Educational and Institutional Services

The Alhambra-US Chamber provides a comprehensive suite of academic consulting services to educational institutions, government entities involved with higher education, as well as foreign students and their families.

The Chamber leadership team possesses decades of experience with international education and maintains a team of educational advisors capable of providing detailed guidance and recommendations on any educational topic.

The Chamber’s consulting focus and experience includes:

• Comprehensive international accreditation training and consulting. The Chamber is working with multiple institutions of higher education across the world seeking international accreditation.
• Advising various institutions with regard to strategic planning, strategic vision, and crafting mission statements.
• Consulting on curriculum and program development and implementation.
• Offering professional development seminars and “train the trainer” programs to keep institutions and educators up to date on current trends and essential skills in international education.
• Offering educational technology workshops to ensure that technological resources have maximum positive impact in the classroom.
• Helping institutions select the ideal accreditation agency.

International Accreditation Consulting

• Assisting institutions with the complex and challenging accreditation process. The Chamber can clarify accreditation requirements, provide assistance with paperwork, and handle overall organization for the entire accreditation preparation and maintenance process.
• Performing a comprehensive gap analysis for a university, highlighting needed steps or changes to ensure a successful conclusion of the accreditation process.
• Providing training and familiarization with the accreditation process for key administrators and faculty members.
• Solidifying the public face of an institution before it is reviewed by an accrediting agency, which may include website edits and developing top-notch promotional materials as is necessary.
• Crafting a compelling and effective mission statement for universities that is appropriate for the accreditation process based on input from the institution.
• Ongoing consulting, analysis and recommendations.
• Periodic follow-up, consulting, and review of an institution’s performance and practices, important for maintaining accreditation.

Additionally, the Chamber offers a variety of ancillary services, which can be of great benefit in the accreditation process:

• Curriculum and program development.
• Teacher training and professional development.
• Academic bridge and acculturation services, intensive language instruction, and tutoring for students who plan to continue their education overseas.
• Training for globally competitive standards on a wide range of topics and issues, conducted at local institutions.

Teacher Training

The Chamber can work with educational institutions, government agencies or other relevant organizations to develop and provide instruction on current teaching techniques, cutting-edge educational theory and other professional development/continuing education topics.

• The Chamber workshops and seminars already cover active learning, classroom design and many other topics.  These sessions have already benefitted hundreds of instructors in multiple countries.
• Material can be customized to meet a client’s unique needs.
• Working with our educational partners, we can quickly develop customized new programs and workshops on any topic.
• Workshops can be conductive in person or via teleconference.

“Active Learning and Classroom Design”

Click here to view a Teacher Training sample video presentation.

This presentation focuses on cutting-edge educational theory in the areas of active, cooperative learning and classroom design and arrangement. Several workshops have been presented to audiences all over the world. These workshops enable teachers to better connect with students at all levels of education and learning aptitudes as well as increase students’ ability to retain presented information.  Key components of the presentation:

• Identifying the traits of an engaged learner and illustrating ways to transform all students into engaged learners.
• Identifying the traits of an engaged educator and illustrating how teachers can cultivate those traits in themselves.
• Discussing the benefits of arranging classrooms to pair students from different levels of ability.

The presentation highlights the benefits of “Active Learning” teaching techniques, which emphasize discussion, hands on practice and application, and teaching others. In short, these benefits include:

• Student  access their own prior knowledge to form mental connections to new material.
• Students develop personally meaningful problem solutions or interpretations.
• Students receive more frequent and immediate feedback.
• Need to produce results forces learners to retrieve information from memory rather than simply recognizing a correct statement.
• Active participation and involvement increases students’ confidence and self-reliance.
• For most learners, it is more motivating to be active than passive.
• A task a student has done individually (or as part of group) is highly valued.
• Students’ conceptions of knowledge change, which has implications for cognitive development.
• Students learn to work together.
• Students learn strategies by observing others.

The presentation also discusses how proper classroom arrangement can be beneficial in multiple contexts:

• Facilitates interactive and hands-on learning.
• Cultivates students working together to strengthen mastery and comprehension of material.

The presentation enables dealing with cultural, socioeconomic, and linguist barriers in the classroom and turning student diversity into an educational asset.

Because the physical facility directly impacts teacher and student performance, educators entering an unfamiliar, non-traditional environment may lack the training and perspective that would enable success in their classroom. Using traditional, closed-classroom methods in a community school environment would make the physical innovations irrelevant. The community school building facilitates cooperative, interactive learning and teaching, but the teachers themselves must be trained to assure the concept’s success.

