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Important Dates

Humanities Open House: Saturday, October 4
Spring 2026 courses viewable on Course Explorer: Monday, October 6
English Advising Open House: Monday, October 6
Express Advising: Wednesday, October 8 (1:30-3pm)
Deadline to drop a full-semester course without a “W”: Friday, Oct. 17

NO EXPRESS ADVISING TUESDAY, OCT 7 (advisors are at a workshop that day)

Resource of the Week

Have you heard about the English Honors Program? Review the eligibility requirements on this page and talk to Anna or Maggie about how to get started (TL;DR version: you need at least a 3.33 GPA and should have completed ENGL 301 before you begin taking honors seminars). Open to English majors only.

Humanities Open House This Saturday!

Check out this page for the full schedule of events.

Open House

Our next open house is coming up on Monday, October 6, 2:00-3:30pm. Stop by for a snack and some friendly chat with advisors and/or peers.

Penguin Random House Remote Internships

DEADLINE APPROACHING

Interested in gaining experience at a major publishing house over the summer? Intrigued by remote opportunities? Check out Penguin Random House’s summer remote internships! They are filling positions for the following departments: Bookmaking, Art & Design, Editorial, Publicity, Marketing, DEI, Sales, and Finance.

Deadline to apply is Monday, October 6, 2025.

Put Your Storytelling Skills to Use!

Effective Storytelling During Interviews

October 6, 5pm
The Career Center, Room 107
715 South Wright Street

The Illinois Club Scholarships

The Illinois Club Scholarships online application closes at 5PM on Saturday, October 11, 2025. The 2026-2027 scholarships will support junior and senior students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who have a minimum GPA of 3.0. Recipients are selected based on academic achievement, financial need, and participation in activities that enhance academic and professional development. Additional information can be found on the club’s website and the attached flyer. Interested students can apply here.

There are a number of awards but the ones most relevant to English department majors and minors are listed below. It’s well worth applying!

Global Focus Scholarship
Open to students with any major. This scholarship honors Peri Ceperley, a dear friend who left us too soon. Peri loved traveling, studying foreign languages, and exploring internships and volunteering opportunities abroad. Applicants must have international experience or an internationally focused program of study. Applicants should demonstrate how their internationally focused work and/or volunteer plans will make a difference in the world.

Humanities and Social Sciences Scholarship
Open to students majoring or minoring in the Humanities or Social Sciences. Applicants should demonstrate the benefits that studying the Humanities or Social Sciences provides to themselves and their community.

Isabelle Purnell Education Scholarship
Open to students earning a Secondary Education Certificate or College of Education majors. Applicants should indicate how they hope to make a difference in the classroom and in students’ lives.

Judith Life Ikenberry Scholarship
Open to students majoring in the creative arts including all majors within the College of Fine & Applied Arts and Creative Writing. Applicants should demonstrate how their art impacts their lives and the world and what they hope to accomplish with their art. This scholarship is generally given to a student who plans to make a living as a working artist, performer, or writer (e.g., painter, sculptor, musician, composer, dancer, actor, novelist, playwright, poet, screenwriter, essayist, or other creative profession). 

Kevin T. Early Memorial Scholarship

Submissions are open for the 2025-2026 Kevin T. Early Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship is made possible from an endowment by William and Donna Early in memory of their son, a poet, Kevin T. Early. It awards a $2000 scholarship (which is applied to the student account) to a student with freshman standing at UIUC for the 2025-2026 school year.  

For consideration, students must submit 5 poems via email to jdudek4@illinois.edu. The complete submission should not exceed 5 pages (so 1 poem to a page). Submissions should be attached to the email as .docx (Word) files.

The subject line of the email should read: “EARLY PRIZE SUBMISSION: Last name.”

The body of the email should include the student’s name, address, phone number, e-mail, UIN, and the titles of the poems. The name should not appear on the entry file itself.

The deadline for application is Thursday, October 30, 2025. If you have any questions, please email jdudek4@illinois.edu.

Read & Resist Fest

Banned books week is the first week of October, and here at Illinois we’re celebrating with Read & Resist Fest from October 8-14 (see poster below for details)! In partnership with all of the cultural centers (AACC, BNAACC, La Casa, NAH, and Salaam MENA Center), GSRC, WRC, Skeuomorph Press, and the University Library, the AACC will be hosting a pop-up library to promote student awareness and action surrounding intellectual freedom.

Additionally, any students who attend October 8 can participate in the Banned Books Crawl for an opportunity to win a swag pack and gift card to the Illini Union Bookstore!

Please come out to support intellectual freedom and reading banned books at Illinois!

Parable of the Sower is a dystopian novel that depicts a future United States struggling with socio-economic inequality, racism, and classism. Butler describes the book as a cautionary tale that comments on what American society might look like if we don’t change. 

Please be aware that this novel contains allusions to sexual violence, torture, and other forms of violence. We encourage participants to prioritize their self care and feel free to stop reading at any point. 

