greatly increase the ease of access and students will also find far more amenities in the immediate vicinity. It’s a great spot for an international community.”  

Sean Hale, MD of Embassy added: “I know the students will absolutely love it here”.

Do you want to know more about studying English at our brand new Embassy language school in Fort Lauderdale? Take a look at our photos, read about our students and staff or ask a question.

An Embassy USA achievement

In the USA, language schools are accredited by ACCET: book into an ACCET-listed establishment and you can be sure that your course and school have met their standards of excellence.

ACCET inspects all schools on its list regularly, and our USA schools have just undergone the most recent round of inspections.

We recently received the news that all Embassy USA schools are to be reaccredited and that no further inspection will be required for the next five years.

This is an accolade reserved for the highest quality schools and we are delighted to know that ACCET places such faith in our US schools.

Embassy Fort Lauderdale's own election

Lelie Lott, Director of Embassy Fort Lauderdale, writes:

I thought I'd let you know about something educational and fun we did here in the Fort Lauderdale school.

As you can imagine, the US presidential campaign has been a theme of great interest among our students. The students have had lots and lots of questions: questions about how much money candidates can spend, why there are only two main parties and more. Our teachers took sample ballots to the classrooms and discussed the basics of how voting works in the US.  Students talked about how voting works in their countries (or how the leaders are chosen if there is no voting). 

Before doing any of this, we reminded teachers how important it is not to show our personal political preferences in the classroom. We also stressed the need to keep up with the regular curriculum, keep the classes student focused, etc.   

We ended the election season with voting today in the 9:00 am classes.  Each student was given the opportunity to cast an Embassy Fort Lauderdale Presidential Election Ballot.  I've counted up the ballots and will be announcing the results to the school tomorrow morning!!

We had several students turn in empty ballots with a note stating they don't know the candidates well enough to vote. A few others voted for themselves or a favorite teacher, Bart Simpson, or Mickey Mouse... but most took it seriously.

The comments the students gave were interesting. Those who chose McCain listed experience, security, and more free trade as their reasons for voting as they did.

Those who chose Obama listed more diverse reasons including among others: change, end to war, better relations with other countires, youth and intelligence, no connection to current president, want to see a black person as president, environment.

Our students loved having the chance to be involved in this election, they have had lots of English practice during all of the discussions in English on the theme, and we all learned a bit more about world politics. 

We'll wrap things up with the announcment of the school's choice for President on the front information board at the reception desk in the morning.

(FYI:  Our students voted to elect Obama.  Ballot count: 12 for McCain.  76 for Obama.  Remainder chose "other" or opted not to vote.)

Condi and the Koreans

On a recent trip to Washington D.C., some Embassy CES Fort Lauderdale students from Korea were dining in a restaurant when they spotted someone they recognised: the United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. She kindly agreed to have a photo taken with them, and talked with them for a short while, which made their day.

Embassy CES in the USA honours its best staff

Each year, the USA Embassy CES schools honour one of the schools' Directors of Studies, and a member of their teaching staff, with an award.

David Tipmore, Director of Embassy CES Fort Lauderdale, writes:

It's my pleasure to announce the 2007 selections for Teacher of the Year and DOS of the Year. The races for both awards were highly competitive and the results came down to the wire.

DOS of the Year 2007

It's a tie!  Leslie Lott, Director of Studies in Fort Lauderdale, and Greg Bartels, Director of Studies in New York, were the dead-heat winners.  Leslie and Greg received special mention from their peers for their improvements to the academic delivery in the US and their support of colleagues.  Congratulations, Leslie and Greg.  You are the winners of a trip to the TESOL 2008 convention.

 

Click to see the pictures bigger. Left, Leslie Lott with a student. Right, Greg Bartels.

Embassy CES in the USA Teacher of the Year 2007

Having achieved favorable comments for his past work in the Embassy CES New York school and his present performance in Embassy CES San Francisco, Chris Barrett is the clear winner in this category.  Besides the range of his teaching  expertise in Taipei and in the US, his work developing TOEFL test materials with ETS and Princeton Review, and his magazine and travel writing, Chris has shown himself to be a team player both in and out of the classroom, helping with activities, assisting with curriculum development, and providing excellent support for John LoGrasso, his Director of Studies.  Congratulations, Chris! You are the winner of a trip to the TESOL 2008 convention.  Honorable mention in this category:  James Kyrouz of Embassy CES Boston.

My personal thanks to Leslie, Greg, and Chris, for their contributions to the academic excellence of Embassy CES USA.

Volunteering at the Las Olas Wine & Food Festival

I am Allicia, the Internship Coordinator at the Fort Lauderdale school.  Our school is located on the beautiful Las Olas Boulevard.  I have developed many relationships with the local businesses as host companies for the English Internship program, and one of our host companies - the Las Olas Association - suggested us to the Fort  Lauderdale chapter of the American Red Cross as a resource for volunteers for an annual fund raising event.  Well can I tell ya how a little email snowballed....

After speaking with the American Lung Association I posted a little flyer saying "volunteers needed", and soon, by word of mouth, 32 of the school's students had signed up to volunteer at the Las Olas Wine and Food Festival.  I have included the website for you to see more information about the event, but the basics are that it is the premier fundraiser for the Fort Lauderdale Chapter, and they get about 120 restaurants to sponsor the event. 

Our students were going to get right in the thick of things by checking wristbands using their English with the general masses. It was their task after being assigned to a sponsor restaurant to make sure that the donors had indeed donated and were wearing one of the wristbands. Some of the restaurants went way above and beyond, using the students, and others not so much. So the next day we had "hit or miss" as a phrase of the day for the students.

I am including some pictures below - click on them to see them bigger (in the second picture, the students asked one of the Miss Florida candidates to join us). We had a blast working on this event and I wanted to share with you. I have asked some of the students to blog about it but they are on the shy side. I will keep working on them!