Critical Language Scholarship

The CLS Program is an intensive summer 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 12 critical languages. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains.

The Scholarship covers all transportation, lodging, and program costs (valued at around $5,000). The languages offered by the CLS Program are: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu. Most languages offered by the CLS Program do not require applicants to have any experience studying critical languages. Language pre-requisites can be found on the CLS website.

Applicants must be enrolled in graduate school at the time of application, but may graduate prior to the start of the CLS program. Undergraduate, master’s and doctoral-level students of diverse disciplines and majors are encouraged to apply for the seven-to-10-week-long programs. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period, and later apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.