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Important Dates

March 14: Deadline to DROP a full semester course
March 14: Deadline to elect GRADE REPLACEMENT for a full semester course
March 15-23: SPRING BREAK

Calling All Graduating Seniors!

If you expect to graduate in May or August you are invited to participate in the English & Creative Writing Convocation in May.  Please read on to ensure that you know all about when, where, and how you can register for our ceremony and/or the universitywide ceremony and order regalia.  

English & Creative Writing Convocation: Saturday, May 17, 5 pm, Smith Memorial Hall

Universitywide Commencement: Saturday, May 17, 9:30 am, Memorial Stadium

Please note that you must have regalia (aka “cap and gown”) to participate in any ceremony.  Information about how to rent your cap and gown can be found here. 

Questions about the English department ceremony should be sent to englishadvising@illinois.edu.  Questions about the universitywide ceremony, or about regalia, should be sent to commencement@illinois.edu.   

Job Opportunities– A Deadline is TODAY!

Orientation Leaders
New Student and Family Experiences is looking for undergraduate students to serve as Orientation Leaders to help us welcome our Fall 2025 new students!  The position description and application link are here.  

Peer Advisors
The Division of General Studies (soon to be Exploratory Studies) is hiring Summer Peer Advisors! This is a great opportunity for undergraduate students looking to develop their leadership, communication, and mentorship skills while supporting incoming students during New Student Registration (NSR).

Applicants must be in good academic standing and available for training in May after final exams and to work during NSR in June–early July.

Students do not have to be former DGS students to apply, but an understanding of the ICT process is beneficial. More details, including the application link, can be found here: Summer Peer Advisor Information.

Applications are due Friday, March 7 at 5pm.

Undergraduate Research Symposium App Deadline TODAY!

The URS is the signature event of Undergraduate Research Week (April 20 – 26), which brings together students, faculty, and staff from all disciplines on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, as well as the public, to learn more about undergraduate research and its potential to change the world. Throughout the day, students will present their oral and poster presentations, creative performances, and interactive exhibits to members of the campus and local community.

• When: Thursday, April 24, 2025
• Where: Illini Union (A, B, C, South Lounge, and the 2nd Floor)
• Application Deadline: Friday, March 7, 2025 at 11:59 pm

Visit the URS webpage for more information, including answers to frequently asked questions.

Applications are currently being accepted. The deadline for applying to the URS is Friday, March 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm and no late submissions will be accepted. Please note, your presentation is not expected to be complete by the application deadline. On the application, you will only be asked to provide a tentative title that can be revised until March 19 and an abstract which will be used internally by OUR to create and organize thematic sessions. Your abstract will not be published or viewed by anyone other than OUR.

Spring Break Professional Development Opportunity

If you will be in the Chicagoland area over spring break, please join LAS Career Services for an employer site visit to Feldco in Rosemont, IL, on Thursday, March 20. 

Feldco is an exterior home improvement company in Rosemont, IL The CEO, Doug Cook, is an LAS alumnus (communications major, followed by an MBA from Northwestern) who is eager to connect with current LAS students. This site visit is an opportunity to see how liberal arts and sciences skills can lead to success in a business environment — and to learn about employment opportunities in the Feldco corporate headquarters. All years and LAS majors are welcome!

Register on Handshake (advance registration is required.

Here’s the agenda for the visit:

• Meet in the main lobby of Feldco (6300 N River Rd Suite 600, Rosemont, IL) at 10:00am!
• 10:00am – 10:15am: get settled – snacks, coffee
• 10:15am – 10:45am: office tour
• 11:00am – 12pm: welcome, presentation about the company, Q&A
• 12pm – 1pm: networking lunch (provided by Feldco)
• 1pm to 2pm: panel conversation with UIUC alumni/informational interviews with staff in small groups
• 2pm to 2:15pm: closing remarks.

Dress code is business casual (pants/trousers with a collared shirt or office-appropriate top — no jeans, sweats, or logos).

