A new resource at CHEP's English Language Institute isn't advertised in any brochure or on any web site, but most students discover it within their first couple of days of class.

"It's top secret and very important for us," ELI student Lin Ching Nieh of Taiwan says with a laugh.

Nieh is referring to Jack Chen, AS '96, coordinator of the Self Access Learning Center, who joined the ELI staff last year after a stint with the Peace Corps in Micronesia. Chen lends such a personal touch to the Rodney Hall facility that students have begun calling the computing site "Jack's Lab."

On a typical afternoon, Chen greets all students by name as they enter the classroom. Within minutes of the lab's opening, the nine computers are occupied as students log on to the Internet or work on essays for class. At two of the TV/VCR stations, students use closed captions to watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Father of the Bride. Another student borrows a tape deck to listen to a recording for class, and a half dozen more occupy the center table, doing homework.

Chen, who is taking classes at UD in preparation for enrolling in the School of Education's graduate program in teaching English as a second language, mans the site six hours a day, five days a week. His experience running a computer lab on the island of Pohnpei helps him with the technology, he says, but his love of teaching is what connects him with the students.

"It's the one-on-one contact that I enjoy the most," he says.

On the bulletin boards, Chen has posted some tips on writing compositions. He works with students on pronunciation and fine points of grammar. But, most of all, he empathizes.

"I know what it's like to be a foreigner," he says, "and how to appreciate when there's a native who's more patient and talks slower."

Chen says he also respects the struggle many students face in their lives back home, which motivates them to study English at ELI. "It brings an intensity to the table," he observes.

The admiration seems mutual. "Jack is very friendly and helpful," Rodrigo Moraes of Brazil says. "He's the best."

--Barbara L. Morris