Coming Up in ELC:

Scholarship Application: Fall 2020

• Submission Deadline: 5:00 pm (Texas Time) Monday, July 20
• Two (2) scholarships are typically awarded: one for AEP and one for ELP
• Award will cover 50% of the cost of intensive tuition for the Fall 2020 session in either AEP or ELP
• Linked HERE

Continuing Student Application

• Fall 2020 session
• Available online HERE

Upcoming Social Events:

Talk Time

• Practice your English conversation skills with native English speakers!
• Tuesday, July 14
• 4:30 – 5:30 pm Texas Time on Zoom

Pet Happy Hour Social

• Do you have the cutest pet? You’ll have to come to find out!
• Wednesday, July 16
• 5:00 – 6:00 pm Texas Time on Zoom

Quarantine Chat

Have you ever had a random conversation with a stranger and felt really happy afterward? Meeting new people can, literally, bring you joy, but we are missing that right now because we are either quarantined or only socializing with a small group of family or friends.

QuarantineChat was created as a response to the coronavirus causing people in cities to be in quarantine, isolating people from each other. Even though people can still talk to their friends and family virtually, the experience of spontaneously talking to a stranger is now missing from many of our lives. Whether the virus has affected you, or you’re worried, or you live in the woods—your phone might ring and connect you to another interesting person you should meet. COVID-19 is not a lighthearted matter, but the makers of QuarantineChat hope this project brings people moments of joy in an otherwise dark time.

• It’s about connecting isolated people with one another. QuarantineChat simulates the magic of having a surprise conversation with someone, which is something that has become increasingly rare during this time of a viral pandemic.
• It’s about serendipitous conversations. You can get calls at random or scheduled times and get paired with another person in a one-on-one conversation over the phone. Talk about anything! There are so many options: books, cooking & baking, anti-racism, music, poetry, movies & tv, travel, gaming, parent talk (for people with kids to talk to other parents), farming, and *my personal favorite* podcasts!
• It’s totally free, worldwide! QuarantineChat calls happen over the internet through the app Dialup instead of the phone system, so they’re entirely toll-free.
• You can choose to get these phone calls in many different languages, but this is an excellent opportunity for you as English language learners to practice your conversational skills! This is especially important right now when meeting new people to practice English with is so difficult during quarantine and physical distancing.

Here’s how it works:

• Go to the QuarantineChat website linked HERE. Download the app “Dialup” for Apple or Android. Once you sign up and choose your language preferences, you’ll be subscribed to periodic calls. Your caller ID will always say “QuarantineChat” when your phone rings. You can choose which “lines” or topics you’d like to receive calls about, and when you’d like to be called.
• After a brief moment on hold, you’ll match with another random person. You don’t have to pick up if you’re busy—your partner will be automatically matched with someone else. And you can join and leave the line whenever you’d like.
• It’s private. You use your phone number to sign up for Dialup, but your matches will only ever see your username.
• All calls are end-to-end encrypted.
• Their policies are: they do not tolerate hatred or jokes about suffering, it is not a place to seek or give medical help, and to always be kind and conscientious.