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Kevin T. Early Memorial Scholarship Submissions are OPEN!
Submissions for the 2021-2022 academic year’s Kevin T. Early Memorial Scholarship are open. 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 $2000 to a student with freshman standing at UIUC for the 2021-2022 school year. The deadline for application is January 31, 2022.
For consideration, students must submit 5 poems via email to John Dudek at: 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. Complete guidelines are included in the attached document.
If you have any questions, please email John Dudek at Jdudek4@illinois.edu.
Seeking Applicants for Illinois Undergraduate Research Ambassadors Program
The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is looking for motivated and personable undergraduate students who are excited to introduce and support peers through the Illinois research experience. Experienced student researchers are encouraged to become an Illinois Undergraduate Research Ambassador and help other students along their research journeys. This is a paid position with a stipend of $360 per semester (workload is, on average, 2-3 hours per week).
The deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 at 11:59pm. Interested students apply at https://go.illinois.edu/IURA_Apply
LIFE + CAREER DESIGN SCHOLARSHIPS FOR SPRING 2022
You could receive up to $5,000 in scholarship money to support an internship, undergraduate research experience, extended volunteer experience, or possibly even a part-time job that you want to use for professional development. Read the FAQ’s before applying to avoid common application mistakes. You can also drop into 2002 Lincoln Hall from 1-4:40 p.m. and meet with a peer counselor who can help you complete your application.
Apply now! Priority application deadline: Monday, Dec. 20
submit your work to Montage!
Montage Arts Journal, the university’s undergraduate literary magazine, is now open for submissions! We welcome all publishable forms of art—photography, paintings, sketches, digital art, collages, sculptures, poetry, prose, creative nonfiction, drama, and more. This semester’s reading period closes December 15th, but submissions can be emailed to montagejournal@gmail.com any time before then. Please see https://montagejournal.wordpress.com for more information. We look forward to reviewing your work!
Final Test Anxiety Workshop soon!
Could you benefit from a workshop that provides strategies for managing anxiety around taking tests? The Counseling Center hosts drop-in workshops throughout the semester with tips on:
- Remaining calm during tests and exams.
- Getting the most from your study time.
- Preparing effectively for tests and exams.
Tuesday, December 6, 3-4 p.m.
To register, please visit counselingcenter.illinois.edu/TestAnxiety. The remaining sessions will take place in Lincoln Hall, Room 1064.
LAS Social Innovation Forum on Wed. Dec. 8
a message from your college office
Everyone in the LAS Student Academic Affairs Office is excited to share news about our Success Center in 2002 Lincoln Hall (LH), a one-stop drop-in place where undergraduates can talk with peer mentors about anything related to their Illinois Experience. It is a place where Peer Mentors, trained within our holistic LAS Success Coach program:
- Assess students’ needs, sense of direction, engagement and growth in their academic, career and wellbeing pathways
- Assist students to set goals, map multiple pathways toward reaching those goals, and anticipate challenges and opportunities along their path
- Offer support and instruction for students to build skills and use campus systems, offices, resources
- Create opportunities for students to self-assess their progress and direction, and to imagine next steps
- Encourage students’ actions, skills and mindsets for growth and meeting goals, including asking questions, clarifying purpose, engaging, reflecting, and storytelling.
The center offers academic pathway support in the LAS Success Center from 1:00pm – 4.40pm daily in 2002 LH. Specifically, students can get:
Registration Assistance: Peer mentors will answer Self-Service questions and help students register for SP22
LAS Academic Request Assistance: Peer Mentors will help students understand and complete our currently open forms:
- Late Adds/Section Changes/Credit Changes
- Underloads (continuing students and graduating seniors)
- SP22 Overloads
- Credit/No Credit (POT B only)
- Grade Replacement
- Late CNC and GR Petitions
- Declaring/Cancelling a minor
Check out these CW offerings!
We have two great CW courses hiding under the generic 199 “undergraduate open study” rubric that may have escaped your notice. Open to all, regardless of major, these are small creative writing courses in which you will read, write, and converse about a variety of topics. No previous experience necessary!
