Wichita State senior Mohammed Surur Alharbi came to the United States four years ago, not speaking a word of English.

His typical day goes like this: Classes start at 8 a.m. First is grammar. Nine a.m. is speaking, then a reading class at 10. Students receive a break for a 30-minute lunch starting at 11 a.m. before writing, listening and computer classes in the afternoon. The day ends at 3:30 p.m.

“I started very fresh,” Alharbi said. “At the beginning it was so hard. It was a new language for me; the only language that I knew was Arabic.”

He enrolled in 22 to 23 hours of classes a week, which is not an easy schedule.

“Generally speaking, a full-time student is going to be in classes for about 22-23 hours a week,” executive director Sally Jones said. “That’s a lot. That’s why it’s called intensive.”

Alharbi, a senior engineering student, traveled from his home country, Saudi Arabia, to the United States four years ago to be with his cousin. Because Alharbi didn’t know any English, he was placed in the first of the six levels of the Intensive English program.

“We have strict standards. We do not pass a student on to the next level if they are not capable … A number of students do repeat a level, and there’s no shame in that,” Jones said.

Alharbi, however, did not have to repeat a level and finished the program in a year, the expected span of time for a student to finish. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have difficulty.

“I would go to class and I [wouldn’t] know what the teacher is talking about,” he said. “Back home, I don’t have to catch up.”

During the last eight years that Jones has been executive director, she said the number of students entering the program has increased. In recent years, Jones had seven ‘English as a Second Language’ (ESL) specialists teaching 120 students. But now, the number of students has doubled and the specialists increased to 15.

“We’re at the highest level now in well over 10 years,” she said. “I think it’s going to continue to increase, but I don’t think it’s going to be as dramatic an increase as we’ve seen in the past couple of years.”

Because of these great numbers, the program is having trouble fitting themselves into their two buildings on the southwest corner of Hillside and 17th streets. Jones’s nine classrooms aren’t enough to accommodate more than 200 students, yet, no classrooms on the main campus are available for the morning classes.

Jones and the Intensive English program have made some adjustments, but their students are still going far. Including Alharbi, who is in his second term as president of the Saudi Student Association.

“I remember that he was an excellent student in our program, and we’re proud of him,” Jones said. “He’s gone on to do some wonderful things, and he has a lot of respect for our program.”

Alharbi is part of the 81 percent of Intensive English students to go on to academic work after passing one of the two offered tests, whether it be at WSU, a community college, or another university. But of those students, Jones estimates about 80 percent will go on to become a Shocker.

“A degree from the United States holds some weight in many countries,” Jones said. “Most of them are very motivated … our program is very strenuous, so it’s not an easy A.”