Among the new students at Seventh-day Adventist-owned Newbold College this term are two leaders of the Adventist church in South America. Pastors Erton Köhler and Carlos Albert Mesa both began 2007 by studying at the Newbold College School of English to improve their skills in English—the language of business in much of the secular world and that of the Adventist world.

Köhler, youngest regional president in the Adventist church and leader of 2.7 million Adventists in his home territory, spent eight weeks at Newbold between January and March improving his English language skills. “I studied English at school [before],” says Kohler. But “now I am being taught to speak English. When I studied English before, the teachers used only books. At Newbold, they use computers, videos, CDs and DVDs. I encouraged our education director to come here for a course too.”

And so it was that in February, Pastor Carlos Mesa, director of the Education Department for the Adventist church’s South American region, joined his president on the Newbold campus and began eight weeks of English classes. “I came to Newbold just to improve my English but I have received much more,” Mesa says. “I am getting personal attention and a tailored teaching program. The teaching methodology and all the specialized technology to back it up are good,” he says.

Despite being an older student, Mesa says he has also enjoyed the extra-curricular activities at the College. “There is so much going on at Newbold,” he says. “Living on campus has given me a lot of opportunities to participate in all the activities.

Newbold’s School of English has been offering courses specifically tailored to the needs of church administrators for some years now.