The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program provides fully funded immersive summer programs for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to learn languages of strategic importance to the United States’ national security, economic prosperity, and engagement with the world.

American students spend approximately eight weeks studying one of a dozen languages either overseas or virtually. Participants gain the equivalent of one year of language study, as the CLS Program maximizes language and cultural instruction in an intensive environment.

CLS Spark, an initiative of the CLS Program, provides opportunities for American undergraduate college and university students to study Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Russian virtually at the beginning level.

Eligibility requirements are listed on the CLS site and are subject to change each cycle.

• freshman
• sophomore
• junior
• senior
• graduate

• US Citizen

Applications available online.

The CLS Program is part of the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), a U.S. government interagency effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical need foreign languages. Students of diverse disciplines and majors are encouraged to apply. Former CLS participants have applied with various academic backgrounds including business, engineering, law, science, medicine, social sciences and humanities. The CLS Program does not have any government service requirement upon completion, however, it is expected that participants will continue to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period and later apply their critical language skills in their future academic and professional careers.