Greetings from Madison!

We hope you are all having a good end to your year! For those of you still in school, we hope the end of the semester isn't being too difficult on you. We're looking forward to welcoming students and instructors to CESSI 2024, and hope the information that follows is helpful. Please share this email with anyone who may be interested in participating in CESSI, and don't hesitate to let us know if we can be of any assistance! 

Sara Lomasz Flesch, CESSI Project Coordinator

Adam Kerznar, CESSI Project Assistant

Sara Lomasz Flesch joined UW-Madison's Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) as assistant director in September. She manages outreach programs for CREECA including the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute and Engaging Eurasia Teacher Fellowship, and assists with recruitment, advising, alumni engagement, and administration. She fondly recalls visiting Uzbekistan during her days studying abroad as a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned degrees in Russian and journalism there before earning her master's degree in Russian at the University of Arizona. Sara can be reached at lomaszflesch@wisc.edu.

Adam Kerznar started at CESSI at the end of summer 2023 as a Project Assistant. He went to school at the UW-Madison where he studied Japanese. He was lucky enough to study in Nagoya, Japan, for a year before graduating. Afterward, he taught English as a Second Language in Fuji, Japan, for three years and in Guri, South Korea, for one year before returning to his alma matter to study in the Education, Leadership, and Policy Analysis master's program with a focus on Global Higher Education. Adam can be reached at cessi@creeca.wisc.edu.

The Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute was founded in 2011 by a consortium of international and area studies centers at major U.S. universities. We're grateful for the support of these current consortium member institutions: Columbia University's Harriman Institute, Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian & Eurasian Studies, Michigan State University's Asian Studies Center and Center for European, Russian, & Eurasian Studies, The Ohio State University's East Asian Studies Center and Center for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Stanford University's Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of California-Berkeley's Institute of Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, and Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, University of Kansas' Center for East Asian Studies and Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, University of Washington's Center for Global Studies and East Asia Center, and University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Russia, East Europe, & Central Asia and Center for East Asian Studies.

CESSI welcomes students from a variety of backgrounds to apply, including working professionals, heritage speakers, and international students. Applicants do not need to currently be enrolled in an academic program to be eligible.

The CESSI Application Steps include:

For additional information and application details, click here and here.

The cost to attend CESSI in 2024 is $5,000*, which includes tuition, student fees, and expenditures for cultural events. This does not include the cost of textbooks, living expenses, health insurance, or the new-student document fee. (UW-Madison charges $130 to any student who has never taken a course at UW-Madison. Once paid in full, all CESSI students will be able to order official transcripts from UW-Madison at no additional cost.) All applicants must pay the $25 application fee to be considered for admittance. (*Note: The above fee structure does not apply to current UW-Madison Wisconsin and Minnesota resident undergraduate students. WI and MN undergraduates follow the normal UW-Madison fee structure, which can be found here.)

Four different sources of funding are available for eligible applicants: 

Students are also encouraged to explore alternative funding options available through their home institutions.

To aid you in determining which funding opportunities you are eligible for, we recommend using the CESSI Funding Quiz.

For additional information about costs and funding, click here.

A variety of resources are available on our website, including language and cultural resources, CESSI policies and procedures, UW-Madison campus resources and housing information, and more! Check out the playlist featuring music by Central Asian artists as recommended by 2021 CESSI students.

For resource links, see the drop-down menu under Resources on our website.