Some background: Feldco CEO Doug Cook on the commercial jingle that is vital to the company’s success | WGN Radio 720 – Chicago’s Very Own 

Email Kirstin Wilcox at kwilcox@illinois.edu if you have questions!

NEW SECOND 8-WEEK COURSE OPTION

English 103, Introduction to Fiction, taught by Peter Mortensen

What good is fiction in a world hungry for truth? We’ll search for answers on familiar ground: the college campus. Fiction about collegiate life abounds. We’ll study it by reading novels and short stories that challenge us to imagine our place and ourselves differently, which is to say critically. The critical imagination sparked by fiction can reveal larger truths about humanity and its institutions. These truths may be beautiful or ugly, lasting or fleeting, comforting or disturbing, broadly accepted or sharply contested. Whatever the case, finding truths in fiction requires a particular kind of reading: close reading. The techniques and vocabulary of close reading will equip us to make arguments in writing, arguments aimed at persuading others to share (or at least appreciate) our understanding of what we have read. Fiction on the syllabus includes Jean Hanff Korelitz’s Admission, Richard Powers’ Galatea 2.2, Weike Wang’s Chemistry, and Richard Russo’s Straight Man. With Admission and Straight Man, we’ll use close reading to evaluate what happens when the truths of prose fiction are adapted for presentation to mass audiences on screen.

Upcoming ESA Event

Upcoming LAS Career Events

• Career Lab: Seniors, Jumpstart Your Future March 11, 12:30-2:30 in 2043 Lincoln Hall. LAS SENIORS: get help with your year search! (Register for a light lunch). Not sure what you’re doing after you graduate in December or May? Need help getting started? Bring your laptop, your questions, your uncertainty, drafts of documents you’re working on (resumes, cover letters, grad school statements). Staff is on hand to answer questions and offer guidance. Have lunch and meet others wrestling with the same challenges! We will provide a light lunch for those who attend. Register in Handshake to help us estimate food for this event.
• Spring break employer site visits: March 20 Feldco (Rosemont, IL) with summer work in HQ for all LAS MAJORS (CEO is LAS alum) and in Chicago on March 19 (PepsiCo), and sign-ups are open now. **These are only open to LAS Undergrads, with a 15-person cap for each visit.
• GREAT NEWS- Free Test Prep: Prepare For Illinois’ Future Powered by Kaplan’s All Access Program. Current Illinois students have free access to a large range of Kaplan’s test preparation classes. Whether you are planning a graduate or professional school, or looking to obtain a professional certification, you can take the next step in your career journey with the support of this program. Just use your NetID to log in to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign portal on Kaplan’s Illinois All Access site to get started. (* Funding for this opportunity is due to a specific State of Illinois appropriation in FY25.) Note: For teacher licensure exams, visit our ILTS Free Practice Tests page to learn about free vouchers and practice tests available in partnership with Pearson.
  • Other Events:
• Leveraging LinkedIn for Networking, March 11th, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Arcade Building 715 South Wright Street
• Keep Calm and Ask DadMarch 12th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Campus Instructional Facility, 1405 W. Springfield, Room 3025 (food provided)
• Finding an Internship March 26th, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm 715 South Wright Street

Help with Research

The Lost Books of Medieval England: March 11th at 5pm

Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop 

June 23 – July 25, 2025: Online 

ONLINE INFO SESSION MARCH 12, 5 p.m. PST

The Los Angeles Review of Books is now accepting applications for the 2025 LARB Publishing Workshop. 

A five-week intensive summer course, the LARB Publishing Workshop prepares students to succeed in careers in the ever-changing, seemingly inaccessible business of publishing. From June 23 – July 25, Workshop Fellows will learn from the industry professionals shaping print and digital publishing today. Speakers include N Rebecca Saletan (Riverhead), Christie Henry (Princeton University Press), Lori Dorr (The Paris Review) Katie Dublinski (Graywolf), Jamia Wilson (Penguin Random House), Gerald Maa (The Georgia Review), Adam Levi (Transit Books), among others. 

