What qualifies a school to participate in the IUHPFL?

The IUHPFL is open to secondary schools in Indiana, public, private or parochial.  It is also open to homeschooling institutions in the state of Indiana.  A few schools outside of the state of Indiana are able to participate in the IUHPFL because of their longstanding history and tradition with the Honors Program.
 
To be eligible to participate in the IUHPFL, a high school must offer or plan to offer four or more years of instruction in French, German, or Spanish. An important requirement of the Honors Program is that participating students return to their school after the summer abroad and actively contribute to the foreign language study of the language during the following year. If your school would like to participate in the IUHPFL but is not able to offer four years of a language, please contact us at iuhpfl@indiana.edu for alternative suggestions to meet this eligibility requirement.

Participating IUHPFL high schools are not only asked to offer continuing instruction in the foreign language for when Honors Program participants return from their summer abroad, but also to cooperate in the various steps of the Honors Program application and selection process. They are also asked to encourage participants to join school or community clubs and organizations that incorporate their language and culture of study and to provide participants with any other resources to be able to further their study of the language.

What qualifies an applicant?

The IUHPFL limits its application pool to residents of the state of Indiana, with one exception:  as mentioned above, students at a  few schools outside of the state of Indiana are able to participate in the IUHPFL because of their longstanding history and tradition with the Honors Program.

Prospective applicants must have completed two years of the language to which they are applying and be enrolled in their third year of study of the language in which they are applying. Sophomores and seniors may apply to the IUHPFL, but high school juniors are given preference for selection.

Participants are required to continue the study of the language after their summer abroad, either at their high school or at a local university, and also pledge to help the school’s language program in any way possible.  If the opportunity is not available at the student’s school or local community to continue classes in the foreign language, then the student is to contribute to the school’s language program to the best of his or her ability.

The personal qualities that distinguish successful participants of the IUHPFL include a profound desire to learn, intellectual curiosity, social maturity, a willingness to adjust to new customs and habits, and a sincere commitment to adhere to the IUHPFL Honor Code, a set of norms for Honors Program students to abide by, the most important of which is the Language Commitment.

To find out if the IUHPFL is the right study abroad program for you, we encourage you to take our Self-Inventory before considering application.