Dominican Resumes Partnership with English Language School, Aims to Grow International Student Enrollment

A school for English language learners from abroad is resuming its 30-year partnership with Dominican University.

ELS Educational Services Chicago will open its Language Center on the second floor of Dominican’s Lewis Hall annex in time to welcome approximately 64 students from Japan this September. The students will attend English classes taught by ELS instructors inside Lewis Hall.

ELS Chicago was previously located on Dominican’s Priory Campus. Classes were halted during the pandemic and the Priory Campus was sold in 2022.

Nereida Encina, director of International Enrollment, said this new chapter of the partnership will allow Dominican to help recruit prospective students to ELS Chicago and encourage them to apply to Dominican to continue their education once they fulfill the English language requirement for admission. This is part of an effort to grow the number of international students attending Dominican, she explained.

“I think we will be able to expand the type of student body we have on campus,” Encina said. “This partnership with ELS will help us with our strategic priorities for growing international student enrollment, bringing different cultures to campus, and further enhancing our diversity.”

Dominican currently enrolls 22 international students, but in the past, numbers totaled as high as 138 students, Encina said.

Students attending ELS Educational Services Chicago will be welcome to use amenities on campus and encouraged to attend campus events and activities organized for Dominican students, said Debra Kash, director of auxiliary services at Dominican University.

“We want them to be engaged with our students,” she said.

“ELS is delighted to resume its operation on the campus of Dominican University, building on the trust and success of our 30-year partnership,” said Alexandra Zilovic, executive vice president of operations and business affairs with ELS Educational Services. “Over the last few decades, our many international recruitment and university partners around the world have come to know Dominican as a place where their students would be safe, appreciated and treated with compassion and inclusivity. We look forward to working with the DU senior administration to further grow opportunities for collaboration and promote Dominican’s excellent academic programs and beautiful campus throughout the world, as well as develop opportunities for closer engagement between DU students and ELS’s international students on campus.”

ELS Chicago first joined Dominican in 1993, Kash said. Until the mid-2000s, the school had a presence on Dominican’s main campus before moving to the Priory Campus.