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Scholarships

About / Scholarships

Current Scholarships

Program Scholarships

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Teaching Tools Grant

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Lilly Lorénzen Scholarship

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Program Scholarships

ASI is committed to removing financial barriers to our programs for anyone who needs assistance; any individual may apply for up to $400 of financial assistance per year. We also warmly welcome students from under-represented backgrounds into all Nordic Handcraft, Nordic Table, and Language classes at a reduced tuition cost.

For more information, please email Britta Walstrom, Program Manager.

Apply for a Scholarship for Students from Underrepresented Communities

Apply for Financial Assistance for all Programs

Cultivating Nordic Craft: Teaching Tools Grant

Applications open April 15–May 15, 2024

This grant provides a one-time award of up to $1,000 worth of tools and equipment to expand the teaching capacity for an emerging craft instructor. This grant aims to cultivate craft education in the Swedish slöjd (handcraft) tradition by investing in the next generation of craft practitioners and instructors. ASI believes that investing in individual instructors is an important way to preserve Nordic handcraft traditions and create innovation in the handcraft community, because it allows instructors to gain experience and share knowledge while increasing their capacity to teach widely across many institutions.

The strongest applicants will have several years of teaching experience, will address the viability of creating a long term and potentially varied teaching curriculum with such teaching tools, will enable the instructor to teach a full size class (usually 6-15 students), and will demonstrate teaching relationships with several institutions. It is assumed and encouraged that awardees will use their awarded teaching tools for teaching opportunities beyond ASI.

For more information, please email Erin Swenson-Klatt, ASI Food & Handcraft Coordinator.

Apply for a Teaching Tools Grant

To be eligible to apply for this grant, you must be at least 18 years old and be a resident of the U.S. Applicants should be emerging/early career instructors who can demonstrate they have teaching experience, proposed coursework that will benefit from an investment in teaching tools, and a long term commitment to teaching. Both professional (full time) and non-professional (part time) instructors are encouraged to apply.

ASI defines Nordic Handcraft as contemporary or traditional crafts related to or inspired by the geography and cultures of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, inclusive of the peoples who have moved to and from those places from pre-history to present day. Applicants from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Please see our website for the current selection of coursework we offer.

Applications are accepted once each calendar year.

In 2024:
Applications open on April 15, 2024
Applications due by May 15, 2024

Notifications will be sent in early June. Two or more grants will be awarded.

Applicants are welcome to email Erin Swenson-Klatt, ASI Food & Handcraft Coordinator, with questions throughout the course of the application period.

Awards are provided in the form of the purchase of teaching tools through ASI. Awardees must commit to teaching a minimum of two workshops (half day or more) at the American Swedish Institute between November 2024 and October 2025. ASI may offer other programmatic opportunities (e.g. demonstrating during events, representing ASI at off-site programs, etc.) for awardees. ASI will compensate the awardee for all programming at the regular contract instructor rate.

For questions and more information, please email Erin Swenson-Klatt, ASI Food & Handcraft Coordinator.

Lilly Lorénzen Scholarship

Applications for 2024 are open until May 1, 2024. 

Awarded to one individual each year, this competitive scholarship provides $2000 for academic and/or professional studies abroad in Sweden.

The scholarship was established in 1980 by friends, students, and relatives of Lilly Lorénzen, the late Swedish-language instructor who taught at both the University of Minnesota and the American Swedish Institute and author of the book Of Swedish Ways. She was also a respected builder of Swedish heritage in America.

To apply, please fill out the application and email a copy to ASI.

For more information, please email to Britta Walstrom, ASI Programs Manager.

Applicants must be Minnesota residents not currently living in Sweden, demonstrate achievement in their field of study, have a working knowledge of the Swedish language, present a credible plan for scholarly or creative study in Sweden during the relevant school year, and contribute to American-Swedish exchange.

Applications for 2024 are open until May 1, 2024.

Interviews will be conducted Mid-May.

Formal announcement will be made at ASI’s Midsommar celebration.