Small Country Becomes First in South America to Offer GAC

Suriname, a small country on the northeast coast of South America, has become home to the first Global Assessment Certificate^® (GAC) program in the region.

“We are very delighted to be the Caribbean and South American leader in this critical and essential process of finding genuine leadership solutions for young international students who are college bound,” said Sean Taylor, principal of the AlphaMax Academy in Paramaribo, the capital city of Suriname.

GAC is ACT’s university preparation program that is taught and evaluated in English. It gives international students the skills they need to enroll in and succeed at English-speaking colleges and universities. Successful completion of the program guarantees entry into many GAC Pathway Universities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. The program is currently offered at 61 locations in 13 countries.

AlphaMax Academy, a private, nonsectarian international English school, offers classes in grades K–12 to nearly 70 students. Staff consists of 15 teachers, including professors from the Anton de Kom University of Suriname, where students conduct laboratory experiments in physics, chemistry, and biology.

Choosing the GAC was a long process, said Taylor. “We took our time—at least two years—seeking out and researching various programs. In the end, after research, deep thought, and reflection, we selected the GAC.”

The academy has been an ACT test center since 1998. Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students can take the ACT at every international test date. Their average score has been 24 and their top score 31 (on a scale of 1–36).

The GAC program began in October 2007 with six of the twelve students who expressed an interest in the program. Ros Washington, ACT Education Solutions curriculum manager and regional academic manager (global) based in Australia, was at the school early last fall to train faculty and staff and assist in program implementation.

“AlphaMax Academy officials are very serious about the value of the GAC,” said Washington. “They say the GAC program is just what the Caribbean area needs because it develops not only academic skills and strategies but also, most importantly, the soft skills students need to succeed in tertiary study abroad. These are not always addressed in the normal school curriculum.”

The academy, whose motto is “in diligent pursuit of excellence,” was founded by a group of academics who saw a need for an institution that could “provide students with an education that develops their innate qualities and gives them an edge in their future pursuits.” The school is dedicated to individual attention and has an average class size of six students. It offers an “interactive academic environment to ensure quality, good student retention, and an insistence on good performance on internationally accepted, external, American examinations.” The academic program focuses on cultivation of solid classical, foundational learning skills within the wider context of plural, multicultural, developing societies. There are concrete plans to establish sister institutions across the region.

Since the academy’s first graduation in 2001, 80 percent of graduates have gone to college—locally and abroad. The government of Suriname has awarded scholarships to several students for study in the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Holland, and Cuba.

Roughly the size and shape of the state of Georgia, Suriname lies on the northeast coast of South America, bordered by French Guiana in the east, Brazil in the south, and Guyana in the west. It is a multicultural and multi-religious country of 450,000 people. Though Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands in 1975, it retains a strong heritage of Dutch traditions and architecture. Given its rich ethno-cultural diversity, Suriname is often called the “mini United Nations” of the region. There are 20 distinct communities in Suriname—each with its own language— although Dutch remains the country’s official language.

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