Dear Colleagues, 

USA Study Abroad within the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is pleased to invite you to attend a free virtual Gilman and CLS Advisor Workshop. The workshop will be offered via Zoom on Thursday, August 18, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. 

The virtual workshop will share best practices for leveraging campus resources to successfully recruit and support applicants of national, merit-based scholarships, specifically the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program and the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program. 

The intended audience is faculty, staff, and administrators advising students on study abroad at rural institutions and study abroad advisors from all other institutions interested in discussing best practices for supporting students from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in study abroad. Advisors of all experience levels, including those new to one or both programs, are encouraged to attend.  

Workshop content will include the following:

• Gilman and CLS Program Overviews
• Panels with a Q&A featuring Gilman and CLS Advisors from rural institutions who will share about recruiting and supporting applicants for each program
• Breakout group discussions about challenges and successes in recruiting and supporting applicants for each program

We invite you to register for the workshop at the following link: https://iie-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwtdOiprjgtHNB_agcgdi8Gg0lDSqWlzCOg. We hope to accommodate everyone who is interested in participating in this workshop, but registration is limited to the first 1,000 registrants. 

If you are unable to attend this virtual workshop, we are happy to also be offering additional free workshops in the coming months. Look for an announcement with more information on these workshops and registration links soon:

• Alaska Native-Serving and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (September)

Please direct any questions you have regarding the Advisor Workshop or assistance with technical support to gilmanevents@iie.org.   

The Gilman and CLS programs are programs of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and supported in their implementation by IIE and American Councils for International Education, respectively. To learn more about the Gilman Program, please visit https://www.gilmanscholarship.org. To learn more about the CLS Program, please visit, https://www.clscholarship.org. 

We thank you for your continued support of our programs and for championing international education on your campus.

Best wishes,

Natalie Spencer
Outreach & Selection Manager