SIF Language School

COMPANY PROFILE History • FCI was founded in 1994 and incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois. FCI had been providing credential evaluation services for the legal, corporate, and educational communities since 1989. Whether you are a student, professional, human resources specialist, attorney, or college admissions officer, FCI staff is available to assist you with your credential evaluation needs and provide timely evaluation reports tailored to your specific requirements. • For more than 3 decades of operation FCI has served the needs of thousands of foreign graduates residing both in the US and abroad. Our clients have generally been extremely successful in achieving their professional, educational, and immigration goals in the United States and worldwide. • FCI is a leading evaluation service-provider to the international government, corporate and legal community. Our President Educated Annette Epstein holds the following Degrees and Awards: • MBA in Executive International Business Management Lake Forest Graduate School of Management 2001-2003, Lake Forest, Illinois •International Educational Certificates from: -Europe: (England, France, Cambridge) International Study Abroad MBA Program -Asia: (China, Thailand) International; Study Abroad MBA Program - Latin America (Argentina, Brazil) International Study Abroad MBA Program •Master of Science in Civil Engineering National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 1965-1971, Kiev, Ukraine •“Silver Cup” from Cambridge University, UK for the “Best Student Project” She is a longtime and active member of National and International Associations: •ATA (American Translators Association), 2002-Present •EAIE (European Association of International Educators), 2001-Present •NAFSA (National; Association of International Educators), 1992-Present NAFSA II team member, Advocacy policy team member, •TAICEP (Association for International Credential Evaluation Professionals (international professional association that has the single purpose of supporting and serving the profession of international credential evaluation) 2016 -Present Language Skills: Fluent English, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish Experienced. In Ukraine, Kiev (the Capital) Mrs. Epstein worked as Civil Engineer in main USSR Engineering Companies. Her talent, language skills and ambition secured her a 1st place in scriptwriting competition at famous Film Enterprise. She became a professional scriptwriter for an educational film series in the former USSR and authored more than 25 documentaries and scientific films. After 1987 “Perestroyka” and President Gorbachev’s permission for private entrepreneurship, Mrs. Epstein was the founder and the Director of the First Private Language School in the whole former USSR which served around 1000 students on monthly basis. In 1989 she and her son arrived as refugee through 6 borders (Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy) with to USA (Chicago). In three months after arrival responding to the requests of recent immigrants, Ms. Epstein established Express Learning Center the first bilingual language School for Eastern-European refuges in Chicago, IL. Her School soon was invited to become an ESL site for Kennedy-King College, Chicago, IL with Mrs. Epstein as a Program Coordinator. This ESL site served 35 groups with about 1000 people in constant attendance. Articles about her achievements have appeared in major Chicago newspapers and magazines: such as Chicago Sun-Times, Reader, Today's Chicago Woman, Lerner Newspaper. She has been profiled by WMAQ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Chicago. In 2010 interview with Mrs. Epstein was published in Forbes magazine. For a number of years, she hosted a radio talk show "America, My Own" and weekly two hours TV program "America, My Own" designed to provide immigrants with information about educational and professional employment opportunities in their new country. Customer Service Our team of evaluators and attentive customer-service representatives are on hand to answer all your questions about international credentials evaluation. You can also talk directly with the Evaluation Manager to keep up-to-the-moment on applications. Extensive Resources FCI maintains an ever-growing library of publications from NAFSA, AACRAO, EAIE and other competent sources and has a global network of contacts with educational specialists and Ministries of Education around the world. Evaluation Philosophy FCI approaches each client's packet of foreign credentials with a constantly updated knowledge of global educational systems. Our evaluations are based on sound and widely accepted principles of comparative education, ongoing research on educational systems, and experience with thousands of sets of educational and professional credentials. Quality and promptness are our distinguishing features.