Background: The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Critical Language Scholarships Program was launched in 2006. In its inaugural year, the CLS Program offered intensive overseas study in the critical need foreign languages of Arabic, Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, Turkish and Urdu. In 2012, 631 scholarships were awarded for thirteen languages, including Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu. Boren Scholars study less commonly taught languages, including but not limited to Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili.

The U. S. Department of State is pleased to announce the scholarship competition for the 2013 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program in thirteen critical need foreign languages. The CLS Program provides fully-funded group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences for seven to ten weeks for U.S. citizen undergraduate and graduate students. Languages offered: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu. The application is available online.

Applications will be due November 15, 2012. Prior to preparing their application, interested students should review the full eligibility and application information on the CLS Program website. Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Russian, and Japanese institutes have language prerequisites, which can also be found at the link above.

Students from all academic disciplines, including business, engineering, law, medicine, sciences, and humanities 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 professional careers.