My name is Felipa Galván Juárez, I live in Ixtlahuaca, State of Mexico, in México.  I am 50 years old. I have worked very hard to get a scholarship to Canada,  I had two purposes: the first one was to practice English in a real context and live the experience in a university, the second to learn about the culture in Canada. I was surprised when I saw the invitation from the “Lakehead University” Ontario, Canada, because I could perceive the connection between knowledge and ancestral wisdom.

It was a unique experience for me to study in the AEP program during the 4 months. Literally, the AEP program is far exceeded my expectation as it is not just an academic program that imparting my professional language skills but also leading me to emerge into the life of North American. Even though I was in pain as I felt extremely home-sick when landing in the area of Canada at the beginning, I felt so warm and belonged as time passed by in the International Language Centre.

Lakehead academic English program was the first class I took in my first year before I enrolled in MBA, it was by far the most useful. It has noticeably improved both my writing and speaking skills. The program teaches us how to properly write summaries, how to structure essays, within the grateful experiences I had in the AEP class and followed the amicable and joyful atmosphere to learn and to research and cite sources properly, and even how to use appropriate and effective grammar.

Last summer of 2019 I spent three weeks in the Lakehead University campus in Orillia, Canada, as part of an English Innovation Program. There, I had the opportunity to take classes about business and entrepreneurship with an amazing teacher, which resulted in very useful for me because I was not very used to those subjects since I'm an engineering student and we don't normally get the chance to learn much about that.

My experience at Lakehead University was more than an internship. In 2019, I participated in the Business Innovative Program with a group of students and professors from the Costa Rican Institute of Technology. The experience was enlightening in three main ways. The first one is related to academic and professional growth, especially because the program was a meaningful learning experience along with the guidance of an excellent teacher and the Lakehead team.

My teaching practice has improved greatly since I took the program. Before taking this program, I was afraid of my students ‘teaching evaluations. However, I dedicated more time to my lesson planning and made sure that the learning was meaningful to my students. And it worked! I was the third-highest ranked instructor this semester. That said, what was more motivating to me was to see all my students taking responsibility for their own learning and putting their newly acquired knowledge into practice. They even told me how much they had learned in my class.

As a university professor I could compare my teaching strategies and theoretical foundation with those taught in the course. I
was also able to learn about how to teach my subject and take into account my students’ English language proficiency. As a
student, I had very valuable educational moments that enhanced my professional skills.

Besides the huge popularity that LU has, what got our experience to a whole different level was the attention and the really shown importance given to every single international/national student. They made us feel not only part of the University but part of Canada, with all the trips and activities planned, they just made us live the complete experience.

My name is Juan Carlos Montufar, I am from Ecuador and I am studying  the English Program at Lakehead University. You can do anything to learn inside and outside the classroom when you practice English with other people. My favourite thing about learning English here at Lakehead is the experience of the teachers. They have more than 10 years of English experience and that is very good.

"Studying English at Lakehead was an incredible experience! My English professor was always giving us different activities, so we learned almost without noticing it. Boredom was not included in our vocabulary! Aside from classes, we visited places around the city including the museum. This helped me to learn Canada's history and to interact with Canadians and Indigenous people of the city. I also experienced the most spectacular landscapes I've ever seen!"