Additional Links: History | Founder | Logo Logic | Leadership
About FLIO - Our History
Free Language Immersion Operation (FLIO) is a non-profit company dedicated to the education of languages and culture.
Countries, companies and colleges sponsor students to study languages by living within the cultural milieu of another country.
The students of language return with an appreciation for their host country and place that knowledge to work for a broader understanding of trade and international relations.
The founder of FLIO is Lee Lubbers, S.J. He determined the purpose of FLIO to be integral in providing a supply of linguists capable of filling the critical need for companies, colleges and government.
"It shall be the purpose of the Free Language Immersion Operation (FILO) to pay young (21 and over) American citizens an annual stipend expressly to become bilingual in their choice of a second or Nth language, to assist them in every way possible during their immersion in a country speaking their selected language by regular contacts, moral support and counsel of selected natives there."
FLIO has started with a cadre of volunteers, academics, corporate and government sponsors whose combined self interests sum to levels of global understanding.