Suffolk County Community College has an excellent ESL program for adult students.  Many Au Pair in America au pairs choose SCCC for their required college classes.  Since there are 5 levels of English classes to graduate from the ESL program, often au pairs will extend for a second year because they want to complete the 5 levels.

SCCC held ESL graduation on Friday, May 15th at 7:30 PM at the Van Nostrand Auditorium on the Grant or Western Campus of the college. The ceremony was very moving with several graduates telling stories about their journey to the USA and why they came.  The au pairs all dressed up, friends, host families, and even a family from Germany came to watch their au pairs graduate.

This Spring 6 Au Pair in America Au Pairs graduated from the ESL program.  Congratulations to Maria Tarnopolskaia, Judith Berthold, Carolin Maier, Min Wu, Nathalie Wurfel and Manuela Nascimento. As their Community Counselor, Cindy Garruba was happy to attend the ceremony and congratulated each individually with roses.

2 au pairs writings were featured in the program tonight. The State Department requires each au pair attend an accredited College or University for 6 credits or 72 hours of post secondary education for each year in the USA.  Host families contribute $500 towards this education requirement.  One semester of ESL satisfies the requirement, but many au pairs attend for several semesters.  Au Pairs can stay for 2 years in America.