After 117 Years, One of the World's Largest Distance Education Institutions Finds a New Name, a New Mission and a New Owner: Renamed as Penn Foster, this one-time correspondence school giant, has evolved into a global online education provider.; Today one out of every 1,410 Americans is actively enrolled in a Penn Foster program - and there are plans for more.

SCRANTON, Pa., Aug. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than 100 years it was known as International Correspondence School, or more commonly as ICS. Then starting in the mid 1990s ICS was sold twice to new owners who each time re-branded the institution with a corporate name.

Starting in 2003, the company re-invented itself into one of the world's largest online providers of distance learning. Just two years ago the management team decided the institution needed a new permanent academic name to better reflect its mission and commitment to student achievement. After months of research it was announced the institution would be called 'Penn Foster' as a tribute to its founder, Thomas Foster, and the school's 117 years of continuous operation in Scranton, PA.

Today Penn Foster College (actually based in Scottsdale, Arizona), Penn Foster Career School, and Penn Foster High School have 500 employees and serve more than 200,000 active students worldwide. In the U.S. alone, one out of every 1,410 Americans is enrolled...