Kodaikanal International School (KIS) is a co-educational independent residential school offering education for grades P-12. It is located on in Kodaikanal, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India. Kodaikanal is a hill station at in the Palani Hills, northwest of Madurai. Early alumni of KIS include US Ambassador to India Robert F. Goheen (1936) and US Senator Chris Van Hollen (1977). In 1975, KIS became the first school in India to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB) and the IB Middle Years Program (MYP). It also awards its own certificate, the KIS Diploma, to all graduates. It is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (US) and recognized by the Association of Indian Universities. The current principal is Corleigh (Corey) Stixrud. History Origins (1890–1919) In the early 1880s, there was a great need for an English-medium school in South India, due to an ever-increasing Christian mission community in the area. Having a school at a hill-station would allow the children of missionaries to escape the tropical diseases that were claiming the lives of so many, and provide a cool and open atmosphere that stimulated learning. In the early months of the year 1900, a woman by the name of Margaret Eddy came to visit her son Sherwood (after whom Sherwood Dormitory is named), who was working as a missionary in Batlagundu. Seeing the need for a school, and also realising that the missionaries could not find the means to establish one, she decided to begin the process herself. She held the first Kodaikanal Conference on 1 June 1900, in which she established a Committee whose duty it was to find teachers and a building in which schooling would be held. After commissioning The Highclerc Hotel as a building more than a year later, under the leadership of Mrs. Margaret Eddy, "Highclerc School" was opened to students on 1 July 1901. By 1902 the owners of the building had drastically increased the rent, so the school was moved to Rock Cottage and Central House. In 1905, Mrs. Eddy returned to Kodaikanal, and was able to buy The Highclerc Hotel from its new owner for INR 29,000 along with of land. Since that time the school has remained in its present location. Mrs. Eddy served as principal of Kodai School, without salary, from 1901 to 1905, when she was forced to return to the America due to a sickness. Development (1920–1959)