At this time last year, while coronavirus cases still surged around the globe, we were cautiously planning, hoping that our summer programs would finally resume and wondering if our participants and instructors would be able to celebrate the 60th birthday of IUHPFL in the company of our international friends and partners. In March, as we prepared for orientation, we began to feel a tiny spark of optimism.
A Word from our Managing Director, Loni Dishong
After orientation in April, the collective enthusiasm began to build here and abroad, as we saw more countries lessen their travel restrictions and as families in Indiana and overseas began to prepare for the experience in earnest. Still, a nagging doubt remained: ‘Will we really, truly be able to relaunch our programs this summer?’ And then, at long last, the students and instructors boarded the group flights, flew across the Atlantic, and arrived in their respective host countries…and the adventure began!
For those who had participated in the program before —instructors, onsite coordinators, and host families — it was a reunion with dear friends, a rekindling of cherished communities. For our students, it was a chance to create something that the pandemic had threatened to take from them: a second home on the other side of the world.
Along with the joys and festivities, relaunch after two years of cancellations has involved strategy and sacrifice. We remain without a much-needed administrative coordinator, which means that our office staff is even smaller and mightier than usual! Thankfully, Amy, our extraordinary program coordinator, and I have worked together for seven years now, and we each feel comfortable in our respective roles. The tremendous guidance and administrative support that we continue to receive from the IU Office of Overseas Study and the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs has also been key to our success. Additionally, we have always been fortunate to find talented program alums to work part-time in our office, and Ashton has been an excellent addition to our team since January of this year.
Being strategic also means that we must rebuild the program gradually, with a focus on long-term sustainable growth. This has resulted in limiting our programming to our European sites to ensure that programs are filled as near to capacity as possible. This past summer, we had 133 participants: 14 in Austria, 45 in France, and 74 in Spain. In Summer 2023, we will once again offer only our European programs, but we are hopeful that in Summer 2024 a return to Latin America, for Spanish students, and to Asia, for students of Chinese and Japanese, will be possible.
I would like to give special recognition and gratitude to our program instructors who worked diligently to care for our students and to give them the best experience possible this summer. They persevered in the midst of overwhelming challenges, including coronavirus diagnoses and symptoms, which some of them had personally, and unprecedented periods of heat, as Europe was hit with its worst heat wave in recorded history. Throughout the months of June and July, parts of Western Europe experienced many days above 100 degrees Fahrenheit! The level of professionalism and dedication we witnessed from these amazing educators was nothing short of remarkable, and I wish to say that bringing them into the program and collaborating with them has been one of my greatest joys during my time with IUHPFL.
In this issue, we share with you all that we have celebrated together this year, including program site summaries and data regarding scholarships that we were able to award to Summer 2022 participants with financial need. Donations from our alums and other supporters of IUHPFL make these scholarships possible, and we are encouraged by the gifts that we have already received for Summer 2023; over $27,000 has been donated in 2022 to date and more is arriving. On behalf of all of us in IUHPFL, I extend our gratitude to these donors for their kind generosity, and I wish all of you very happy holidays. I hope you enjoy this 14th edition of the Polyglot Press!
Sincerely,
Loni Dishong