COMPANY PROFILE

History

• FCI was founded in 1994 and incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois. FCI and its predecessor, Express Learning Center, have been providing credential evaluation services for the legal, corporate, and educational communities since 1989. Whether you are a student, professional, human resources specialist, attorney, or college admissions officer, FCI staff is available to assist you with your credential evaluation needs. FCI is qualified professionals trained to provide timely evaluation reports tailored to your specific requirements.
• For more than 3 decades of operation FCI has served the needs of thousands of foreign graduates residing both in the US and abroad. Our clients have generally been extremely successful in achieving their professional, educational, and immigration goals in the United States and worldwide.
• Of the handful of companies providing evaluation services in the United States, FCI has proven to be one of the most successful in terms of earning wide recognition and acceptance by the educational and corporate communities.
• FCI is a leading evaluation service-provider to the international government, corporate and legal community.

Corporate Certificates

Illinois Certificate of Incorporation and Good Standing

Colorado Certificates of Incorporation and Good Standing

Our President

Educated

Annette Epstein holds the following Degrees and Awards:

• MBA in Executive International Business Management Lake Forest Graduate School of Management 2001-2003, Lake Forest, Illinois
• International Educational Certificates from:
  - Europe: (England, France, Cambridge)
  International Study Abroad MBA Program
  - Asia: (China, Thailand)
  International; Study Abroad MBA Program
  - Latin America (Argentina, Brazil)
  International Study Abroad MBA Program
• Master of Science in Civil Engineering National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 1965-1971, Kiev, Ukraine
• "Silver Cup" from Cambridge University, UK for the "Best Student Project"

She is a longtime and active member of National and International Associations:

• ATA (American Translators Association), 2002-Present
• EAIE (European Association of International Educators), 2001-Present
• NAFSA (National; Association of International Educators), 1992-Present NAFSA II team member, Advocacy policy team member
• TAICEP (Association for International Credential Evaluation Professionals (international professional association that has the single purpose of supporting and serving the profession of international credential evaluation) 2016 -Present

Language Skills:

Fluent English, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish

Experienced

In Ukraine, Kiev (the Capital) Mrs. Epstein worked as Civil Engineer in main USSR Engineering Companies. Her talent, language skills and ambition secured her a 1st place in scriptwriting competition at famous Film Enterprise.

She became a professional scriptwriter for an educational film series in the former USSR and authored more than 25 documentaries and scientific films.

After 1987 “Perestroyka” and President Gorbachev’s permission for private entrepreneurship, Mrs. Epstein was the founder and the Director of the First Private Language School in the whole former USSR which served around 1000 students on monthly basis.

In 1989 she and her son arrived as refugee through 6 borders (Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy) with to USA (Chicago).

In three months after arrival responding to the requests of recent immigrants, Ms. Epstein established Express Learning Center the first bilingual language School for Eastern-European refuges in Chicago, IL.

Her School soon was invited to become an ESL site for Kennedy-King College, Chicago, IL with Mrs. Epstein as a Program Coordinator. This ESL site served 35 groups with about 1000 people in constant attendance.

Articles about her achievements have appeared in major Chicago newspapers and magazines: such as Chicago Sun-Times, Reader, Today's Chicago Woman, Lerner Newspaper. She has been profiled by WMAQ-TV, the NBC affiliate in Chicago.

In 2010 interview with Mrs. Epstein was published in Forbes magazine.

For a number of years, she hosted a radio talk show "America, My Own" and weekly two hours TV program "America, My Own" designed to provide immigrants with information about educational and professional employment opportunities in their new country.

Customer Service

Our team of evaluators and attentive customer-service representatives are on hand to answer all your questions about international credentials evaluation. You can also talk directly with the Evaluation Manager to keep up-to-the-moment on applications.

Extensive Resources

FCI maintains an ever-growing library of publications from NAFSA, AACRAO, EAIE and other competent sources and has a global network of contacts with educational specialists and Ministries of Education around the world.

Evaluation Philosophy

FCI approaches each client's packet of foreign credentials with a fresh eye and a constantly updated knowledge of global educational systems, including those of the US. Our team of evaluators is well-aware that there are no exact equivalencies: Our evaluations are based on sound and widely accepted principles of comparative education, ongoing research on educational systems, and experience with thousands of sets of educational and professional credentials.