The United States Department of State and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) offers the availability of overseas scholarships for intensive summer language institutes in critical need foreign languages.
Languages offered change from year to year. For 2009 they were: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu.
Countries may include: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Russia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, or others where the target languages are spoken. This list can change from year to year.
The CLS Program is part of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), a U.S. government interagency effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical need foreign languages. Students of diverse disciplines and majors are encouraged to apply. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period, and later apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers in any field.
Recipients of these scholarships will be expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period and later apply their critical language skills in their professional careers.
Sample Programs offered in 2009:
Beginning Arabic in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia
Intermediate and Advanced Arabic in Yemen
Beginning and Intermediate Bangla in Bangladesh
Intermediate and Advanced Bangla, Hindi, and Urdu, and all levels of Punjabi in India
Beginning and Intermediate Turkish in Turkey
Eligibility: All applicants must be U.S. citizens. Applicants must be either currently enrolled in a degree-granting program at the undergraduate* or graduate level or have graduated from an undergraduate or graduate program no more than 2 years before applying. Students in all disciplines including business, engineering, science, the social sciences and humanities are encouraged to apply. Current undergraduate students must have completed at least one year of general college course-work by program start date (one year is defined as two semesters or three quarters). The U.S. Department of State and CAORC welcome all eligible applications and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, or handicap condition.
Duration: Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) provide seven to ten week group-based intensive language instruction and extensive cultural enrichment experiences at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels (beginning not offered in 2009 for Azerbaijani, Russian, Chinese or Persian). Latest Program details and the on-line application are available on our website, www.CLScholarship.org.
Grant benefits: All CLS Program costs are covered for participants including: travel to and from the student's U.S. home city and program location, mandatory Washington, D.C. pre-departure orientation, applicable visa fees, room, board, group-based intensive language instruction, program-sponsored travel within country, and all entrance fees for CLS Program cultural enhancement activities. Note: U.S. passport fees will not be paid by the scholarship.
Deadline to Apply for the 2009 Programs was:
On-line application due on Friday, November 14, 2008.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding the CLS Program and application process at
www.CLScholarship.org
Critical Language Scholarships for Intensive Summer Language
Institutes
