High School:
NSLI-Y
First I'm going to start of with the one closest to my heart. NSLI-Y, or the National Security Language Initiative for Youth is a US state department merit-based scholarship program for high school students. The programs are focused on rigorous language instruction and immersion, and while they may not be for the faint of heart, if you are a linguaphile like I am the the experience will be absolutely amazing. The language programs they have are for not-commonly-taught languages in US high schools: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korea, Persian (Tajik), Russian and Turkish. The locations of these programs are in various countries where the previously described languages are spoken. NSLI-Y offers both summer (6-8 weeks) and year-long programs. Each program is run differently, but the summer programs are very classroom instruction-heavy, supplemented by cultural excursions and homestays. On the year long programs, students mostly attend regular high school with additional language classes weekly. On my Korean summer program, I stayed in Seoul for about 6-7 weeks with a host family and spent five hours a day in class at Sogang University with free time early in the morning and at night and bi-weekly tutoring sessions with a college student supporter. We had a few structured activities with the entire group but mostly traveled in smaller groups with our supporters and friends. If you are interested, I blogged every day on the program so check out the rest of this blog! But remember, NSLI-Y is always changing and evolving so everyone's experiences are different (but always awesome)
YES Abroad
YES abroad is a year-long merit-based scholarship program for high school students to study abroad in countries with significant Muslim populations. While NSLI-Y is more language intensive, the YES Abroad program is centered more on cultural understanding. Recipients attend regular high school in their country as well as culture, language, and other miscellaneous classes as well as take part in cultural excursions. The numbers of students in each country is generally petty small. However, many of the applicants for NSLI-Y and YES have mutual interests in languages, cultures, international history and politics, and making connections with different peoples and ways of living. The countries that YES sends students to are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, and Turkey. As you can see, many of the countries overlap between the two programs as well! If you are looking for an amazing year abroad, I would recommend applying to both NSLI-Y and YES. The YES abroad selection process is maybe slightly more extensive than NSLI-Y, whereas while NSLI-Y has a long application and an interview event in your area, YES has a long application and a mandatory in-person selection event in Washington, DC (paid for, of course). From YES alums I've talked to and stalked on social media, their experiences have been life-changing, and all of the photographs they take give me intense wanderlust.
ExCEL Abroad Program
This is a new American Councils (an organization closely tied with the State Department) program, with the first round of students participating over the 2015-2016 academic year. The program is a year-long fully-funded merit-based scholarships to Lithuania, where students will go to school, live with a host family, and participate in cultural and community service activities while working on an independent study project. The ExCEL program aims to create youth ambassadors for US-Lithuania relations and promote friendship between the two countries by fostering personal connections. As American Councils runs many US State Department programs, many alums can attest to its merits and I wouldn't hesitate to apply, especially if you are looking for a year abroad!
La Esperanza Scholarship
This scholarship is a SPI study abroad merit scholarship for a summer program to Costa Rica! I don't know much about this one but any full scholarship is a good one. It is sometimes hard to find full scholarships to commonly-taught language locations, so if you are studying Spanish in school this might be a good opportunity for you to further expand on your knowledge! Not to mention Costa Rica is beautiful!
CBYX
The Congress-Bundenstag Youth Exchange is yet another state department exchange program that provides merit based scholarships for high schoolers to take an academic year in Germany. You attend German high school, live with a host family, and learn in depth about German culture! I have heard great things about this program, and since it is less language-based than other programs, there is no prereq for applicants and apparently it is a lot more lenient. Also, one major plus about this program is that it does take place in Europe, a rarity for fully-funded scholarships, especially state department ones. If you are interested in Europe, Germanic languages, or think this would be a better fit for you than say, a year in China or Malaysia, I would recommend this one! At the end of the day, its about what is a better fit for you as a person, a student, and a language learner.