Book Club will take place at the Women’s Resources Center on Friday, October 10, from 3:00-4:00pm (616 E Green Street Suite 213). 

Register at go.illinois.edu/ButlerBookClub

Limited copies of the book are available on a first come, first serve basis by request. 

Carr Visiting Author Series Event on October 9, 2025

Where: Illini Union Bookstore – Authors Corner
When: Oct 9, 2025 at 4:30 pm  
What: A fiction reading by Leland Cheuk made possible by the Robert J. and Katherin Carr visiting author series. 

Leland Cheuk is an award-winning author of three books of fiction, most recently the novel No Good Very Bad Asian (2019). Cheuk’s work has been covered in Buzzfeed, The Paris Review, VICE, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere, and has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, among other outlets. He is the founder of the indie press 7.13 Books. You can follow him on Twitter @lcheuk and at lelandcheuk.com.

Humanities in Action (HIA)

HIA is a semester-long community engagement program that helps students apply their humanities training in new ways while addressing a vital area of need in our Champaign-Urbana community. Selected students can expect to connect with like-minded peers, participate in workshops, and have access to mini grants that offset the costs associated with their service. Additionally, to help remove some of the financial barriers that prevent humanities students from taking advantage of community engagement opportunities selected students will receive $1000 to support their participation. Participants will also become acquainted with HRI and the opportunities available to students studying the humanities at the undergraduate and graduate levels. At the culmination of the program, participants will learn how to communicate this experience in resumes and job applications.

The application deadline is October 10, 2025. 

VOICE: Graduate Student Reading

Join us for a reading of creative work by MFA students from the Department of English. This month’s reading will feature Nathan Metz, Mason McVeigh, and Isabella Escamilla.

Oct 15, 7:00 pm
Gallery Art Bar | 119 W Main St, Urbana, IL 61801

Need to take a Chinese Proficiency Test?

The Spring 2026 Chinese Proficiency Test will be on Saturday, February 7, and is now open for registration here.

Self-registration closes on Thursday, February 5 at 5:00 PM. The test allows the maximum of 100 registrants, so we strongly encourage you to register early, or you have to wait for the next test. Registration requests later than the deadline will NOT be accommodated, and email requests will NOT be answered. As the test is offered only ONCE each semester, you will have to wait until the following semester to register and take the test. If you are graduating soon, you want to register for the test as early as you can to secure a spot.

You can find all the information about this test here: https://ealc.illinois.edu/academics/programs/chinese/placement

Illinois Consulting Academy

Illinois Consulting Academy (ICA) is looking for driven, collaborative sophomores and juniors from all majors who are interested in exploring consulting and preparing for careers in the industry.

Info Night
Date: Tuesday, October 14
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Business Instructional Facility, Deloitte Auditorium

At Info Night, students will learn more about ICA, what consulting is, and hear directly from current and former ICA students about their experiences.

Students who are interested in learning more or applying should complete this form: ICA Interest Form

Fall 2025 First Gen Series

Don’t Forget These!

Scholarship Opportunity

The LAS Get Experience Scholarship is designed to support students with financial need in hands-on learning experiences that enhance and complement their academic coursework (such as unpaid and underpaid internships). Click the link above to find out more.

How to Connect with LAS Career Services

• Mondays- 1-3 pm 105 Greg Hall (short chats)
• Tuesdays- 10-3 pm LAS Hub (Lincoln Hall) with peer mentors
• Wednesdays- 10-3 pm LAS Hub (Lincoln Hall) with peer mentors
• Thursdays- 10-3 pm LAS Hub (Lincoln Hall) with peer mentors
• Thursdays- 1-3 pm 105 Greg Hall (short chats)
• Handshake Appointments (in-person or virtual) are 30 minutes during available staff times. We have an energetic team to help you. Reach out to connect. Having trouble? Reach out to us at las-careerservices@illinois.edu. 

Montage – Call for Submissions!

Montage publishes art and literary work by undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Submissions are now open! For more information and to submit your work, please visit: https://www.montageartsjournal.com/submit

Sharing News

As a reminder, if you have an award, a publication, or some other triumph to report please send news to engl-news@illinois.edu so the social media interns can celebrate you and your accomplishment. Also, if you are a member of a student group affiliated with the English department and you would like an upcoming event posted on our undergraduate calendar (now available at the bottom of the advising page) please send that info to the same address. Thanks!

Library Research Consultations

Students at the University of Illinois have access to free, personalized research support through the Research Consultations at the Main Library. Research consultations offer individual consultations for any student at any stage in the research process, including brainstorming ideas or topics, forming search strategies, and more. For more information and to schedule an appointment, visit go.library.illinois.edu/ResearchConsultations.

Boost Your Speaking Skills

We offer a friendly, low-stakes space for students from any major or discipline to practice and work on oral communication with a peer-consultant, including using visual aids such as powerpoint and research posters. Our main location is in the Armory, with satellite hours in the Main Library, Grainger Library, ACES/Funk Library, and the LAS Hub. We also offer synchronous online appointments. 

Free Little Library

WRC Fall Hours