Deadline for applications: November 15, 2017
This scholarship is open to any students studying Russian, Persian, Turkish or Azerbaijani.
The Department of State is pleased to welcome American students to apply for the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program to learn critical foreign languages next summer on a fully-funded study abroad program.
The CLS Program is an intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. Students spend eight to ten weeks abroad studying one of 14 critical languages. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains.
CLS, a program of the U.S. Department of State, is part of a wider government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to national security and economic prosperity. CLS plays an important role in preparing students for the 21st century’s globalized workforce and increasing national competitiveness.
The application is now live and available online here.
Applications are due November 15, 2017 by 7:59pm EST.
The fourteen languages offered by the CLS Program are:
- Arabic
- Azerbaijani
- Bangla
- Chinese
- Hindi
- Indonesian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Persian
- Punjabi
- Russian
- Swahili
- Turkish
- Urdu
Most languages offered by the CLS Program do not require applicants to have any experience studying critical languages. However, Russian requires participants to have completed two years of college-level study (or the equivalent) prior to participation in the program, and Persian requires one year of college-level study (or the equivalent) prior to participation in the program. Azerbaijani and Turkish accept students from the absolute beginner to the advanced level. Language pre-requisites can be found on the CLS website.
When applying to CLS, students apply to study a language, not to travel to a specific host site or host city. In the recent past programs have been held in the following locations:
Russian: Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Persian: Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Azerbaijani: Baku, Azerbaijan
Turkish: Baku, Azerbaijan
There is a possibility that in 2018 CLS may provide the opportunity to study Russian outside of the Russian Federation. Final host sites are not announced until the spring.
The CLS Program seeks participants with diverse interests, and from a wide range of fields of study and career paths, with the purpose of representing the full diversity of the United States. Participants are selected based on their commitment to language learning and plans to apply their language skills to their future academic or professional pursuits. Students from all academic disciplines, including business, engineering, law, medicine, science, social sciences, arts and humanities are encouraged to apply.
Prior to preparing their application, interested students should review the full eligibility and application information on the CLS Program website.
For news, updates and more information about the CLS Program, check out the CLS website or Facebook page for updates! CLS also has a Twitter.
For other questions, please contact cls@americancouncils.org