Many of us, young people who immigrated to the U.S. or just came here for a certain period of time, are looking for ways to fund our college education, which by the way, in the US is not cheap.

At the same time it is important to a lot of us to preserve our national identity, be cultural ambassadors of our country and educate Americans about challenges and perspectives of Belarus .

I would like to spread the word about exciting opportunity for young Belarusians to combine the two pursuits. A great way to fund a college education in the US is International Cultural Service Program (ICSP).ICSP is funded by the State of Oregon with the purpose to bring more diversity into the state. Oregon is among a few other US states where 97% of population is Caucasian white and international diversity is rare. Attracting international students to study at Oregon Universities and colleges is one of the top priorities for the state. Students selected for ICSP receive partial tuition scholarship (typically about 75% of out-of-state tuition). In return for this award, ICSP students complete 80 to 91 (depends on school) hours of cultural service per academic year (3 terms/ quarters).

This service generally takes a form of giving cultural presentations to local schools and community groups. Typically about 30 students participate in this program at any given school. Most likely there will be about 30 people from 30 different courtiers of the world. This alone makes this program a unique opportunity to meet people from all over the world and also share your background with your colleagues. Most of them are scholars, both graduate and undergraduate, with fantastic outgoing personalities and lots of stories to tell. Before you know it some of you closest pals will be from Shri-lanka , Peru or New-Zealand.

You have to hold a J-1 of F-1 visa to be eligible to apply, in other words you have to be in the status of “international” student. This opportunity is especially good if you already have a couple terms behind your belt since the program requires applicants to have at least sophomore standing and to have successfully completed at least two terms of regular coursework (not ESL) at any college or university in the U.S.

This is one of the very few scholarship opportunities for undergraduate students since undergrads usually are not eligible for teaching assistantships. At the same time this could be a chance for graduate students who were not able to get assistantships to fund their graduate education.

Both graduate and undergraduate students may apply, but the award can be used for only one degree.

Another great thing about this scholarship is that ICSP students continue receive funding until completion of their degree program, as long as they continue to meet both ICSP and degree program requirements.

Here are the schools in Oregon that have ICSP program:

University of Oregon , Eugene , OR
Oregon State University , Corvallis , OR
Southern Oregon University , Ashland , OR
Western Oregon University , Monmouth , OR
Eastern Oregon University , La Grande , OR
Portland State University , Portland , OR

You can get more information on schools websites in the section for international students’ scholarships. Many school websites have ICSP web-page. Typically deadlines are in March-April for the next academic year.

As for the quality of life in Oregon , it offers probably one of the best outdoors conditions: mountain skiing and snowboarding is one hour east and the Pacific Ocean is an hour west plus unlimited camping, hiking, white water rafting and kayaking. The biggest companies in Oregon are Nike (headquarters in Portland ) and Intel. It’s pretty close to Redmond , WA (Microsoft) and Silicon Valley . So studying in one of Oregon schools is certainly a great way to experience a different U.S and get many fantastic experiences.

And above all, you will be able to be an ambassador of your country in places where you might be the only person from Belarus that these people will ever meet. Good luck!

Iryna N.