Welcome+Introduction

Amity Institute is an organization headquartered in San Diego, California, although it was founded in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It recruits young people from around the world to serve as language and culture assistants in American classrooms. It has been in operation for over 40 years and first began as a high school program.

This program was inaugurated at UW-La Crosse in 1984 by Mary Gayle Pifer, then chair of the department. Each year since that date, with the exception of 2003-2004 when there was a major budget lapse and the number was reduced to three, five young scholars have come to La Crosse from their home countries and worked and studied at the university. The UW-La Crosse program was the first time a group of scholars were brought to a university and assigned to work with an entire department rather than particular language programs of professors.

These Amity interns live together in a house owned by the university and supervised by members of the department. A major sponsor of the residence has been the Rotary East Club. Its members have painted the inside of the house and provided furniture, kitchen equipment, and appliances.

To celebrate this anniversary, the Department of Modern Languages is hosting a reunion on August 28-30, 2009 and compiling information on the approximately 125 Amity Scholars who have come to UW-La Crosse.