Meet our new Director at St Giles New York City – Marc Burgess!

A new Director has recently been appointed at St Giles New York City. Marc  Burgess took over the role from Alex Anderson at the beginning of May. Marc is not a new face as he has been working with St Giles for 10 years now and used to be the Director of St Giles Juniors.

We asked Marc a few questions to get to know him better.

This year is actually my ten-year anniversary working at St Giles in one form or another.   In that time, I’ve done a huge range of roles and worked in quite a few different schools and departments.  I started as a temp teacher and I now run one of the most exciting schools in the group!

Being part of St Giles is exciting because we’re good at what we do, but we’re never satisfied with that and we’re always trying to improve our lessons, the staff experience and most importantly, the student experience.  For me, that’s really motivating and exciting.

On a personal note, being with St Giles for so long has been a real learning journey for me.  I’ve grown up with the company.  I like to think I know a lot about what we do and who we are but I am constantly learning new things and this is the thing I have really loved about all my jobs.  I used to enjoy learning through lots of teacher development as a teacher.  Now my job is less about teaching and more about the behind the scenes stuff we do, however, even here in the US, I’m still learning and this week I’ve learnt more about the New York school regulations.  I’ve loved the opportunities I’ve had to grow and learn as an employee and as an individual here at St Giles.

Do you feel like a true New Yorker now that you’ve been living there for two years? What is your favourite thing about the city?

There’s two things I really love about New York.

I love that New York is so welcoming to international people.  Whether that’s me as a British guy or our students coming from France, Taiwan or Egypt.  Everyone is welcome!

The other thing I love is that there is always something to do.  Whether you are looking for a quiet park to sit in, a party, a library or a dancing class.  You might want a freshly cooked pizza at 4 am or a cup of Chinese bubble tea at 8 pm.  New York really does have everything and anything you could ever want from a city!

If you were to suggest one “must see” or “must do” to one of your students in NYC, what would it be?

There are loads of amazing tourist things to do in NYC.  I won’t go into those here, but one thing I would like to mention, which really is a must-do for students while they are studying with us is to come and join us on one of our Kayaking evenings.  We go kayaking on the Hudson River, which is an amazing way to get a different perspective on New York and a great way to cool off on a hot summers evening!

Is there anything you want to say to potential students?

St Giles New York City is a fun yet serious English school.  We appreciate that wanting to improve your English is most important to you and we want you to have lots of fun while learning and practising using English, both inside and outside of the classroom.  Our school is based next door to the Empire State building and so it’s a great place from which to start exploring.  New York City has so much to offer international students and our school has lots of great excursions and activities to help you see all of it!  We are looking forward to welcoming you to our school in the heart of New York!

Thank you Marc, and we look forward to seeing you excel as the Director at St Giles New York City!