This North Jersey immigrant has made teaching English to fellow migrants his life's work

It was 35 years ago that a family of Peruvian immigrants arrived in North Jersey and decided to make a mission of teaching other migrants the language of their new home.

Since then, the Fairfield-based language school started by the Uceda family has grown to include about 8,000 students at 16 locations across five states, along with online classes and onsite training at businesses.

On Wednesday, Carlos Uceda, the founder and current president of the Uceda Institute, will celebrate that legacy with a ceremony at The Brownstone in Paterson, the city where the chain opened one of its first schools in 1988. The event will honor some of thousands of former students who came through the school, including Paterson City Council President Alex Mendez, as well as longtime teachers. Mayor Andre Sayegh is also scheduled to attend.

The institute now has offices in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Virginia and Maryland, offering online and onsite teaching, with eight to 15 instructors in each location, Uceda said. That includes Garden State locations in Paterson, Passaic, Dover, Morristown, Lakewood and four other towns. It also publishes books for learning English and offers other classes, including one for the U.S. citizenship test.

Uceda, 66, lives in Denville. He spoke to NorthJersey.com about the school's mission of teaching English as a second language, its plans for growth and what has changed about ESL learning in the past three decades.

Can you talk about the Uceda Institute and its mission?

The Uceda Institute's mission is to improve people's lives through education. And that has been our vision since the first day. We don't run the business as just plain business. We really believe in education; we believe in empowering people to have all these skills. English is not the official language here, but it's the language that we conduct business in, we conduct education, we conduct everything [in English] here. It's even more important because it's the language that dominates overseas. People speak English everywhere.

Can you talk about the event in Paterson?

We are celebrating our 35th anniversary because getting past the pandemic, and recovering from that, was really a great accomplishment, not for me but for everyone in the company. We shut our doors for eight months. Also, right now I'm 66, and I'm planning to stay working until I'm at least 70. So celebrating 35 years and 40 years would be great.

Where are you from originally, and how long have you lived in the United States?

I am originally from Lima, Peru. I came to the United States in 1988.

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What led your family to create the Uceda Institute in Paterson?

Back in the 1980s, my family emigrated from Peru to the United States. My family ran a technical school in Peru. My father, Juan Jose, wasn't really happy, because whatever he was doing, he wasn't really doing what he enjoyed. He was already dedicated to education. He realized that teaching ESL can be great for us to create a business and serve people.

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What were the challenges in starting this school?

Starting the school from zero, I think we had to make sure that what we promised at the time when we were bringing in people, that we meet those expectations. It was challenging because the students can stay with you, but they can also leave if they don't feel like they are learning ... I was never really concerned about being on TV or radio and promoting the school. I was more dedicated to delivering a good product.

What has changed for the school when it comes to teaching ESL in the past 35 years?

In our schools, [there are] approximately more than 40 languages that our students speak. The first five years, students were mostly Hispanic. We now have students from Jordan, Poland, Germany, Italy and Spain, students from Egypt, and a lot of people are coming from Brazil. Starting in 2000, we saw a more diverse group of students.

What do you see for the Uceda Institute in the next few years?

We plan to open some new schools in the next year or so in New Jersey and Connecticut. Also looking to franchise the school overseas in places like Central and South America, because I think they are in need of a better way for learning this language.

Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com

Twitter: @ricardokaul

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Uceda Institute in NJ celebrates 35 years as ESL school chain