How the ELI Started

Introduction

In the fall semester of 1986, the English Language Institute was informally established by the then International Center on Deafness (ICD), which was located in HMB 117.

Mr. Eli Savanick, the Director of ICD, hired a teacher, Mr. Wayne Smith, and along with an assistant started a tutorial class as a pilot program. Mr. Wayne Smith had an office near ICD.

For the first semester, the first two students were Miguel Giacoman from Honduras and Ali Abdul-Jabbar from Qatar. For the second semester, David Hsu from Taiwan also joined the pilot program as a student.