History
serving the community for over 40 years
St. Michael’s Learning Academy is a private, for-profit school Post-secondary vocational school (SMLA). SMLA is co-owned and operated by Zack Zakhem and Christine Aboud, who have both served and worked in the business, professional, and academic communities for over 40 years. SMLA was founded on December 27, 2007. The school was originally located in Houston, Texas, at 6420 Richmond Avenue. In 2012, SMLA moved to 2640 Fountain View and conducted business operations there for a little over a year. In 2014, SMLA moved to its current location at 6220 Westpark Drive in Houston, Texas. SMLA opened a campus in Killeen, Texas in 2016 and an additional campus in Detroit, Michigan in 2017.
Corporate Location
Houston, TX
- SMLA is centrally located in Houston, Texas, on the corner of Westpark Drive and the Southwest Freeway within the Gulfton community.
- The school has general classrooms, computer labs, and a student lounge.
- All the school’s facilities are located on the first floor of a two-story building.
- All the rooms are climate controlled and are fully accessible to the physically challenged, meeting all ADA requirements.
- Ample parking facilities are also present. SMLA offers the latest equipment, technology, software and educational resources to train professionals for today’s digital office.
Mission Statement
SMLA provides comprehensive vocational programs to its students in the most essential and sought-after career and technical skills needed for employment in today’s competitive job market.
The graduates and students of SMLA serve as a continuous resource of qualified personnel for the business, professional, medical and academic communities.
Who We Provide Service To
SMLA provides service to professional adults who are seeking vocational/career training in some of today’s high demand career fields. These individuals are seeking to qualify for advanced jobs which require specific knowledge and expertise that can be gained through our programs. Together we have provided up skill IT and professional training to organizations and individuals such as professionals, veterans, government entities, fortune 500 companies, and the public sector.
Approved and Regulated By:
Programs We Train
SAP Certification Program
Project Management Professional Certification (PMP)
Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
Microsoft 365 Office Specialist
CompTIA Certifications
Certified Logistics Certifications
Why You Should Learn With SMLA
Learn in your own style with a tailored educational experience
Have the flexibility to learn at your own pace while having the guidance, resources, and support of a traditional classroom setting. SMLA’s innovative blended educational environment adapts to your unique learning profile. Whether you are a social learner and require a traditional lecture and engaging discussions with your peers or your busy schedule, learning style, or reserved personality points you toward cranking open the book and reviewing the class content at your own convenience, SMLA’s personalized learning plans are designed to meet your needs. Our unique hybrid educational setting gives you the power to customize your learning journey to fit your personal blend of preferences, learning style, career experience, educational goals, or real-world demands.
Financial Assistance
Our tuition is priced below equivalent programs at other institutions; however, we do offer economic support for Student’s that fall under any of the following categories:
- Individuals receiving unemployment benefits
- Individuals with low income
- Veterans
- Active Duty Soldiers
- Military Dependents
Depending on the student’s needs and qualifying category, one or more of the following assistance programs will be made available:
- Subsidized tuition by the Texas Workforce Commission.
- Discounted tuition where the remaining cost is covered by SMLA.
- Scholarships and grants sponsored by our non-profit arm and our corporate partners.
- Deferred payment plan with low monthly payments, no interest, no hidden fees, and an affordable initial deposit.
Our mission is to ensure all our students go on to have thriving careers with the knowledge we provide. As such, we offer a series of no-cost supplementary services designed to provide a supportive framework to the career paths of our students.
Career and Job Assistance
- Career Skill Assistance: Our counselors provide support with resume, reference and cover letter writing and editing, interview skills, professional attire and more.
- Job Placement Support: We leverage our network of partnerships, alumni, corporate relationships, and public sector contacts to help our students take the next step in their careers.
- Scheduled Mock Interviews: Our corporate partners provide top level hiring executives to hold practice job interviews with students in our programs.
- Train-to-Hire Pipeline: Our unique graduate-to-employer partnership ecosystem offers a direct employment path for our graduates.
Complimentary Retraining
- Refresher Courses: SMLA alumni are allowed to audit the current iteration of the courses they have taken; whether they need to refresh their skills for a new career opportunity, get updated on new content or simply want to gain new perspective on their body of knowledge.
- Class Recordings: Students retain access to the live recordings of their attended courses for up to a year after graduating. They can relive their educational experience at any time.
- Instructor Consultation: Our experts are more than just instructors; they are the often-sought-after industry mentors. Our instructors will always be available to answer questions, provide career guidance and after training support.
The entire staff of SMLA is committed to serving our students. We particularly believe that the population that we serve is the future of our great nation and we are proud to be doing our part in helping our clients to transition into their roles as future leaders and productive individuals.
Joseph George is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma Black Belt, Licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.), and has a master’s degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Joseph has been teaching process improvement, engineering and Project Management courses for more than 10 years.
Mervin Manning is a SAP Certified Associate in Business Process Integration (TERP-10, S4/HANA 1709, 1809, 1909) as well as SAP S4/HANA Integrated Business Planning 1711. He’s also Information Technology Infrastructure Library Foundation (ITILv3) and an International Consortium for Agile Certified Professional.
Mervin is a retired U.S. Army veteran with 20+ years of experience as a telecommunications and network/computer systems administrator/operator with demonstrated experience in planning and directing communications and information networks.
Earl Bell is a former Army Sargeant First Class who has been in Supply Chain and Transportation management for over 20 years. He has a bachelorette in Information Technology Management with an emphasis on encryption and certificates in SAP S4 HANA, A+ and information Security.
Earl receive several exceeds the standards ratings and Army Accommodation Medals while serving in multiple brigade and battalion level ERP system train the trainer positions in USARC, USACPOC, and ARMEDCOM.
Earl retired in JAN 2021 because of service-connected injuries after serving 28 years in the Army. He continues to educate soldiers in the SAP Veterans to Work program as an instructor with SMLA.
Andrew Kwawu is a former Army Staff Sergeant who has been in Logistics for over 10 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science Business Administration (finance) and an MBA as well as the following certifications Demonstrated Logistician, Certified Logistics Associate, Certified Logistics Technician, SAP TS410 S4/HANA (1709 & 1809).
Andrew received several awards during his 12-year service which included the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, NATO Medal and Army Good Conduct Medal.
Andrew medically separated from the Army in November 2020 and has been teaching transitioning service personnel to enable them to get the SAP TS410 S4/HANA certification.
Andrew has a passion for helping others through teaching having been brought up by parents who were educationists.
Mitchell Ogiamien
I hail from Nigeria, started my career in Telecommunication working with Nokia (Formerly Alcatel-lucent). In my 9 years with Nokia, I rose to core Project Management functions and became the PMO Manager until I relocated the US in 2018.
In the US, I have had opportunities working in the manufacturing, automotive & Information Technology industries. I posses a bachelors degree in Business Administration and I’m a Certified Application Associate with SAP S/4HANA 1709, which has put me on the edge of continuous learning as IT world keeps expanding.
I currently function as an SAP instructor, supporting the HISD SAP initiative program for young thinkers at Sam Houston Math, Science Technology Centre.