Workers complete language training in Valley Stream

Ten McDonald’s employees were honored on Aug. 12 for completing an eight-week language-based training program held in Valley Stream — the course’s first graduating class in Nassau County.

“[The course] gives you that opportunity to move, to grow,” Yesenia Valoy, a training consultant at McDonald’s said to the graduates. “’Cause just like you, 23 years ago I didn’t know a word in English ... I couldn’t be promoted as fast, because we didn’t have programs like this.”

The program, English Under the Arches, offers language classes to teach employees English skills necessary for the job. Managers and supervisors of McDonald’s restaurants across Nassau County identified candidates that could benefit from the training. Those employees then attended classes at the Laurino Organization on West Merrick Road in Valley Stream (a franchisee of the McDonald’s Corporation) and took online lessons during paid work hours.

The graduates, ranging in age from early 20s to early 40s, come from countries like Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Panama as well as other Central and South American countries.

A few graduates spoke to their classmates, and said they were grateful for the opportunity and thanked their English instructor Joel Rehmat, who has years of experience teaching at New York City public schools and Hunter College in Manhattan. He spoke admiringly of their positive attitudes and their attentiveness during classes and stressed that the curriculum they learned would be helpful in their careers and daily lives.

John Tineo, an area supervisor for the Laurino Organization, who advanced through the ranks at McDonald’s after learning English, reflected on his humble beginnings.

“Please, don’t stop,” Tineo said. “Don’t believe this is it. Keep going, you know the sky’s the limit. I always have a goal in mind. This is what I wanna do; this is my plan … Hard work will pay off in the end.”