Honors students: Do you want to study a less-commonly-taught language? Want to study abroad? The U.S. Department of State might have a great opportunity for you! Read on to learn more about the Critical Language Scholarship program.

The United States Department of State is pleased to announce the upcoming scholarship competition for the 2010 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program for overseas intensive summer language institutes in thirteen critical need foreign languages. The on-line application for CLS Program awards will be available November 9, 2009, and the deadline to apply will be December 18, 2009.

Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) provide group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences for seven to ten weeks. Students may apply for one language, and will be placed at institute sites based on language evaluations after selection. The 2010 CLS Program will include new programs in Indonesian and Japanese.

Levels available for each language are as follows:
Arabic, Persian: Advanced beginning, intermediate or advanced level;
Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Punjabi, Turkish, or Urdu: Beginning, intermediate or advanced level;
*Chinese, Japanese or Russian: Intermediate or advanced level.

Students of diverse disciplines and majors are encouraged to apply. While
there is no service requirement attached to CLS Program awards, participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period, and later apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.

For more information on the CLS Program and the selection process, please visit www.CLScholarship.org. If you would like to receive a program
announcement, please email me directly at sylla.julia@caorc.org.

Julia Phelan Sylla
Assistant Director
Critical Language Scholarship Program
Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)
Phone: 202-633-7015
E-mail: sylla.julia@caorc.org
Website: www.CLScholarship.org