Add value to your master's education and gain practical experience

In addition to merit based funding awarded competitively to SIS applicants, external funding opportunities are available to expand the education opportunities for CRS students. Examples of organizations offering internships to CRS graduate students, both domestically and abroad, are also listed.

Fellowship Opportunities

Fellowships are a great way to help fund your master's program. They may also help you make career connections that will become useful in the future. 

Global CRS offers the Dean's Award for European Studies to help offset travel and living expenses while in region for the first spring and summer semesters. The number of awards corresponds with the number of students enrolled in Global CRS: Europe.

All students applying for the CRS program with the Global CRS option are eligible for funding. Students must be accepted and enroll in Global CRS to receive the funding.

  • The Boren Graduate Fellowship supports students pursuing the study of languages, cultures, and world regions that are critical to US interests. Boren Fellowships are merit-based. The maximum level of support for a combined overseas and domestic program is $30,000. Study of a foreign language appropriate to the identified country or region must be an integral part of each application proposal. American University's deadline for this award is in late January. To learn more about the Boren Fellowship, contact the Office of Merit Awards at 202-885-1854 or meritawards@american.edu.
  • The Critical Language Scholarship Program is a fully-funded summer overseas language and cultural immersion program for American undergraduate and graduate students. With the goal of broadening the base of Americans studying critical languages and building relationships between the people of the United States and other countries, CLS provides opportunities to a diverse range of students from across the United States at every level of language learning. The CLS Program is a program of the US Department of State.
  • The Fulbright US Student Program offers research, study and teaching opportunities in over 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students. The program includes several types of awards, the most common being the the Fulbright Study/Research Award, a traditional award opportunity where a candidate designs a proposal for a specific country, and the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program, which places grantees in schools overseas to supplement local English language instruction and to provide a native speaker presence in the classrooms. To learn more about the Fulbright, contact the Office of Merit Awards at 202-885-1854 or meritawards@american.edu.
  • The Adel Ait-Ghezala Graduate Research Fellowship is available to graduate students who are full-time enrolled students in a master's or doctoral program at American University. The fellowships are intended to support applied, educational, or policy-relevant research programs designed to improve the lives of the citizens of developing countries. This is a competitive fellowship. Students must be making satisfactory academic progress (SAP) toward their degrees in order to be eligible. To learn more, contact the Office of Graduate Studies and Research at 202-885-3753 or gradstudies@american.edu.
  • The DACOR Bacon House Foundation Fellowship offers $10,000 tuition-only grants for study toward a master's degree in international affairs. Typically, 11 schools participate in this program, including American University's School of International Service, and nominate three candidates based on merit. The Education Committee then interviews the nominees and selects one winner from each participating school.

Internship Opportunities

Located in one of the world’s leading centers of international interaction, CRS encourages students to participate in the unique internship opportunities available in DC and abroad.

Non-Profits

  • American Red Cross
  • AMIDEAST
  • Asia Society
  • Asociación Iberoamericana de Derecho a la Salud (AIDAS)
  • The Atlantic Council
  • Brookings Institution
  • CATO Institute
  • The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
  • The European Institute
  • German Marshall Fund
  • Human Rights Watch
  • International Republican Institute
  • Internews (Bosnia)
  • Jewish Policy Center
  • Kyoto News
  • Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
  • Meridian International Center
  • US-Asia Institute
  • The Youth Advocacy Program International

Public Service

  • Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies
  • Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)
  • Peace Corps
  • US Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
  • US embassies (Austria, Czech Republic)
  • US government agencies (Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Commerce, and CIA)
  • US Mission to Brussels
  • Woodrow Wilson Center

Private Companies

  • Church World Service
  • Coca-Cola, Inc.
  • Digital Chosun Inc.
  • Ernst & Young