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At age 29, AmeriSpan's Co-Founder and President, John Slocum, opted for a voluntary severance package from his job as mutual fund executive, rejecting a job at another investment bank that might have made him a millionaire within 5 years. Instead, Slocum and future business partner, Dorioara Pinku, ignored the advice of friends and family and took off to Latin America to study Spanish. The experience led this young Swedish citizen to spend her time permanently in USA, as the Co-Founder and CEO of AmeriSpan. During their 4 1/2 month trip, Slocum and Pinku noticed that the region was full of private language institutes offering affordable Spanish instruction. Surprisingly, the majority of "students" were not young coeds but were lawyers, doctors, professionals and retirees interested in learning Spanish as quickly as possible. Moreover, the majority of participants were from Western Europe. The two realized that Spanish language travel programs were largely undiscovered in the USA at the time. Anxious to bring their knowledge of this kind of specialty travel to North America, Slocum and Pinku wrote out the first draft of a business plan on the beach in a small town north of Rio de Janeiro. Upon returning to the USA in January of 1993, they emptied their savings and began a company temporarily called "Study Programs" to market Latin American language programs to travelers of all ages. In March 1993, the company was incorporated and by then the official name and identity had been created, "AmeriSpan - The Bridge Between Cultures". By April of 1993, AmeriSpan had bought their first advertisement in the pages of the Washington Post, and the company had begun to recruit its first Spanish language students to Latin America. Since that first ad, AmeriSpan has become a major force in study abroad in Latin America, offering programs in nearly every Spanish speaking country. Later, the company expanded its offerings to a worldwide selection of various educational programs. However, it hasn't been easy. John and Dorioara worked 12-15 hour days, 7 days a week and neither received a real salary until January 1995. "My brother keeps telling me that every person he knows who started a business - works twice as much for half the pay. I always respond by saying that I wish that I was that lucky! There is always a new project, a new employee to hire or a way to make our company better," says John Slocum. So why do so many choose to study with AmeriSpan? "Sure we offer the widest selection, our prices are competitive and we offer many extra services but there is more. We really care, and I know it sounds corny, but we do. We spend an incredible amount of time on the phone comparing and contrasting our programs so that our customers pick the one that meets their needs and desires," explains Dorioara Pinku. Importantly, all of AmeriSpan's staff has studied Spanish or other languages and lived abroad. The program catalog lists both "What We Like" and "What We Don't Like" based on employees' own experiences so that students can easily identify the program that is right for them. In 1998, AmeriSpan instituted a company bonus plan where money is added for every customer that rates AmeriSpan as excellent and subtracted every time a customer complains about AmeriSpan or one of our programs. We split this bonus pool evenly among all employees. This way we stay focused on what is important - keeping our customers happy!