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Boren Scholarship

Boren Awards provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to study in Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where they can add important international and language components to their educations.

Boren Scholars and Fellows represent a variety of academic backgrounds, but all are interested in studying less commonly taught languages, including but not limited to Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili. As part of the African Languages Initiative, Boren Award applicants have the opportunity to further their study of Akan/Twi, Portuguese, Swahili, Wolof, Yoruba, or Zulu. For a complete list of languages, visit our website.

Undergraduate students can receive up to $20,000 for an academic year's study abroad and graduate students up to $30,000 for language study and international research. In exchange for funding, recipients commit to working in the federal government for a minimum of one year.

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Grant Division

Several grant opportunities are available and described on the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Join ExchangesConnect, an international online community managed by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs, to converse about exchange programs, share your international experiences, and explore new cultures.

Central Intelligence Agency: Undergraduate Scholarship Program

If you are a high school senior planning to enroll in a 4-or 5- year college program, or you are a college sophomore enrolled in a 4-or 5-year college program, who is looking for career experience in a dynamic environment, apply to the CIA's Undergraduate Scholarship Program and contribute to the work of the nation before you graduate. Once selected, you will be given an annual salary; a benefits package that includes health insurance, life insurance, and retirement; and up to $18,000 per calendar year for tuition, mandatory fees, books and supplies. You'll be required to work at an Agency facility during summer breaks and to maintain full-time college status during the school year with a minimum cumulative 3.0/4.0 GPA.We will pay the cost of transportation between school and the Washington, DC area each summer and provide a housing allowance.

Cooperative Education (Co-op) Program — Languages

The Co-op Program - Languages is open to  Second-semester freshmen and sophomores.

You will alternate semesters of full-time work with full-time study from entry into the program until you graduate. We require a minimum of 52 weeks of co-op work experience before graduation. You will work a regular 40-hour week during work periods, with each work block focusing on the specific areas you can focus on as a career.

Applications accepted twice a year, from February 1 to March 31 and from September 1 to October 31.

Majors/fields: Foreign languages, including Russian, Korean, Farsi, Arabic or Chinese

You will assist on projects and will have full use of NSA labs, equipment and advanced technologies. You will work in the original written or spoken foreign language by determining the relevance of the intelligence collected, researching it, analyzing it and putting it into context for national-level policymakers, military commanders and other customers.

National Flagship Language Program Fellowships

The Language Flagship Program is designed to:

  1. Address the urgent and growing need for Americans with professional levels of competency in languages critical to national security
  2. Offer advanced language training in African languages, Arabic, Chinese, Hindi/Urdu, Korean, Persian, and Russian
  3. Train participants to reach professional working proficiency in a target language, as measured by the federal Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) level 3 and/or the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) superior level.

Stokes Educational Scholarship (National Security Agency)

The National Security Agency Stokes Educational Scholarship Program is open to college sophomores majoring in Foreign Language (Arabic, Farsi only), certain math/science fields, or courses of study leading to careers in Intelligence Analysis. As an NSA employee with the Stokes Program, students attend college full time, then work during the summer at NSA for 12 weeks in areas that are related to course of study. Eligible students must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale each semester after their freshman year.)If selected as a program participant, students are required to work in their area of study for NSA after college graduation for at least one-and-one-half times the length of study. Program covers tuition, books, summer housing & travel, year-round salary, employment with NSA after graduation.