Elisamaria Torres Dávila

Elisamaria is the Co-founder of Froggin, an after school program dedicated to teach English as a second language to children aged three to twelve years old. Their unique methodology is play-based and student-center. Froggin was created by Elisa Torres since 1993 when she started teaching at her parent’s garage. After twelve years of teaching at home, she moved to a retail space in 2005, by this time she had developed 16 books and many games to use in class. In 2007, she opened another location, and by 2010 she started franchising Froggin to all parts of Mexico. Froggin is now the first and biggest Mexican franchise of ESL (English as a second language) after school program that specializes to offer English classes to children aged three to twelve years old. Froggin has 32 schools throughout Mexico and has plans to expand to Latin America. The most important value in Froggin is that children really enjoy the process of learning English through games and activities that have a meaning for them, and they can do that because their student-teacher ratio is 8-1. The books and most of the games they use are specially designed and created for their methodology by the Froggin team. Besides the English learning, they develop other abilities like empathy, teamwork and critical thinking that help children in other areas of their lives. They also offer tutoring for children and moms. The way they teach, it is not just repeating and writing the words to memorize, but really the use of the language and the confidence they get by learning English in real situations. Parents are able to help children to do their homework and even practice with them at home. They want to be the leaders in their country and also be in all Latin American countries. They want children to be able to learn English and have more opportunities in life, because learning English opens the doors to a lot of opportunities. Since public schools in Mexico don¬¥t offer English as a regular subject, parents who can’t afford to pay private schools, can afford Froggin to allow their children to learn English. As an entrepreneur, Elisamaria believes that having an educational franchise is a great way to make money and help her community. Elisamaria is also the Co-owner of Guamazos. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from UANL in Mass Communications and a Technical Degree in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) from ITESM. Her areas of expertise include developing ESL books and games, as well as leading and training personnel.

What Elisamaria hopes to gain from the VV GROW Fellowship: Elisamaria hopes to increase her knowledge in strategic planning and financial management. She also looks forward to learning from the experiences of other fellows on how businesses work in their own countries.

What Elisamaria can offer other fellows: Elisamaria can offer her positivity and share past mistakes she has overcome to help others learn from her experiences. She can also share her knowledge and experience of doing business in Mexico for those interested in doing business in the country.

Connect with Elisamaria on Social Media:

Website: www.froggin.com.mx

Facebook Page: @frogginmx

Twitter: @frogginmx

Instagram: @frogginmx

LinkedIn: Froggin English for Kids

Elisamaria was selected as a 2018 VV GROW Fellow.