Local Business Global learning
Heartland International English School By Derek Gagnon
Winnipeg’s multicultural heritage plays a backdrop to people from around the world who come here to learn English.
as they look to improve themselves. Others do it in preparation for a big trip, not wanting to be unable to com- municate in a faraway land. And, there are international students, studying abroad fully immersed in a foreign language to better their education and future job prospects. For many people, English has be-
T
come the language of choice. It is the official language of the United Na- tions and there are 840 million Eng- lish speakers worldwide. With Win-
24 • Spring 2016
here can be any number of reasons why a person might choose to learn a new lan- guage. Some do it for fun,
nipeg being the multicultural hub that it is, it was just logical for an English school catering to the international market to set up in the city. A growing demand to learn
School opened in 1999, and has been growing
since. Gary Gervais
Heartland International English ever
came up with the idea because his girl- friend at the time was looking to learn English, but didn’t have many viable options to learn the language fluently. “Te only option available to her
wasn’t very good,” said Gary. “So, I got the idea to start a school. I contacted my friend, Rennie Zegalski, who was also interested in starting a business
and together we started the school. I got the idea in December 1998. We opened our doors and started operat- ing in June 1999.” Te school opened with three class-
rooms and zero students at 508 Por- tage Ave. A teacher was hired, a cur- riculum was built and the school quickly began to grow. Gary bought out Rennie’s portion of the company and took sole-ownership a couple of years into the business. By 2002, the school had outgrown its
original space and moved to 161 Por- tage Ave. Te following year, Heart- land was recognised by Profit Maga- zine as one of the top 50 emerging
The Hub
Photos courtesy of Heartland International English School.
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