This Week in Education Abroad: Attend a Critical Language Scholarship Program Information Sessions

Critical Language Program Information Sessions This Week

The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program delivers intensive summer language instruction to high-achieving undergraduate and graduate students, selected through a competitive, merit-based process. Offered in nine languages overseas or virtually, the program condenses a full academic year of language study into eight weeks of rigorous instruction and cultural immersion. The CLS Program is a U.S. Department of State program and is supported in its implementation by American Councils for International Education. The CLS Program is committed to expanding access to intensive language instruction and cultural immersion opportunities for students from a wide range of backgrounds and institutions. American undergraduate and graduate students can apply to study one of nine critical languages through intensive virtual and overseas summer institutes.

• Critical Language Scholarship: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Languages and Cultures
  Wednesday, October 14th | 3:30PM-4:30PM | Virtual

• Critical Language Scholarship: Arabic, Persian, and Russian Languages and Cultures
  Thursday, October 15th | 3:30PM-4:30PM | Virtual

• Critical Language Scholarship:Hindi, Portuguese, and Swahili Languages and Cultures
  Thursday, October 15th | 4PM-5PM | Virtual

 

Summer 2026 Faculty-Led Programs

The Education Abroad Office is excited to announce FIFTEEN faculty-led programs for Summer 2026. We have programs across five continents, fourteen countries, and fifteen academic departments. There are courses that will count towards your degree and satisfy Arts and Humanities, Culture, and Social Science General Education Program (GEP) requirements! Whatever you are looking for, there is something for you! Check out all of our faculty-led programs on our website, and stay tuned for their program brochures!

 

Meet Our New Education Abroad Director: Ali Janicek

Ali Janicek joins UMBC with more than 20 years of experience in education abroad, most recently as Assistant Dean at Franklin & Marshall College. She knows firsthand what it's like to be a student abroad. She participated in summer programs in Oaxaca and Mexico City and spent a semester at the Universidad Autónoma in Heredia, Costa Rica. Those invaluable experiences shaped her career and her belief that global learning creates a more just, sustainable, and secure world.

Originally from the tiny town of Smiley, Texas, Ali holds a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a master's in Global Affairs. She lives in Lancaster, PA, with her husband, young son, and their sweet dog, Ella. In her rare free time, you can usually find her at a yoga studio.

Fun fact: Ali founded "The Smiley T-shirt Project" in 2013, printing and distributing hundreds of Smiley T-shirts that traveled the globe. She used pictures of the T-shirts in a wide variety of countries to teach K-12 students in Smiley about the world. By 2016, the T-shirts had traveled to all 7 continents!

Ali looks forward to helping every Retriever find a global learning experience that fits their goals, whether that's oceans away or closer to home.

 

Upcoming Deadlines and Recurring Events

• Study Abroad 101 Sessions
  Friday | 11am-12pm | Virtual

• Critical Language Scholarship Application Deadline - Tuesday, November 17
  The CLS Program delivers intensive summer language instruction to high-achieving undergraduate and graduate students, selected through a competitive, merit-based process. Offered in nine languages overseas or virtually, the program condenses a full academic year of language study into eight weeks of rigorous instruction and cultural immersion. The CLS Program is a U.S. Department of State program and supported in its implementation by American Councils for International Education.