ESL Program
Our ESL Program
In 2003 our congregation became aware of the need for an ESL program to serve residents of Eastern Sussex County. We spent the year securing funding, studying other successful ESL programs and building excitement for this ministry within our congregation.
In January of 2004 we held our first ESL class with 45 students. The classes met two days a week, and in May of that year we celebrated our first “graduates”.
In September of 2004 we started classes again with about 50 students, two teachers and 20 mentors. By December of 2006, our class size had swelled to 90 students representing 10 different countries.
In March of 2009 we were notified that we had had been awarded a grant from the Arsht-Cannon Fund at the Delaware Community Foundation which enabled us to expand our ESL classes to offer free babysitting to the children of our students who might otherwise not be able to attend the classes. This expansion of our program resulted in a huge increase in enrollment; by the end of September 2009 our enrollment had grown to 150 students attending one of four sessions offered each week.
In 2010, ten of our advanced ESL students were awarded scholarships to Del Tech at the end of the spring session. These scholarships were made possible by the grant from the Governor’s Consortium on Hispanic Affairs. In addition, all the recipients were awarded book scholarships. Most will be taking advanced ESL writing and grammar.
This program has been very successful and we are grateful to all of our volunteer mentors and helpers who make it possible for us to continue to offer this program.
If you are interested in volunteering with this ministry, please contact the office at (302) 227-3066, or by email at lcosoffice@yahoo.com