FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND AREA STUDIES (FLAS)
2008-09 Fellowship Competition

Application Procedures:

The Middle East Studies Center (MESC) at The Ohio State University (OSU) is seeking applications for fellowships for Summer Quarter 2008 and Academic Year 2008-2009 under the U. S. Department of Education’s Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program. Languages for which awards will be made through MESC are Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. Applicants are responsible for contacting the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department to establish that their requested level of language instruction will be offered in 2008-09. Please note: the awarding of FLAS fellowships is dependent upon the availability of U.S. Dept. of Education Title VI funding.

These fellowships are available to graduate and professional students in any department who are pursuing a course of study which requires advanced foreign language and area studies training. The fellowships are expected to carry a stipend of $15,000 for the three quarters of the academic year and $2,500 for the Summer Quarter. These awards also carry an authorization for OSU tuition, and partial fees. All applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Priority is given to students who intend to undertake advanced language study, but who have not yet achieved native language competence. FLAS Awards are restricted to students who remain under 260 credit hours of study in their graduate program during the tenure of their fellowship. U.S. government regulations require that all FLAS applicants applying for a travel reimbursement (only available for summer FLAS Fellowships) comply with the provisions appearing in the Fly America Act. Specifically, all tickets for overseas flights purchased with U.S. Dept. of Education funds must be ticketed by a U.S. carrier please confirm with the American carrier that the flight numbers on the ticket will be their flight numbers.

As FLAS Fellowships are based on language, all recipients must be enrolled in appropriate language courses every quarter during the tenure of the fellowship in addition to area studies courses, unless permission is granted to fulfill the language requirement via dissertation research. Dissertation research permission may only be granted to those who have studied their FLAS language for the equivalent of at least 3 academic years (one summer intensive program may count as one full academic year). Students applying for dissertation research must plan to remain enrolled full time, and must be able to demonstrate that they are using the language of the fellowship award in their research. Summer FLAS Fellows are not eligible for dissertation research.

All academic-year award recipients must register for a minimum of 15 credit hours, which must include at least one classroom-taught, 5 credit hour language course per quarter (in the FLAS award language) in addition to area studies and regular degree courses. Summer fellowships are awarded for intensive language study only. Intensive programs eligible for support must provide the equivalent of a full year of language study with at least 140 contact/classroom hours of instruction, and for a duration of at least 6 weeks. Individualized instruction, dissertation research and audited classes are ineligible for a summer FLAS. Subject to approval, summer fellowships may be used for intensive language study at institutions other than OSU, including study abroad programs (only fellows at the intermediate level or higher are eligible to enroll in an overseas program). In such cases, applicants must also submit a study abroad application to the Office of Study Abroad (applications are available at 100 Oxley Hall - or
oia.ohio-state.edu/application.html), provide itemized data on tuition, fees, room and board expenses, and a travel itinerary (see application's Language Instruction Budget Estimate form). Summer award recipients must enroll in courses which will transfer a minimum of 15 quarter credit hours to their OSU transcript.

With some exceptions, OSU students may enroll at Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) member institutions (the 11 members of the Big Ten conference, the University of Illinois-Chicago, and the University of Chicago), utilizing the fee authorization which accompanies each FLAS Fellowship award. Fellows may also apply for the CIC Foreign Language Enhancement Program (FLEP) which provides scholarships to cover additional expenses incurred while attending another CIC host institution during the summer session, in addition to their FLAS Fellowship. Link to application: http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/programs/FLEP/archive/ResourceList/2007%20FLEP%20application.pdf

DEADLINE: Applications must be postmarked, or the tracking record must show a pick up date no later than Friday, February 1, 2008 for both Summer 2008 and Academic Year 2008-2009 fellowship applications. Note: there are two separate applications for Academic Year and Summer FLAS Fellowships (see heading at the top of each page). U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, or DHL may be utilized, but do NOT use Campus Mail. If sending from an international location, use the express service. If you can not, or will not deliver your application by mail, please see the last page of this application for instructions for hand-delivery. No consideration will be given to application forms that are incomplete or improperly filled out. The Middle East Studies Center may be contacted at 614-292-5897, or mesc@osu.edu for any questions.

A complete application includes the following:

  1. The completed Application Form for MESC FLAS fellowships (no consideration will be given to forms that are incomplete or improperly filled out). There is a link to the application below.
  2. An official up-to-date transcript of all graduate courses taken and grades received (Note: first-year graduate students should also submit official undergraduate transcripts). Applicants for both summer and academic year fellowships need only submit one set of transcripts. Only official transcripts will be accepted—even for studies completed at OSU.
  3. Any relevant graduate examinations scores: GRE,GMAT, LSAT. The supporting documentation should be sent to the Graduate School—250/247 University Hall, 230 N. Oval Mall.
  4. A one-page single-spaced Statement of Intent describing how the fellowship would contribute to your academic and career development (see page 3 of both the Summer and AY applications).
  5. Three letters of reference from faculty members familiar with the student's work, including language capability. Comment on language capability is required. Applicants for both summer and academic year fellowships need only submit one set of references.
  6. Completed Summer and Academic Year Language Instruction Budget Estimate forms. Note: For students applying to summer programs abroad or domestic programs, all information regarding budget and program application contact information must be included with the FLAS application, in addition to detailed flight itineraries if an overseas program is chosen for summer.

Application forms and other materials should be sent by mail, postmarked, or the tracking record must show a pick up date, no later than February 1, 2008, to the following address:

Middle East Studies Center
2008-09 FLAS Competition
321 Oxley Hall
1712 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH 43210-1219

E-mailed or faxed applications will NOT be accepted.

FLAS Application for the 2008-09 Competition: http://mesc.osu.edu/documents/FLAS/FLAS_2008-09_App-MidEast.pdf

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