As an American student, there are so many opportunities to study abroad for free.

As someone who is a first generation college student and definitely did not have the money to afford to study abroad, I’ve weirdly had some incredible opportunities throughout my academic career to go and travel. I’ve never actually paid for any of these programs myself, but because I did one in high school (NSLI-Y), it opened up so many opportunities to get more. I went to the CLS alumni conference in 2023 and someone mentioned there that getting one of these programs is like a domino effect. Once you end up getting one of them, it ends up becoming so much easier to get another.

So once I started my undergraduate career in college, I had something to talk about already, which led me to getting more of these kinds of scholarships and opportunities in life. I’d say what they said at that conference was true, and it has given me such valuable experiences learning how to write essays for funding and awards in graduate school. All of this said, let’s dive into the incredible opportunities out there in the world.

The National Security Language Initiative (NSLI-Y), YES, and CBYX

The NSLI-Y program was my very first study abroad experience. I had applied to NSLI-Y before I got it and was rejected, but because I had the experience of applying the first time, I knew what to expect going into it the second time. I was accepted into the NSLI-Y Korean summer program in 2018, right after I had graduated high school, and I was given a full scholarship to go to South Korea. The only things I really paid for myself were souvenirs I’d buy in Insadong or the other touristy areas.

There are two other scholarships you can apply to if you’re still in high school, but they’re for the entire academic year. YES is for Islamic countries, while CBYX is for Germany. Both are fully funded and run through the State Department (which means they’re very safe, our NSLI-Y program literally had so many rules when it came to what we could do or when we could go out), so that means they’re really well done most of the time.

The Critical Language Scholarship

The Critical Language Scholarship is the next step up from the NSLI-Y Scholarship, and it’s for those enrolled in universities. Basically, if you want to learn a language, this is your program. I applied three times before I got it for Bangla/Bengali, and at that point I had switched languages (I had originally applied for CLS for Korean). Unfortunately, I did not get to go to Kolkata because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the only program that ran the year I did it was the CLS Gwangju program in Korea.

But now they’re still running in-person as I’m writing this—although the Bangla program is no longer a thing. I’ve reapplied for Korean, as you can get multiple Critical Language Scholarships. I seriously recommend this program if you’re interested in getting better at your target language—I went from complete beginner to intermediate low/mid when it came to Bangla after completing the online Bangla program (and that’s without the immersion)!

Universities and governments sometimes have scholarships!

I think this is such an underrated tip to consider, but look at other universities for funding! I know Arizona State University has a Critical Languages Institute that has scholarships and awards to study languages under that umbrella, and some universities, like Wisconsin, have SASLI with funding to learn Indic languages.

While SASLI is in the United States, ASU definitely has opportunities abroad that I’ve seen—I almost applied to their Armenia program. I also studied Nepali virtually through the University of Washington for free during the summer, so if you’re into virtual programs, that might be a place to check out.

I addition to universities, I know some governments have initiatives to bring people to their countries. Taiwan has the Huayu scholarship, Indonesia has their own scholarship, and Oman has the SALAM scholarship. Consider looking up the country you want to go to and seeing the opportunities institutions and governments have there—a lot of these programs will cover the cost of your flight and lodging sometimes when it comes to awards.

Fulbright and Boren Fellowships

Fulbright and Boren are two competitive scholarships as well. Fulbright is one where you can get funded for an entire year to do a research project as a scholar, or spend a year teaching English to students. I personally am waiting to hear back for a chance to study in India and do an ethnographic poetry project, so fingers crossed for me!

Maybe I’ll be updating this blog post in the near future about my Fulbright experiences. Fulbright can be pretty flexible about what you want to do research wise, but for countries like India, you need to check what they’re specifically asking for in their requirements or you’re definitely not going to get the award.

I am also currently applying to Boren, but I know a lot of friends who’ve done it. Basically you get a lump sum of money for a project of your choosing, in a country you selected, in order to carry out that project. A lot of what Boren does is technically related to national security, so you have to find an angle there to make it benefit their mission.

You also have to serve in the federal government for two years upon completing your Boren, so if you don’t want to work for the government, this might not be ideal for you.

Another segway after Fulbright is the Peace Corps, but I didn’t want to get into that as it’s not really school or student related—it’s more of a job.

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