Pre-Capstone Study Abroad

IU summer overseas programs

In order to be better prepared for Capstone Year, Flagship students are required to spend a summer abroad studying Russian. Students discuss their pre-Capstone study abroad plans with Flagship stuff during their advising sessions throughout the year. Various info sessions and workshops are also helpful in discovering different study abroad opportunities and programs.

To fulfill the Flagship requirement, the pre-capstone study abroad program must:

  1. Be an intensive Russian language program conducted at an official secondary institution.
  2. Be at least eight weeks long
  3. Include a homestay.

We recommend that students participate in either one of the programs offered by the Advanced Russian Language & Area Studies Program (RLASP), or the University of Georgia's program in Riga, Latvia, because they meet all of the above criteria and they are administered by our partners at American Councils for International Education.

RLASP has Russian language program locations in Almaty, Kazakhstan; Tallinn, Estonia; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Yerevan, Armenia.

All of these programs are (or are in the process of becoming) official IU co-sponsored summer study abroad programs, and Flagship students are eligible for Flagship funding to attend them.

Non-IU summer programs abroad

Russian Flagship students can also study abroad in one of the many non-IU summer programs such as the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program. While most students opt to study abroad in the summer, some choose to attend semester-long programs like those offered by RLASP.

As long as the non-IU program (summer or semester-long) meets the Flagship criteria listed above, then it satisfies as the pre-Capstone study abroad experience. Other than the University of Georgia Immersion in the Russian Language, Culture, and Communities in the Baltics Program (IRLCCB) in Riga, Flagship funding cannot be used for non-IU programs or semester-long programs.

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