College Students:
CLS
The CLS (Critical Language Scholarship) is a US State Department sponsored merit-based scholarship program for college students to student critical-needs languages. This is very much like a more intense NSLI-Y program, with the scholarship being 8-10 weeks long with cultural excursions, language instruction, tutoring activities, and many other things. A lot of NSLI-Y kids reapply to this once they get into college because we want to go back to the country we love- for free! CLS offers many languages but some do require previous study. The ones that do are usually languages that are taught at the university level more frequently now, but there are still many programs that don't require anything, so if you are a romance language nerd but a newbie in critical needs langs, you still have plenty of options. CLS looks for a variety of majors, career paths, and interests to represent the US abroad, and along with NSLI-Y and YES, wants to send over a diverse group of students to represent our diverse country. The languages that they offer that require no prereqs are Azerbaijani, Bangla, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Punjabi, Turkish, and Urdu. The languages offered that require one year of study are Arabic and Persian, and the languages that require two+ years are Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. You do get academic credit for CLS, so it is definitely a summer well spent!
Gilman International Scholarships
This State Department scholarship program seeks to promote diversity abroad by providing undergraduate students with financial need grants to study or intern abroad. The program will award approximately 2,700 scholarships of up to $5,000 each to help defray the costs of studying abroad. If you are studying a critical needs language, the scholarship can be upped to $8,000, which is incredible! The languages they consider critical-needs are Arabic, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian, Japanese, Turkic (various), Persian (various), Indic (various), Korean, Russian, and Swahili. Diversity abroad is an extremely important issue, especially since studying abroad is very costly but its benefits should be accessible to all students. If you think you qualify, I would apply, especially if you want to participate in a university-sponsored program but are worried about the cost!
Boren Scholarship
This scholarship is interesting but something that I am so excited to apply to. The Boren scholarship is partnered with the National Security Education program to provide merit-based scholarships to US undergrad students studying critical needs languages in places underrepresented in college study abroad programs. This scholarship is very focused on areas important to national security, and is unique in that scholarship recipients are required to work in the federal government for at least one year after graduation. The scholarship awards up to $8,000 for summer programs, $10,000 for semester, and $20,000 for a year. The summer programs must be STEM related, but all students are encouraged to apply for multiple semesters! Preference is given by language, length of study, and willingness to pursue a career in the government in the future. The language list is very long, so I'll post it here:
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Fulbright US Student Program
Arguably the most well-known scholarship program and gives about 1,900 merit-based grants to students from all disciplines to over 140 countries. There are so many different programs, including but not limited to, government internships, research grants, English teaching grants, travel supplement grants, and critical language grants.The Fulbright program wants to be in as many different countries with as many different majors as possible, so uniqueness is never bad. Fulbright is famous for churning out alums that go on to become leaders in politics, volunteer works, science, technology, and every other field imaginable. If an area of study or dream language of yours is obscure and your options are limited, Fulbright will still have opportunities for you! Anyone and everyone should apply as long as you are interested in furthering international cooperation and understanding in our global society.
Gap Year:
There are many Gap year programs, and some high school programs can be made into Gap year programs, but one that is interesting to me is the Gap Year assistant program at NLCS Jeju. This is a British international school in Jeju-do, South Korea. The school pays for room, board, flights, and food and provides a stipend for students who act as helpers and interns at the international school. This includes tutoring English, helping with activities and excursions, and doing a variety of other jobs to keep the school running smoothly. It sounds interesting, especially for students wanting to return to Korea!
http://nlcsjeju.co.kr/913/careers/gap-year-assistants
There are still many other opportunities out there, and I will be updating this list as more programs come my way. Other programs to look into are the Korea, Japanese, and Chinese government sponsored scholarships for international students looking to attend college in these countries. These are run by their respective governments and the websites are slightly confusing, so i would recommend contacting you region's embassy for questions. Also, CSIS offers various internships in many NSLI-Y areas of interest, but they are not scholarships so I didn't include them on the list. If you are looking for internships, search around the the US gov and UN websites- there are many opportunities, especially for motivated, high achieving undergrad and grad school students. Best of luck in all of you endeavors, keep traveling!