In addition to participating in lectures and workshops featuring over 50 guest speakers, Fellows will have the opportunity to join one of two practical tracks dedicated to magazine and book production. These will culminate in the publication of our online magazine PubLab or books of their own design. This combination of practical skills, industry insights, and creative networks have helped Workshop Fellows start their own ventures or build careers in publishing. Since our inaugural program in 2017, alumni have gone on to jobs at journals, agencies, and presses such as Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Bookends Literary Agency, Harvard University Press, Penguin-Random House, Harper’s Magazine, Stanford University Press, The Getty Research Institute, The PEN Faulkner Foundation, and many more. 

The program is open to undergraduates completing their degree by December 2025, those who have recently graduated, current graduate students, and people with relevant experience and interest in entering the publishing industry. Need-based scholarships are available, in keeping with our mission of accessibility, and we regularly partner with colleges and universities to provide fellowships for their students to attend. The Publishing Workshop is conducted virtually and does not require travel to Los Angeles. 

Apply now through April 1. For more information and applications visit www.larbpublishingworkshop.org. 

You can listen to 2024 Fellows talk about their experience here: https://youtu.be/TXTV_5W-haY?si=ogx7GBoBKRu6r20A

LARB staff and recent alumni will hold info sessions with time for Q&A on  Wednesday, March 12 at 5 p.m. PST. Register here: https://larbpublishingworkshop.org/how-to-apply/info-sessions/ 

For questions about the workshop, please contact us at publishingworkshop@lareviewofbooks.org.

A Conversation with Darcie Little Badger

Meet Lipan Apache author Darcie Little Badger as she discusses her novels Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth and what inspires her. An audience Q&A and a book signing will follow the discussion.

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. It is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family.

Her third book, Sheine Lende, is the prequel to Elatsoe, which is centered on Ellie’s grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie’s one-of-a-kind world, and introduces us to another cast of characters who will wend their way around readers’ hearts.

Darcie is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting; she is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

This event is supported by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Native American House and generously sponsored by The Urbana Free Library Foundation.

Junior Quinn Award 2025

The Junior Quinn Award recognizes achievement and potential in Creative Writing MAJORS or minors with junior class standing by awarding one or more recipients with financial support to attend a writing workshop or conference. This year’s prize will be issued as a flat $1000.
We recognize that it is not always easy to determine eligibility. If you are not technically a Junior this academic year but plan to graduate no earlier than December 2025 and no later than December 2026, you may be eligible. If you have any questions about your eligibility, check with our wonderful Undergraduate Advisors at englishadvising@illinois.edu. You may apply for the Junior Quinn only once. If you have eligibility questions, email John Dudek, Associate Director of Creative Writing, at jdudek4@illinois.edu. If you are eligible, we want to see a sample of your unpublished prose OR poetry:

Prose submissions can be either fiction or creative nonfiction. Limit your submission to 1-2 pieces, no more than 15 pages total.

Poetry submissions should contain 3-5 poems, no more than 7 pages total.
The first page of your submission (not included in page count) should be a statement of purpose explaining how attending a writing conference or other professional development opportunity would impact your writing. This statement should be no more than 250 words.

A few conferences you might consider are listed below. Though feel free to find other opportunities that interest you more!

AWP Conference: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/registration_overview
Juniper Summer Writing Institute: https://juniperinstitute.umasscreate.net/schedule/
Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop: https://kenyonreview.org/adult-writers/
Port Townsend Writer’s Conference: https://centrum.org/the-port-townsend-writers-conference/
Indiana University’s Writing Conference: https://iuwc.indiana.edu/

Submit your statement of purpose and creative work in one file (.docx only) to John Dudek at jdudek4@illinois.edu by noon, March 20. To make sure your submission does not get lost, the subject line of the email should be ALL CAPS and either JUNIOR QUINN POETRY or JUNIOR QUINN PROSE. The body of this email should include: Your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and UIN.

Image of Research Competition–Submit by 3/25

Spring break employer site visits in Chicagoland for LAS students

Spaces are limited, so students should sign up on Handshake as soon as possible if they want to take part!

• Students are welcome to join us for either one or both.
• Dress for both of these events is business casual (collared or otherwise office-appropriate tops, no jeans or sweats).
• Students are responsible for their own transportation to and from the sites.

