JEI Learning Center Helps Children Succeed Through Education

By George Walsh, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

A good education is a good place to start on the road to a happy and successful life. Interestingly enough, Hacienda has a number of educational facilities to get kids started on the road to success and one of them is JEI Learning Center, located at 5990 Stoneridge Drive.

In 1977, Sung Hoon Park, the chairman and CEO of JEI Corporation, had twenty researchers in Korea embark on an educational project, driven by the belief that all children have the unlimited potential to become successful, able adults, particularly when they are nurtured in the best educational environment possible. The result was the inception of the JEI Corporation, an institution whose mission is to provide individuals with a "Better Life through Better Education." The root of this pursuit has been the implementation of the "Self-Learning System," a self-paced program designed to help students acquire a mastery of concepts and skills on their own. Since then, JEI has been promoting the importance of providing a quality educational environment for enhancing the lives people who want to increase their knowledge.

"JEI is a learning center geared for students from preschool to tenth and eleventh grade that provides supplemental education in addition to what they receive at the school they attend," says Sandra Oh, the owner and director of the JEI Learning Center in Hacienda. "Through the work books and support that we provide, we are able to teach the students a self-learning method. It's an educational theory that tries to have the kids develop to their full potential. They come in after school for a 50-minute instruction where they are given a diagnostic test to determine their capabilities. You can have 30 kids in a classroom and all of them are going to be at different levels. We are attempting to teach them the concepts they are learning at school, and to help them by giving them work that they can do at home that will help them with their studies. We really try to provide them with both the encouragement and confidence they need to succeed." JEI focuses on math and English. In the Bay Area, the organization also has Learning Centers in Walnut Creek, San Jose, and Fremont.

Today, nearly 10,000 JEI members have been providing products including computer software, publishing, and printing. In addition to supplemental, collegiate, and adult education, JEI has also extended its services to include broadcasting and childcare. After three decades, the organization has spread globally, with offices in the United States, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. At Hacienda, JEI currently has around 90 students engaged in its program and has three math teachers, two English teachers, and also offers algebra, geometry, and writing workshops.

"What we're trying to do is to discover the students weaknesses and strong points to help individualize a program that helps them in areas where they are lacking skills so that they can work on them," Oh says. "Our program is optimized to help them find the appropriate path and environment for learning."

Photo: Sandra Oh, director of Hacienda's JEI Learning Centers, stands before a bulletin board graced with photos of her students.

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