Our mission:
Our mission is to create an exceptional and personalized learning environment using the highest educational standards, allowing our students to achieve their goals in less time and at less expense. We do this by limiting our classes to ten students or less. Reduced class size means unlimited opportunity to engage in the one activity that is most vital to achieving fluency in English: actually speaking the language.
Who we are:
David Calvitto and Joan Palmeri met when they were university students. Joan majored in English and Dave in theater. Together, they were co-founders of an improvisational troupe performing comedy as well as educational theater workshops for schools in the NY-NJ metro area.
Dave and Joan both began their ESL careers at the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) when it was the largest immigrant resettlement organization in the United States. In Dave’s 14 years with the agency, he worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, and staff supervisor before rising to the organizational role of school coordinator. In this administrative capacity, he was centrally involved in the planning and implementation of all school policy and operations. He was also in charge of scheduling, student testing and class placement at a time when the school was serving 1500 students from 15 different countries every day and starting 15-20 new classes every week.
Joan taught at NYANA for 8 years as an instructor in the refugee-resettlement program. She developed and led vocational ESL courses for émigré scientists, computer programmers, engineers, and medical professionals.
David went on to act professionally in New York, London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Perth and Adelaide in Australia, and in Wellington, New Zealand. His professional stage experience has contributed immeasurably to his ability to engage a class and communicate language concepts precisely and genuinely. He understands the significant degree to which meaning and understanding are communicated through body language, facial expression, gesture and tone. David uses his unique experience in this area to conduct frequent role-play sessions for aha English classes.
Joan became a licensed English teacher and certified ESL instructor, working with children and adults of all ages and from diverse backgrounds. Joan’s specialty lies in discovering exactly what a student needs to accomplish and how best the student can meet goals. “We are here to discover who we are.”
Dave and Joan have worked on several successful English projects over the years for companies like AT&T, Bramson ORT and Kaplan Aspect.
Ron Herczig is an award-winning advertising creative who’s worked at Dentsu, Arnold and Y&RNY. His portfolio features campaigns for Kyocera, Verizon, Lea & Perrins, KFC, New York Sports Club, Jell-O, AT&T, Radio Shack, Toys r Us, Sunkist, Pepperidge Farm and Turner. Among his honors are the One Show, adcritic.com, Adweek and New York Festivals. Ron hooked up with Joan and Dave back in college too, when he fell in love with the theater.
Our many instructors are highly experienced and creative professionals in the TESL field.
Full bios and credentials are available upon request. Visit us on Facebook.
Questions? Comments? Please email us at info@ahaenglish.org
"Learning
English is more fun and effective when you learn from the right teacher. My three-month
intense language program with Joan was one of happiest times of my life, and
my English has taken a great leap since. Thanks to her I earned my MBA last year,
and I am employed and paid well by an international company." 
"I met Joan in Hungary when I was a student at international house. We were taught by foreign teachers whose mother tongue was English. The best teacher was Joan:), she was my favourite, because her classes were dynamic, enjoyable, and we never got bored. We played a lot of games which we really enjoyed but at the same time we learned so much. I'm convinced she is the best teacher in the world :) Joan makes you laugh and learn at the same time!"