In 2023, we selected approximately 500 competitive American students from 245 institutions as CLS finalists. Read our announcement.
What Alumni Say About the CLS Program
Key Benefits
Develop Key Expertise
The CLS Program provides its scholars
intensive language and cultural instruction
in an environment designed to maximize
their language gains at every level.
Career Ready Skills
Alumni apply their critical language
skills in a variety of professional fields
in public and private sectors as well as
government, helping to support America’s
competitiveness across the board.
Citizen Diplomacy
CLS scholars represent the breadth
and diversity of the United States.
Through personal engagement they
help to spread American values and
develop mutual understanding with
the people of other countries.
Just having conversations with people and being open with them about what we did culturally where I’m from; I’ve always wanted to share that with people. Marcus Dunn,
Korean
2011
"The Persian language opens a door to a universe of wonders within the collective history of humankind." Shabbir Abbas,
Persian
2020
The CLS Program was instrumental in getting me to the proficiency level required for my career. My employer cited my language skills as one of the main traits that made me an outstanding candidate. John Krzyzaniak,
Persian
2016
"I had always been interested in learning about Brazilian culture and Portuguese language and CLS made that a reality for me." Max Courval,
Portuguese
2020
Brigid Shanley is an alumna of the 2022 CLS Swahili Program hosted by MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation in Arusha, Tanzania. Brigid is a senior at California State University, Long Beach where she majors in Linguistics and minors in Anthropology. Brigid hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Lingu…
Meet CLS alumna, expert on Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, and world traveler, Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland! Lucy is not afraid to venture outside her comfort zone. She’s participated in three fellowships abroad—the first in Odesa, Ukraine for 7 months as a researcher with the Fulbright U.S. Student Pr…
Meet 2022 Japanese alumna and 2023 Alumni Ambassador, Janelle Mateo! Janelle’s connection to Japanese language and culture stems from her childhood growing up in Hawai’i. Being raised in a multi-cultural community and surrounded by the spirit of Aloha shaped Janelle’s interests in deepening both he…
An Interview with Alumna Rosiland Townes
Twenty years after she left school, Rosalind Townes returned to the classroom. That would be a big enough challenge for most people, but she decided to also study Arabic—considered one of the world’s most difficult languages to learn. For Rosiland the chall…
Two West Virginia University students passionate about learning a new language and immersing themselves in cultural experiences will travel abroad this summer as recipients of the highly competitive U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship.
Two Mississippi State undergraduates will study foreign languages virtually and abroad this summer as recipients of the U.S. Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship.
Shared from Mississippi State University, May 19, 2023