Critical Language Scholarship

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program is a fully-funded language-intensive summer study abroad program geared to promote rapid language gains and essential intercultural fluency in regions that are critical to U.S. national security and economic prosperity.

Each summer, American undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities across the country, spend eight to ten weeks learning one of fourteen languages at an intensive study abroad institute.

The CLS Program is offering multiple webinars to help applicants learn more about languages both taught at UMBC (Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, and Russian), as well as strategic languages not taught here (Azerbaijani, Indonesian, Persian, Portuguese and Turkish). UMBC has a long history of its students receiving these competitive awards.

The CLS Program is hosting a series of webinars in October. To register for one, contact the Education Abroad Department at EducationAbroad@umbc.edu to obtain the Zoom Invite.

• CLS Program Overview: October 4, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Russian Information Session: October 5, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Chinese Information Session: October 10, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Arabic Information Session: October 11, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Hindi and Urdu Information Session: October 12, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Turkish and Azerbaijani Information Session: October 12, 2023 at 4:00 pm EDT

• CLS Japanese Information Session: October 16, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Portuguese Information Session: October 16, 2023 at 4:00 pm EDT

• CLS Persian Information Session: October 17, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Korean Information Session: October 18, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

• CLS Indonesian Information Session: October 19, 2023 at 1:00 pm EDT

Dr. Brian Souders, UMBC’s Associate Director for Global Learning, works with UMBC students to advise students on program choice and essay writing strategies. He is happy to meet with students to guide them through the application process. Students can schedule an appointment with Dr. Souders at EducationAbroad@umbc.edu.

The CLS Summer 2024 application deadline is November 14, 2023.