Pepsico

433 Van Buren St.(Old Post Office), Chicago, IL 60607

March 19, 10am – 1:30

Register here: (28) LAS PepsiCo Employer Visit — Chicago | Handshake

Pepsico is particularly interested in meeting sophomore and junior LAS students who want to learn more about roles in sales and supply chain. This is a terrific early-bird opportunity for students who will be applying for internships and jobs next fall. Students who aren’t sure how sales or supply chain jobs connect to their major or their life goals are particularly encouraged to attend, as Pepsico is looking for curious, motivated students with strong teamwork and communication skills to fill these professional roles.

The day’s itinerary includes an office tour and presentation, a networking lunch (provided by Pepsico), opportunities for Q&A, and a panel of UIUC alumni.

Feldco

6300 N. River Rd. Suite 600, Rosemont, IL
Register here: (28) LAS – Feldco Site Visit | Handshake

March 20, 10am – 2:15pm

The CEO of Feldco is an alumnus of LAS, and Feldco is eager to work with LAS student to connect their skills with the roles available at the headquarters for this rapidly growing home renewal company. Their recruiters have hosted a couple of events at the LAS Lisnek Hub this year and they are looking forward to giving LAS students first-hand exposure to what working at Feldco is like.

The day’s itinerary includes a presentation and tour, opportunities to network with staff and recruiters, lunch (provided by Feldco), and a panel conversation with UIUC alumni.  

Reach out to Kirstin Wilcox with any questions (kwilcox@illinois.edu)

Summer Language Learning

•  June 16th – August 8th, 2025  •

Session includes
• Arabic, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, and Wolof courses
• Small class sizes and dedicated faculty and staff
• Immersive experience, complete with instruction
• Cultural activities, opportunities for language practice, conversation tables,
cooking classes, movie nights, and more!

Program registration timeline
April 24th – May 12th, 2025
Application & Registration

For more information contact silmw@illinois.edu

Don’t Forget These!

A New Way to Share Good News

Certificate in Intercultural Competence

The Certificate in Intercultural Competence offers undergraduate students the chance to show future employers and potential graduate programs that they have the global and intercultural skills needed to succeed in and out of the classroom. Courses on the approved list for the Certificate include an introduction to the concept of intercultural competence, as well as elective courses that cover a wide variety of topics, from the study of ancient traditions to contemporary culture, the study of myths and fairy tales to modern literature, and more. Although the certificate will not appear on a student’s transcript, students completing the certificate should include this credential on a resume or application for advanced study.

To learn more, check out https://slcl.illinois.edu/graduate/intercultural-competence.

Preview of Spring 2025 Creative Writing Events

We’ll advertise these individually as they approach (with location info) but now would be a great time to get them all in your calendar.

Carr Visiting Author Series: Dante Micheaux
Thursday, April 10, 2025 | 4:30

Poetry Reading by Janice Harrington and Angie Estes
Thursday, April 17, 2025 | 6:00

Yard Show: Black Life, Prairies, and Place Making In the Midwest.
Reading and performance featuring Janice N. Harrington and Chip McNeill
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 | 4:30

MFA Public Reading
Saturday, May 3, 2025 | 1:00

Research Workshops

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) announces its Spring 2025 workshop calendar. We are offering a variety of workshops to support you regardless of where you are in your research journey. Information for each workshop, including how you can register, can be found on our website . For all workshops, participation is by advanced registration only; there are a limited number of spots available for each workshop, so please sign up as soon as possible. Workshops will be added throughout the term based on demand.

Tuesday @7 Workshops with the Counseling Center

Confidential Advising Resources

The Women’s Resources Center (WRC) is the designated confidential campus resource related to sexual assault/rape, sexual harassment, stalking and abuse within a relationship (sometimes called dating or domestic violence). That means when we talk with students, staff, and faculty who have experienced harm, we make sure you get what you need and on your terms! There are several Confidential Advisors at the WRC who can provide you – or someone looking to support you – with support and advocacy services.