The Critical Language Scholarship Program (CLS) provides an 8-to-10 week summer intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program in one of 15 critical languages for U.S. college students. The program includes intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences designed to promote rapid language gains. The program’s languages are considered critical to U.S. national security and economic prosperity. Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of application. The scholarship covers all program and travel expenses for programs selected by CLS. Academic credit is offered through Bryn Mawr College for the equivalent of an academic year of language study.

The following languages do not require any previous language study: Azerbaijani, Bangla, Hindi, Indonesian, Persian, Punjabi, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.  The following languages require at least one year of prior study: Arabic, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian. The following languages require at least two years of prior language study: Chinese and Japanese.

The CLS application period is now available for the following summer’s programs, the deadline is November 17th at 8 pm EST.

Rebecca Fong won a Critical Languages Scholarship in 2014, and Jessica McIlhenny won in 2011.