The IU Honors Program in Foreign Language was founded in 1961 with IU's receipt of a $200,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. David Munford, a former employee of the Ford Foundation in their International Training and Research branch, worked with IU Spanish Professor Merle Simmons to set up the program for its first summer trips in 1962. Munford and Simmons wanted to improve foreign language education at the high school level in Indiana with the hope of creating a generation of more globally-minded students. Munford would go on to run the program from 1961 to 1964.
In the first summer IUHPFL ran, ninety students were sent to three program sites: Oaxaca, Mexico; Trier, Germany; and Saint-Brieuc, France. Those first ninety students came from just twenty-six high schools around the state. The prices of the trips were $650 for Mexico and $950 for France and Germany. Since 1962, IUHPFL has been able to send students to eighteen sites in eight different countries. Today, the program has six active sites.
The original structure of the program had many similarities to today's program: students had to be in their third year of study of the target language, they committed to expectations similar to the current Honor Code, they could not speak English during the trip, and they stayed with host families while abroad. Additionally, each site had an Onsite Coordinator who managed the program from the site and instructors who travelled with the groups from Indiana.
Over the years, the program has added sites in various countries and changed how different aspects are run, but the core principals have remained. Every year, students from around Indiana get the opportunity to improve their language skills and learn about the world through an immersive experience abroad.
