DIVERSE POPULATION WAS
SCHOOL’S SAVING GRACE
Fortunately, they were also heavily marketing
the school’s programs to South American stu-
dents at a timewhenmany ESL institutionswere
focusing primarily on the Asian market. Many
were from Colombia, where the school year
ended in December and students were looking
for English studies beginning in the new year.
That initial vision to create diversity, primarily
to give students a more well-rounded experi-
ence, cushioned them from the unexpected
end-of-year drop in revenue. Since those early
days, ILAC has seen enrolment increase by 15
to 20 percent annually, drawing students from
a widening array of countries year after year.
“We were creating a niche; a whole experience
about living in Canada and making friends for
a lifetime,” Kolber said. “They say we were the
game changer. Everyone else was selling edu-
cation and we started selling an experience.
We focused right away on diversity of nation-
alities. We felt that having one or two nation-
alities in the school did not lend itself well to
having a good experience in Canada.” Instead,
they wanted students to not only improve their
English language skills, but meet people from
many other cultures and countries, including
Turkey, Brazil and Russia. “We were pioneers in
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