Published: Nov. 15, 2021

The appli­ca­tion for the 2022 Crit­i­cal Lan­guage Schol­ar­ship (CLS) Pro­gram is open! CLS wel­comes Amer­i­can stu­dents to apply now to learn a crit­i­cal for­eign lan­guage next sum­mer on a ful­ly-fund­ed study abroad program.
 
The appli­ca­tion is now live and avail­able online at: https://www.clscholarship.org/apply
Appli­ca­tions are due Tues­day, Novem­ber 16, 2021 by 8:00pm EST.

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 15 crit­i­cal lan­guages. The pro­gram includes inten­sive lan­guage instruc­tion and struc­tured cul­tur­al enrich­ment expe­ri­ences designed to pro­mote rapid lan­guage gains. Most lan­guages offered by the CLS Pro­gram (9 of 15) do not require appli­cants to have any expe­ri­ence study­ing crit­i­cal languages. 
 
CLS is a pro­gram of the U.S. Depart­ment of State, and 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 CLS Pro­gram offers instruc­tion in the fol­low­ing lan­guages: Ara­bic, Azer­bai­jani, Bangla, Chi­nese, Hin­di, Indone­sian, Japan­ese, Kore­an, Per­sian, Por­tuguese, Pun­jabi, Russ­ian, Swahili, Turk­ish, and Urdu. 
Resources for advi­sors are avail­able on the CLS site at:  https://clscholarship.org/advisors
 
The CLS Pro­gram will host fre­quent webi­na­rs, Q&A ses­sions, and alum­ni pan­els for stu­dents and advi­sors through­out the fall. A full cal­en­dar of these events and cor­re­spond­ing reg­is­tra­tion links is avail­able on our web site at: https://clscholarship.org/events
 
If you have any ques­tions, please send them to: cls@americancouncils.org