Freeman Grant
Work, live, and learn in East Asia with support from the Freeman Grant.
Gain Real-World Experience in East Asia
The UM Experiential Learning in East Asia helps you spend at least eight weeks working full time in East Asia. Students use the funding to pursue internships with real organizations, contribute to meaningful projects, and build professional experience in the region.
The program is funded by the Freeman Foundation, whose support helps students deepen cultural understanding and strengthen connections between the United States and East Asia through lived experience.
Professional & Cultural Experience
Work in a Real-World Global Setting
Freeman grantees spend at least eight weeks working full time with organizations in East Asia. These internships give students the chance to contribute to projects, work with local colleagues, and build experience in a professional setting outside the United States.
Study Culture Through Immersion
Students do more than travel to East Asia. They live in-region, navigate daily routines, engage with local communities, and learn how culture shapes everyday decisions, relationships, and workplaces.
Receive the Funding to Support Your Journey
Freeman grantees may receive up to $9,000 to support an approved internship experience in East Asia. The grant helps make a serious international internship more attainable, giving students room to focus on the work, the place, and the experience.
Freeman Students at Work
Support Community-Based Work
Meritxell Ambrocio interned with Terra Water Indonesia, a company that manufactures ceramic water filters and supplies them to villages. Her work included blog content, social programming, and time in a remote village interacting with residents.
Build Professional Experience
Zachary Rifkin interned with Reskill in Tokyo, where he translated company materials from Japanese to English and helped improve the company’s social media presence. He also took a two-month cooking class to learn traditional Japanese dishes, making daily life part of the learning experience.
Live and Learn Across East Asia
Freeman students complete internships in places such as Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Alongside their work, students navigate daily life, spend time with local communities, and learn through the routines, places, and relationships that shape life in-region.
Meet Eligibility Requirements
Freeman grantees must be full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students at the 网曝门 in good academic standing. Applicants cannot be in their final year of school and must return to the university for at least one semester after using the grant.
Students do not need to be U.S. citizens to apply. International students may receive a grant, but they may not use the grant to intern in their home country.
There is no foreign language proficiency requirement to receive a Freeman Grant, but proficiency in a relevant language may strengthen an application.
Apply for the Freeman Grant
The Freeman Grant application asks students to explain the internship they hope to pursue, how the experience connects to their academic interests and career goals, and how they plan to engage with the culture of the country or region.
Application materials include essays, documentation of the internship or progress toward securing one, a professional or academic recommendation, a budget, a one-page resume, and an unofficial university transcript. Applications are not reviewed until all required materials are submitted.
Interested in Applying for the Freeman Grant?
Contact Chase Young before you begin to ask questions, discuss your internship plans, and understand the application process.
Chase Young
Program Manager