From kindergarten to university, in private institutes and government schools, Syrians go to great lengths to acquire English language skills. The rise in private companies offering lucrative salaries - the result of a decade of gradual economic liberalization - coupled with public interest in engaging with the global community means that most Syrians view English fluency as the most important pathway to professional success, financial security and social prestige. American schools and universities stand at the top of the Syrian hierarchy of educational institutions offering English language instruction. The wealthiest families have long sent their children abroad to the region's American accredited universities like American University of Beirut (AUB) or directly to the US itself. For years, Damascus Community School (DCS), owned by the US embassy, educated not just foreigners but the children of the upper class. More recently, accelerated by new laws permitting private schools to teach in English, "American-style" schools are the rage among elites and the upper middle class who spend upwards of $10,000 US per year per student. Typically, these schools have no direct connection to American educational institutions, or American accreditation nor do they use specifically American materials, but their use of English as the medium of instruction and focus on problem-solving rather than rote memorization is sufficient for them to share in the cachet of accredited American schools. Despite laws enabling such schools to flourish, there is official ambivalence about how American Syrian education should become. In November of 2009, the government closed DCS after 70 years of unfettered operation. Rumors often circulate that private schools will be shuttered or forced to teach in Arabic. Despite what future actions the regime takes regarding such institutions, their desirability and social importance likely will not wane anytime soon. This presentation - based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork - will examine how these schools imbue the students and their families with the prestige of an American education without leaving Syria. After students graduate from such schools, they are poised to mingle in the upper echelons of Syrian society where they find a like-minded commitment to regularly using English, entrepreneurship, volunteerism and cosmopolitanism. They find common ground with graduates of accredited American institutions, Syrians who studied in America or Europe and help to shape a visible, new trend-setting elite sector Syrian society.