Overview
The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, provides merit-based scholarships for eligible high school students and recent high school graduates to learn less commonly taught languages in summer and academic-year overseas immersion programs.
NSLI-Y is part of a U.S. government initiative that prepares American citizens to be leaders in a global world. Now more than ever, it is important that Americans have the necessary linguistic skills and cultural knowledge to promote international dialogue and support American engagement abroad. NSLI-Y aims to provide opportunities to American youth that will spark a lifetime interest in language learning.
NSLI-Y programs offer intensive language immersion in a variety of locations around the world. Beginners are welcome to apply for any of the target languages.
Scholarships are available for students to learn the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Persian (Tajiki), Russian, and Turkish.
Programs may take place in the following locations: China, Estonia, India, Jordan, Korea, Latvia, Moldova, Morocco, Oman, Russia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and other locations around the world.