March 21st was a special day at ILAC Toronto as we had the pleasure to welcome the Honourable Laura Albanese, Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
During the campus tour lead by ILAC’s Co-Director Ilan Cohen, Hon. Albanese got to meet some of ILAC’s staff including regional and academic ambassadors, as well as the Director of Studies. Something that caught her attention was that many of the staff members are former ILAC graduates who continued to pursue higher education in Canada, later coming back to where it all started to be part of the team who proudly makes ILAC Canada’s leading ESL school.
Hon. Albanese, who was born in Taranto, Italy, talked about the meaning behind the name of our beloved metropolis. “Toronto means meeting place,” and that’s the beauty of our city, our province, and our nation. At ILAC, students from over 75 countries meet with the common goal of learning English.
ILAC University Pathway students were thrilled to hear the words of Hon. Albanese: “International students are the best new Canadians to be”, as they have lived and studied in Canada, and are proud to call it home.
Just as we learned about the province’s initiatives and updates on immigration programs, Hon. Albanese got to learn about the history and growth of ILAC, and the milestones achieved in 20 years of dreaming big.
“In July 1997, our school opened its doors for the first time. We started with 25 students, by January 1998 we had about 75 students, by that summer around 150, and now we welcome around 16,000 students in both of our Toronto and Vancouver campuses together,” shared Ilan Cohen.
We thank the Honourable Laura Albanese and her team for joining us, and we look forward to working on new initiatives to continue making Canada a top educational destination for international students around the world!
