Critical Language Scholarships

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program provides fully-funded seven to ten week group-based intensive language instruction in critical languages. The program covers all costs for participants to study one of 13 critical languages abroad during the summer. Languages offered include Arabic, Azerbaijani, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu. This immersive program is designed to help U.S. students rapidly increase their language proficiency and gain cultural knowledge through intensive instruction in overseas locations. The CLS Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State and is part of a wider government initiative to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages.