New Language Challenge

Help meet U.S. national security challenges, make our diplomacy more effective, and ensure our economic prosperity—all while learning a language. Find the funded language program that meets your goals at languages.state.gov.

Language Skills help you success in today's interconnected world. Read about former participants and education institutions who have benefitted from participating in U.S. government foreign language programs.

“The NSLI-Y Turkey Academic Year Program developed my Turkish language ability into a professional skill from nothing. I went to Turkey with no background or prior knowledge of the language and came away with a depth of experiences from personal relationships, language immersion, and intercultural understanding. These skills are irreplaceable in my work, helping me to find internships during college, and enabling me to find not just a full-time job, but a career path after graduation."  -- Noah Ringler, NSLI-Y (2014), Turkish

Bennett College, a historically black  college for women in Greensboro, North Carolina, strives to provide global academic experiences to its students, many of who are first-generation college students. To help achieve this goal, Bennet College hosts Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) who provide foreign language instruction and intercultural experiences to their students and their community. The college is dedicated to making sure its students have access to foreign language instruction becase "these experiences help our students be more marketable in the global economy."

Aazia Mickens-Dessaso first became interested in the intersection between social movements and technology while studying Portuguese in Brazil as a FLAS Fellow in 2013. Building off of her language and cultural skills, Aazia cofounded FreePin, a software company that provides free streams of news and other information to prepaid mobile phone subscribes in Brazil and other emerging markets. In honor of her work to help people communicate across the world, Aazia was named a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship.