Free Travel Exchange Scholarships from the U.S. Government!

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!