A sample of topics might include:

• Essentials in Learning: variations in learning styles, differentiated instruction, cognition, and diversity
• Classroom Management: creating an environment of respect, redirecting behavior, and classroom guidelines
• Lesson Planning:standards, lesson design, creating a learner-centered lesson, and best practices
• Assessment – traditional, personal, performance and authentic
• Technology – integration into teaching and learning
• Fieldwork – Observation: classroom design, lesson/activity design, teaching methods/style, behavior management, and assessment

Click here for 5 sample Seminars

International Student Services

Studying abroad is an incredible opportunity which presents many challenges. The Alhambra-US Chamber helps students studying in the United States get the most out of their experience in a variety of ways:

• We partner with the internationally recognized best-practice language provider, the Intensive American English Institute (IAEI) to ensure students have the language skills they need for success.
• Through our partners, we have more than 100 tutors available in almost every subject imaginable to ensure students have the academic support they need.
• We arrange cultural familiarization classes and activities to ease the stress of living in a new country and society. Our unique program helps students enjoy and learn from their new environment while honoring their own values.
• The Chamber provides other support services to students studying in the US, including assistance with finding housing or purchasing a vehicle, transport to and from the airport, and arranging cultural/recreational activities.

Study Abroad

The Chamber conducts seminars specifically designed for the needs and concerns of international students. These presentations provide prospective international students and their families with information and advice representing real-life, practical tools to maximize academic and personal benefit from their study abroad experience. Key themes and objectives of the seminar include:

• The importance of college advising, standard application procedures and expectations as well as tips to maximize the likelihood of being accepted by a US university.
• Visa requirements and the embassy interview process.
• Study tips and preparing for standardized tests.
• Academic expectations and academic culture abroad (including study and research skills).
• The value of working with tutoring services and education service organizations.
• How to acclimate to their new cultural and social environment.
• Legal, regulatory and practical knowledge for their new host country (opening bank accounts, housing, child care, family life, money management, etc.).

These seminars can be held in the host country or at various locations in the United States.

Family Support

The Chamber also provides comprehensive services to families visiting their children while they study in the US. These services include arranging lodging and transportation during visits as well as planning travel excursions and other cultural and recreational activities.

Academic Recruitment

The Chamber works with colleges, schools and academic institutions at all levels to help them recruit top-quality students.

Student Visas

The Alhambra-US Chamber has more than a quarter-century of experience with educational visas as well as a qualified immigration attorney as part of its leadership team. This makes the Chamber perfect for handling visa questions, needs and difficulties.

Event Planning

The Chamber would add a great deal of value to any event, including the following:

• Working with local partners to plan and organize an international franchise fair. Key components include the development of an appropriate agenda as well as scheduling and logistics for the event.

• Identifying international franchisors that are responsive to the conditions, advantages and needs of the International economy and contacting and recruiting those franchisors to send representatives to the event.

• Recruiting world class speakers, panelists and other subject matter experts with proven track records and international reputations to participate in the event — ensuring that potential local franchisees will gain insightful, practical information they can use to navigate the international franchising process and run a successful franchise.

• Including an international educational franchise component to the event, bringing successful educational service companies from around the world together with educational entrepreneurs to discuss and explore the potential of educational franchising.

• Coordinating international media and public relations for the event, giving the event an appropriate global profile and ensuring businesses and other organizations are aware of the event.

• The above list is not intended to be exhaustive. If additional services are requested of the Chamber, discussions can be held to address those needs. If any of the aforementioned services are not desired, they shall be omitted.

Embassy-University Showcase and Higher Education Fair

The Alhambra US Chamber organized the 2011 Higher Education and Embassy Showcase, held at the Embassy of Malaysia, which provided a forum for universities and embassies to interact and share information. It was a huge success, with over 250 people in attendance, including 22 embassies and over 150 educational institutions from across the world. Speakers included international entrepreneurs, US State Department employees, and esteemed individuals from major American and international universities. Topics ranged from sponsored students in the US and international recruitment to increasing the number of women pursuing degrees. The Alhambra US Chamber has already received multiple requests from other embassies to hold the event again next year.

University Fast Track Program
The University Fast Track Program allows students to more quickly achieve their academic goals by working with highly-trained instructors in focused, small group settings. Through this program, House of Tutors provides international students with the opportunity to expedite their English language study and ensures that students are prepared to meet the demands of American university life.

For more information about the University Fast Track Program, visit our sole language training provider’s website: House of Tutors/Intensive American English Institute.