The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a fully-funded overseas language and cultural immersion summer program for American undergraduate and graduate students. With the goal of broadening the base of Americans studying and mastering critical languages and building relationships between the people of the United States and other countries, CLS provides study opportunities to a diverse range of students from across the United States at every level of language learning. Most languages offered by the CLS Program do not require applicants to have any experience studying critical languages. 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 professional, regional, cultural and academic backgrounds in 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. The CLS Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is part of a U.S. government interagency effort to dramatically expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. Pacific students may continue their study of Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, or Arabic, or begin to learn one of the other 13 languages offered by the program, provided they can present strong academic and professional reasons for doing so.
National Deadline: mid-November.