Critical Language Scholarship Program

Program News

• Critical Language Scholarship Students Seek Academic and Personal Growth with Study Abroad Opportunities 11/14/12
  The number of U.S. students studying abroad increased to 273,996 for 2010-11, and more students are studying in less traditional locations, according to the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange released in early November. U.S. Department of State programs like the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program enable U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to study critical foreign languages in less-traditional destinations like India, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Morocco.
• Critical Language Scholarship Participants Depart from the United States for Intensive Summer Study in China and Turkey 07/23/12
  On June 8, 2012, more than fifty students in the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program departed from the United States to attend an eight-week-long intensive language institute. Thirty students will spend their summer studying Chinese in Beijing, China, and the other twenty students will study Turkish in Bursa, Turkey. Throughout the summer, CLS participants will work on developing fluency in their targeted critical language by engaging in group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences. CLS students in Beijing and Bursa will live with host families and be partnered with local Chinese or Turkish university students for language practice and cultural access.
• CLS “Citizen Ambassadors” Get Pre-Departure Inspiration from Under Secretary 07/16/12
  On June 19, 2012, eighty students in the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program gathered at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel for a pre-departure orientation designed to prepare them for their summer abroad. Tara Sonenshine, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, delivered the keynote address. Ms. Sonenshine inspired the crowd of undergraduate and graduate students commenting on the value of study abroad and foreign language experience to U.S. foreign relations and the global economy. Underscoring Secretary Clinton’s message to American students that they should study abroad, Ms. Sonenshine stirred her student audience with a motivating message, “You are today’s citizen ambassadors for our country and you are doing the kind of work that builds bridges for a lifetime.”
• Experience Five Magical Days In Two Minutes: CLS Alumna Wins Prize for Video on China 03/05/12
  The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program awarded alumna Rene Orth an iPad for her winning entry in the first annual CLS Photo and Video Contest. Selected from nearly 90 entries submitted by students who participated in the 2011 CLS cohort, Orth's video highlights the Shanghai CLS Program's five-day excursion to Qinghai, a remote province in northwestern China.