In 2014, I had the honor of attending the White House Travel Bloggers Summit on Study Abroad and Global Engagement, which marked the U.S. government’s new initiative to encourage and assist more Americans of all economic levels to travel and study internationally.
At this conference, I was thrilled to learn of a website answering the main question I get from readers:
“Where can I find grants for free international travel programs, whether I’m a U.S. citizen or not?”
The remarkable website I am referring to is: https://exchanges.state.gov, and it is the International Exchange Programs homepage for the United States Department of State.
Let me walk you through this site’s beautiful parts. First, as you can see from the screenshot above, the first thing you do is pick whether you’re a U.S. citizen wanting to travel internationally, or a non-citizen wanting to do an exchange to the United States. There are great opportunities for both categories! Next, you will see the following search widget:
This widget allows you to narrow down your search to the travel programs that match YOU, and as you can see from the screenshot above, there are exchanges for students, teachers, professionals, and even athletes!
I can’t believe I didn’t know about this powerful tool before. If you don’t have a “Program Location” that calls to you, just leave the location field blank, and the results page will display programs all over the world.
Below is an example search results page I got when inputting that I was a college student from Tunisia. As you can see, there are ample opportunities for everyone!
I am so excited about this new U.S. initiative to encourage more travel exchanges, and I can’t wait for you all to try out this fabulous website! Do check out https://exchanges.state.gov today, and report back in the comments section of this article about how the search tool works for you, whether you apply for any of these exchanges, and if you end up getting in and going!

The author, Lillie Marshall, is a 6-foot-tall National Board Certified Teacher of English from Boston who has been a public school educator since 2003. She launched TeachingTraveling.com in 2010 to share expert global education resources, and over 1.6 million readers have visited over the past decade. Lillie also runs AroundTheWorld L.com Travel and Life Blog, and DrawingsOf.com for educational art. Do stay in touch via subscribing to her monthly newsletter, and following @WorldLillie on social media!
Marc
Sunday 1st of November 2015
Thanks Lillie. This is great and I knew few people who could benefit this. I have been traveling around the world for over 5 years and I love traveling and my babies got the same travel bug so we all keep traveling. My wife is a traveling nurse and I am a web designer. we keep traveling.
Lillie
Tuesday 3rd of November 2015
I love it, Marc! Keep up your passion!
Mary @ Green Global Travel
Thursday 1st of January 2015
Wow, this is a great tool! That's great that they also include scholarships for those who are no longer students too! Thanks for sharing this!
Lillie of TeachingTraveling.com
Thursday 1st of January 2015
You're welcome! I was also so thrilled to see that there are programs for EVERYONE!