At forty-eight, Dr. Ulla Sands walked away from twenty-four years of university teaching, invested her savings in an empty classroom, and opened a language school with six chairs—and no students.

What began as a precarious experiment grew into an international community. Over the next twenty-five years, students arrived from across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. They came to learn English, prepare for college, find better work, and begin new lives. In the process, they taught one another—and their teachers—about courage, faith, prejudice, friendship, and the complicated art of understanding people unlike themselves.

Told with warmth, candor, and gentle humor, A School for the World follows the school through unexpected triumphs and formidable trials: cultural misunderstandings, eccentric employees, changing immigration laws, economic uncertainty, September 11, and the daily challenge of keeping an idealistic mission alive in the practical world of business.

At its heart, this is not merely the history of a school. It is the story of the people who filled its classrooms, the unlikely friendships they formed, and one woman’s determination to create a place where language could become a bridge between cultures.

A School for the World: Twenty-Five Years Building an International School is an inspiring account of perseverance, education, and the belief that peace can begin with something as simple as learning to speak—and listen—to one another.