National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) | 1,838 followers on LinkedIn. NSLI-Y provides merit scholarships for U.S. HS students to study critical languages in overseas immersion programs. | The U.S. Department of State’s NSLI-Y program is part of a U.S. government initiative to foster international cooperation by ensuring that Americans have the linguistic skills and cultural knowledge necessary to effectively communicate. NSLI-Y provides overseas critical language study opportunities to American youth through merit-based scholarships to spark a lifetime interest in critical foreign languages and cultures.