Greetings new, and old, friends from across the globe!

My name is Shane Keeley and I am the director for Official Language School of the Americas (OLSA).  Let me take a few minutes of your time to share with you a little about myself.

I graduated Simpson Christian University in 1996 with a BA degree in Business Administration and nearly a minor in Bible. During my years at Simpson Christian I had the unique opportunity to travel to Ecuador, Costa Rica, Hong Kong and mainland China as a starting member of our men’s basketball team. It was then that I really had the opportunity to experience the love I have for travel and foreign peoples and cultures.

After graduating from Simpson Christian, I took the opportunity to leave the United States and spend a year in Valencia, Spain; going to school to perfect my Spanish and partaking in the vibrant Hispanic culture. During my stay in Spain I was almost always broke, but the experiences I had there are with me to this day.

Upon my return from Spain, I began to research the possibility of opening a fitness center. After researching for about a year and considering a number of factors, I decided to move to Mesa, Arizona to finish my research and find a suitable location for the gym. While completing my research I was offered a position as an elementary school teacher. I remember happily taking that opportunity and often working ten to twelve hour days to be sure my students got my best effort.

For the next seventeen years I continued to work hard moving from elementary to middle school and high school. As time passed I also had the opportunity to pass on my athletic experience to my students as their coach for various sports. Experiencing the hard times and the good times are memories we all share.

After so many years of teaching and coaching, supporting and encouraging, working hard and seizing the opportunities life gave me; I was honored as Coach of the Year (2011) and was given US Congressional recognition as the only two-time Arizona Private School Teacher of the Year runner-up (2013 & 2014). Subsequently, I was offered the opportunity to serve as vice principal (sub-director) at another school which, of course, I took.

In 2015 I was looking for another adventure in life. So, after some research, I sold my house and nearly everything I owned and moved to Medellín, Colombia. After a few months of meeting people, experiencing more about this quickly evolving city, I was presented with another opportunity – the opportunity to use the abundance of experience I have accumulated in education along with the help of some very intelligent Colombians to create a one-of-a-kind international language school right here in the heart of Medellín. So, what did I do? That’s right. I seized the opportunity, but you can read more about that in the Learn About OLSA section.

Like any good teacher, I have to assign some homework. The moral of this story (my life story) is to work hard and seize the opportunities you are given in life. You may suffer temporarily for them, but the experiences you will gain can never be taken from you. This always creates a stronger and more interesting person. The homework is: What opportunity do you have right now? And, will you, or won’t you, take advantage of it?

Oh, by the way, I did open that fitness center. My family and I had the honor of helping hundreds of people reach their fitness goals from 2001 to 2006!