The International Academy of English (IAE) was founded in 1999 by Carmen Junqueira Gomide Tepper, a single mother of two who immigrated to the US from Brazil in 1987. Carmen has tremendous passion (one of her many Latin qualities J), a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a determination to succeed. Carmen had attended an Intensive English program at UCLA as a young adult, and felt that the experience had been very meaningful to her and had much to do with shaping her life.

Carmen believed that there was a huge need for an affordable Intensive English program in San Diego, her hometown in the US; in looking at the local schools, she believed that their pricing was much too high for international students of “average” means. Carmen decided to open a school and set the pricing very low, to allow more students from around the world the ability to study English in Southern California...and/or to study in the US for a longer period of time.

The first IAE location opened in central San Diego County, and had only one classroom and a few students. However the school soon moved to much larger facilities in downtown San Diego, as the reputation spread and the school began to grow. With Carmen’s vision, as well as the support of Carmen’s assistant Denise Mastro, IAE now has three locations in San Diego and Las Vegas, and over 300 students from 42 different countries.

In addition, IAE has a partnership with Southern States University (SSU), which has campuses in La Jolla and Newport Beach, California. SSU has the identical Intensive English Program to IAE, and has approximately 150 students in this program, as well as over 250 students in its Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs.