The first days of school are always filled with excitement and new discoveries. The air was certainly filled with promise and good cheer when Monterey Institute summer language students celebrated their first week with a pizza party on Friday.
This year, the Institute welcomed 114 students to the Summer Intensive Language Program, or SILP. Students enroll in SILP with the goal of seriously improving their skills in Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian or Spanish over the summer, while also enjoying a host of cultural activities to enhance their learning experience. Close to half of the students are incoming graduate students and the other half come from a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate institutions across the United States, as well as one student from Liberia.
Also here in Monterey for the summer are 23 students from 10 countries who are enrolled in the Intensive English as a Second Language program, or Intensive ESL. These students will also participate in diverse extracurricular activities to learn about the Monterey area and gain cultural context for the new language they are attempting to master.