Website 

Critical Language Scholarship Program

Award Details 

Awarded for 8-10 weeks fully-funded virtual or overseas foreign language instruction and cultural enrichment experience in 12 critical need languages for US students in higher education. 

  • Overseas CLS Program: Offers in-person language study at host institutes abroad to undergraduate and graduate students in a dozen critical languages: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.
  • CLS SPARK: Provides virtual beginner-level virtual instruction to undergraduate students in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian, as well as advanced beginner-level Japanese. Preference is given to students whose home campuses do not offer their Spark language. Students who complete CLS Spark can apply for a funded overseas CLS experience the following summer and will be considered automatic semifinalists.

Eligibility 

  • US citizenship
  • Be enrolled in an accredited U.S. degree-granting program at the undergraduate (associate, bachelor's) or graduate (master's, doctoral, professional degree) level at the time of application. Students who are graduating seniors at the time of application and students enrolled in one-year master’s programs are eligible to apply.
  • More information on eligibility

Application Timeline 

Deadline: November annually for language institute the following summer
Scholars are notified in March annually

OSU Contact 

National and Global Scholarships Advising Staff 

 

Critical Language Scholars from OSU 

Camryn Lau (2024) CLS Spark- Arabic

Hargobind Khalsa (2019) Punjabi

Miriam Lipton (2019) Russian

Brian Erickson (2019) Swahili

Chris Foertsch (2015) Indonesian

Camille Violet (2014, 2013) Bangla

Kimberly Kenny (2014) Chinese

Jenna Albert (2010) Korean

Sara Haines (2007) Arabic

Megan Rioux-Forker (2007) Arabic