The University Center for International Studies (UCIS) is pleased to announce the competition for undergraduate Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships for the University of Pittsburgh 2019-2020 Academic Year. The FLAS Fellowship is a prestigious award that enables the recipient to devote full time to undergraduate study. For AY 2019-2020, the UCIS Centers that have been selected by the US Department of Education to distribute FLAS Fellowships are the Asian Studies Center (ASC); the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES); and the European Studies Center (ESC). For students with interests in these world regions,  the University of Pittsburgh will offer academic year instruction in the following FLAS-eligible languages: Arabic, Bosnian/ Croatian/ Serbian, Mandarin Chinese, Greek (Modern), Hebrew (Modern), Hungarian, Irish Gaelic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

FLAS Fellowships are authorized under Title VI of the Higher Education Act and are administered by the US Department of Education. The purpose of the FLAS Fellowship program is: “To assist in the development of knowledge, resources, and trained personnel for modern foreign language and area studies, to stimulate the attainment of foreign language acquisition and fluency, and to develop a pool of international experts to meet national needs.” Therefore, these fellowships may only be awarded to US citizens or US permanent residents.

What is the FLAS Fellowship for Undergraduate Students?

The Academic Year FLAS Fellowship for undergraduate students provides awardees with a tuition scholarship of up to $10,000, in addition to a stipend of approximately $5,000. In some cases, the fellowship may be supplemented with funding from other sources. Students who have other sources of funding for the 2019-2020 academic year should contact the appropriate center before applying for this fellowship. 

Applicants for FLAS awards will receive priority consideration if they are enrolled in a UCIS Undergraduate Certificate program offered by the center (ASC, ESC, or REEES) to which they are applying. If not enrolled at the time of application, FLAS recipients will be expected to enroll in the relevant center's certificate program once awarded. FLAS Fellowships are only given to students who have a minimum 3.0 QPA and will be studying a FLAS-eligible language at the intermediate level (second year) or above and taking at least one approved area studies course per term during AY 2019-2020. Important factors in the review of applications will include overall quality of the student’s academic record, relevance of the FLAS Fellowship target language to the student’s plan of study and career goals, and relevance of the target language to the understanding of a specific world region covered by the center making the FLAS award.

The application deadline is February 15, 2021, and applicants will be notified of award decisions by the end of March. Fellowships are contingent on UCIS centers’ receipt of federal grant funds from the US Department of Education.

Please note all students must submit copies of transcripts from all undergraduate institutions to the relevant UCIS center to be considered for FLAS funding.