Hi, my name is Sofia and I want to tell you about my time at The Excellence Center.  The first thing I noticed about this Center is how comfortable it is to be there. Really from my very first day it was so easy to feel at home. The staff, the students, and members of the community that come by are all relaxed, joke around with each other, and are welcoming in a genuine and calm way. We all eat breakfast together and people randomly make tea for each other throughout the day.  These little things really made me feel comfortable and welcomed into this learning family. This atmosphere makes it easy to learn because it is a comfortable place and a supportive environment where making mistakes in Arabic only helped me learn.

Another wonderful thing about this Center is how much it supports the education of people of Hebron. Most of the classes are for Palestinians who want to improve their English. I have a lot of respect for the way the Center is truly focused on this mutual learning of both English and Arabic. It is inspiring to know that the infrastructure of the school is not just for the benefit of foreigners who want to learn Arabic, but is also, and maybe primarily, is for Palestinians who want to learn English. By coming to this Center that is located in Hebron, you participate in witnessing disparities, suffering and resiliency of the occupation in ways specific to Hebron. At the same time, you know that by supporting this Center you are supporting an incredibly positive institution, which in turn is supporting society in Hebron and more broadly in Palestine.

The quality of the teaching at the Center is excellent. The teachers regularly undergo training and refresher training on teaching methods.  Added to that the Center staff have checked in with me a few different times to be sure that the quality of the teaching is what I was looking for. They want to be sure there are no problems, and best of all, they did this in a discrete way so if I had anything to discuss about lessons, I felt I truly could have.

My amazing teacher Rashaa has gone above and beyond in a number of ways in the short time I have been here. She really listened to what topics were important to me and taught in creative and effective ways. For example, I am a nurse, so on the 2nd day I showed up to a table full of medical type equipment that she had gathered from her family so we could learn and practice in 3D! Amazing! She also learned that I plan to work in refugee camps in Jordan and she looked up videos about the camps in Arabic so we could practice the relevant vocabulary while looking at images and hearing from people living in the camps. Both of these were very effective ways to learn and I definitely feel like I have learned a lot of Arabic. Her dedication is contagious and motivates me to study more!

Overall, I would 100% recommend coming to this Center.