CJS Summer Language Fellowships

All students who are currently enrolled in the University of Michigan in a graduate or professional degree program at the master's or doctoral level are eligible to apply. Students who are currently applying for admission to a graduate degree program are not eligible for summer funding. Students must continue in a graduate degree program at UM in the fall term following summer funding; students who expect to graduate in the winter term immediately prior to funding or at the end of the summer are not eligible.

As a general rule, students will not be awarded CJS Summer Fellowships in two consecutive summers.

Summer Language Fellowships provide up to $5000 for program fee and up to $3500 for stipend. Fellowship awards are disbursed at the beginning of the Spring-Summer term.

February 1 annually for summer programs taking place in the same year.

If you meet the eligibility guidelines for the Summer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships, please complete the Summer FLAS application.  CJS will consider you for both the Summer FLAS Fellowship and CJS Summer Language Fellowship with your Summer FLAS application.  Please go to the FLAS website for more information and applications.

If you are planning to apply for both the CJS Summer Language Fellowship and academic year fellowships (either FLAS or CJS), you may reuse the materials submitted with your Summer Language Fellowship application for the academic year application.

1. Online application form.
2. Statement of Purpose of no more than 1000 words describing what you plan to do with the fellowship.  Students who are applying for both the Summer and the Academic Year fellowships MUST propose two distinct and separate projects for the Summer and the Academic Year and must submit a separate statement of purpose for each application.  As a general rule, if a continuation of the Summer Fellowship project is proposed in the Academic Year Fellowship, even if it is the next phase of the project, only one fellowship may be funded.
3. Budget Statement: Please attach a budget statement with reasonable estimates of costs.  You may request tuition and mandatory fees, health insurance, living costs, direct research expenses (such as books, photocopy, small equipment, library and museum fees, and subject fees) as well as travel expenses related to your language study (such as airfare, ground transportation, and lodging).  Computers, including laptops, are not allowed.  If you are requesting living costs, please provide an estimate of rent, utilities, and food.  If you are requesting direct research expenses or travel expenses, please give a detailed breakdown.  Please note that if your fellowship project involves travel outside of North America, you are required to purchase international travel health insurance.  Please include the cost of this insurance in your budget.
4. Two academic letters of recommendation.  Academic letters of recommendation must be completed by instructors of content courses and NOT by a language instructor.  At least one academic recommendation should be completed by a U-M affiliated instructor.  You must provide information about your recommenders and request recommendations through the online portal.  Once the appropriate tasks are completed on the online portal, an automated email message requesting a recommendation will be sent to the recommender.   Non-UM recommenders will be asked to first create a U-M Friend Account to complete the recommendation on the online portal (instructions will be sent in the request email).  Letters must be current (within last 3 months).
5. Curriculum Vitae (CV)
6. Current UM Official Transcript: You may check the appropriate check box on the application form to grant permission to the CJS staff to access electronically your current UM transcript and to place a copy in your fellowship application file.  If you choose NOT to do so, you must submit a current official UM transcript.  To be considered official, transcripts must be prepared by the office of the registrar.  Transcripts that are "issued to the student" must be brought to CJS in the original envelope with the seal unbroken.
7. Official transcripts from your undergraduate degree and non-UM graduate degree institution(s), and other institutions where you completed relevant language and Japanese Studies coursework (such as summer language programs and study abroad): You may check the appropriate check box on the application form to grant permission to the CJS staff to access electronically any undergraduate and other graduate degree transcript(s) submitted with your admission application to CJS or another Rackham graduate program.  If you choose NOT to do so, or if you did NOT submit these transcripts at the time of admission, you must submit official transcript(s) from your undergraduate degree institution, non-UM graduate degree institution(s), and other post-secondary institutions where you completed relevant language and Japanese Studies coursework, such as summer language programs and study abroad programs.  To be considered official, transcripts must be prepared by the office of the registrar.  Transcripts that are "issued to the student" must be brought to CJS in the original envelope with the seal unbroken.
8. Language Instructor Recommendation.  You must provide information about your recommender and request a recommendation through the online portal.  Once the appropriate tasks are completed on the online portal, an automated email message requesting a recommendation will be sent to the recommender. If you are currently studying or have previously studied Japanese, you should have your current or most recent Japanese instructor or tutor to complete this form.  The same person may NOT complete both the academic letter of recommendation AND the language evaluation, even if this person is qualified to do both.

Apply using the CJS Summer Language Fellowship online application on the International Institute Fellowships and Grants online portal. 

Awards are typically announced in mid to late March by letter.  CJS does not respond to inquiries about competition outcomes by telephone or email.

Students who are awarded summer fellowships are required to complete a short fellowship report summarizing their activities and expenses. Reports are due on September 30. Fellowship recipients will be sent an email with instructions when the online portal is ready to accept reports.

• Narrative Report (Free format; PDF or Word): Please write a narrative report of about 500 words of your activities during the fellowship period.  In the narrative, explain any changes that you made to activities proposed in your fellowship application statement of purpose.
• Expense Report (Download Excel Template): Please provide a summary of your project-related expenses.  You do not need to itemize expenses beyond the categories listed in the template.  Receipts do not need to be attached to this report but we strongly recommend that you keep them for your records.  We may ask to see them if there are any questions, or if there is an audit.