Nova Language Consultants

when teachers get their nose down into one shared goal

Nova Language Consultants was founded by Maite Exposito and Mauricio Miraglia under the name “The English Trading Post”  in 1994.

Maite Exposito and I, both graduates from P. Universidad Catolica de Chile, with a BA degree in TEFL, had shared a number of work experiences together as Teaching Assistants at our university from 1990 to 1993. We had both worked in schools and we also shared substantial experience in private and group lessons, catering young students and professionals who wished to advance their English compentencies for academic and / or work reasons.

Our story is not absent of anecdotes. Starting up a business from the scratch was something we had not been “taught” at our school or anywhere else. Also, we had little or no knowledge on all the nuts and bolts that starting up a business in all the accounting, legal and government/red-tape papers entailed.

However , Maite and I decided to head off to the adventure with one simple conviction. We wanted to help others communicate in English as a means for them to achieve their goals. This conviction became our motto and has stayed the same ever since.

We remember our long commutes on buses carrying tons of books and heavy dictionaries, not to mention the so 90′s tape player. We can also recall those over-rated taxi rides when we were in a hurry and walking the streets with our heavy bags in the middle of a hot & dry or cold & rainy Santiago downtown.

Much of our intellectual work, that is, our selection of materials, evaluation design, course programs, and lesson preparation took place in our own apartments. As the business grew, we could afford renting an office and working from there. Still, by 1998 we were working underground: literally !!! Maite’s storage place in a basement had become our headquarters. And it was right then we two capitalists put an eye on us. We had already been showcased at a national newspaper as young entrepreneurs and had made ourselves a name for our extremely professional and personalized service. We used to say ( and we still do) ” If the course you need does not exist in the market, we create it for you! ”

So back in 2000 “The English Trading Post” bacame “Nova Language Consultants.”  We also moved from our basement office to a nice office on a fifth floor at the Marriott Hotel. Nice change! For a while. It was okay for some time… but we soon discovered that was NOT us. The spirit of our business was not about making thousands or millions of Chilean pesos.. neither was it to sell English courses without being 100% on top of them, making sure our students were achieving their own particular goals. As much as we may love McDonalds, we did not want to become a McDonalds! in the EFL business in Chile!… like so many other businesses have.

Maite Exposito bought the other two new business partners out and assumed the cost of it. In the middle of this hard process I got a Fulbright scholarship and was ready to depart from Chile and join Columbia University to pursue a Masters in Instructional Technology and Media. It was a hard time, known in the business world as a “crisis”; however, more crises were yet to come for what later became  Maite’s sole business!

Nova Language Consultants kept its name but the spirit had grown stronger at the core of the “business”. Business may not be the best word here, since our endeavor has always been performed solely by teachers who believe the core of our attention is our students and their aspirations. Nova was and still is a business driven by teachers which hires, trains and gives growing opportunities for other teachers. Why such importance to teachers? Because we become  partners with our students. It takes a great teacher to become “in-synced” with a person eager to learn in his/her road to graduate studies. It’s this teacher’s spirit that keeps us going & present in the “market”.

Upon my return to Chile and after serving in the public sector, I became a consultant to what it used to be my business.  Thanks to Maite’s confidence I could re-think part of what Nova was meant to be. I raised not only economic questions and issues. but also put forward a new outlook to Nova Language’s next chapter. I gathered civil engineers, visual designers and business administrators with the voice of our own teachers at Nova Language.  Our new logo and corporate  image came about then… just as a reflection of the deeper changes in our organization.

Today, Nova Language Consultants is a leading school in the preparation of international exams, such as TOEFL, IELTS, GMAT and GRE. Also, Nova recently re-launched its Spanish (2010) courses and keeps catering to university students with specialized programs within their field since 1999.

Nova Language offers a premium service in what’s dubbed “Graduate Assistance”. This service helps graduate study candidates find their right fit, combining their academic and professional interests, their achievements and goals with top-tier graduate programs in the US, Australia, Canada, the UK and Europe.

We’re proud of our work and we know that when we see a student stepping into our office, we’re receiving a person who will later become a key player in the development of our country, Chile, and our society at large. You can visit Nova Language’s testimonials page and see for yourself.

Finally, Nova Language stays in the market because Maite believes this is  a true mission in life. Also, every person working at Nova Language feels this way.  The best icons in our endeavor are our students.  Go to Nova Language website and see what students have to say.

Connect with Nova

• www.nlc.cl
• www.twitter.com/novalanguage
• www.facebook.com : FANS and Chileans Studying Abroad Group
• www.youtube.com/novalanguage
• Nova Int’l Exams Forum
• Online Course Support by Nova Language Consultants
• Nova at USJournal.com (content provider)
• Download Nova Language toolbar and take our experience wherever you go.

Reaching our for a broader audience

We need more female students and also those who come from the most diverse social and political backgrounds to make our mission a more well rounded achievement. If you read this, contact me for further details.