CW 199, D
Athletic Aesthetics: Sports in American Literature
This literature-based course examines how American artists have represented athletics across the long 20th century, up to and inclusive of the present—that is, the course reads contemporary literature through the lens of sports. To what extent is sport—the triangle offense, the triple Salchow—an aesthetic phenomenon? How might the representation of athletic activity, in turn, affect aesthetic form? Can a poem move like a run-pass option? Looking together at poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, long-form journalism, movies, photographs, and documentary film, we assess how the representation of athletics opens onto culture-wide questions involving race, class, gender, and national identity. How might the World Cup underwrite western imperialism? What is the relationship between Illinois high-school basketball and the state’s profound racial segregation? Though this class is not a workshop, students will produce multiple forms of creative writing in genres of their choosing, with some critical reading-responses to select texts.
CW 199, P
Latinx Underworlds: Border-Crossings and Migration Narratives in Latinx Literature
Drawing from the idea of katabasis (descent to the underworld) this course will examine how several texts of Latinx literature have employed the descent to and ascent from the underworld as a complex metaphor to describe border-crossings and migration narratives. Moving beyond our common understanding of the underworld as a place where the dead reside, this course and the selected readings will further complicate how migrant protagonists who cross all manner of borders must also contend with the underworld as a space of illegality, imagination, criminality, insanity, and outsider status. Drawing between the intersections of identity and the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigrant status, this course will take an interdisciplinary and cross-genre approach to our understanding of Latinx underworlds.
other spring courses of interest
JOUR 475: In-Depth Writing Styles
3 credit hours
TR 5:00-6:20
This course used to be called “magazine writing.” Now, the course focuses on allowing students to dive deeper into their subject matter by writing more feature-length types of stories – suitable for magazines or elsewhere. The usual pre-req of JOUR 210 is NOT being enforced, and the course is open to all juniors and seniors in any major.
CI 210: Intro to Digital Learning Environments
3 credit hours
M 1:00-1:50 plus choice of discussion section
Students in the course will evaluate the learning and instructional potential of popular digital environments ranging from simulations and social networks to virtual worlds and video games. The course combines instructor lectures and class discussion with hands-on activities in the discussion sections. Students will interact with digital platforms in class, and they will work in small groups to create a design project in a digital platform of their choice.
MUS 499 POD: Intro to Podcasting
1 credit hour
T 2:00-3:50pm
Podcasting is the most prolific media platform available to any user at any level of expertise. The cost threshold is low but the potential for almost immediate monetization is high. There is a pedagogy around the art and science of podcasting that can show students a path from technical setup, to content creation, production and distribution to audience identification and monetization. Students will learn how to:
• set up and record multiple vocal channels at high quality
• pre-produce a timed episode with intros, segments and transitions
• book and interview guests
• upload and distribute their episode
• identify and market to an audience
• monetize their content through ad sales, third party platforms and direct to consumer sales with their listening audience
3 credit hours
MW 11:30am – 12:45pm
This is a global course in theorizing Black cultural expression. It surveys artistic and cultural responses to types of racism (racial formations), modes of Black resistance and resiliency, and expressions of Black liberation and self-determination. Topics range from Spirituals, Gospel, and “ring-shouts” to Western classical music, ballet and modern dance; from Blues, Jazz, and Hip-Hop to African-inspired architecture and Blues tropes embedded in urban and regional segregationist planning; and from the lineage of Black Art + Design to the power of place of the Black Metropolis. As such, the course attends to the geographies of place and ontologies of time, i.e., moments formed from the intersection of Black social movements against white supremacy and Black reimagining of what it means to be human. Through a series of engagements with faculty-artists and researchers in the College of Fine & Applied Arts (FAA), Black Arts Today explores the practice and speculative spaces (imaginaries) in which FAA artists-instructors-researchers engage Black Arts or transmit Blackness to the arts.
GWS 495: Advanced Topics in GWS-Black Girl Studies
This course is designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of Black Girls’ Studies/Black Girlhood Studies. Importantly, Black feminist theory, poetics and practice have always remembered and valued the experiences of Black girls and informs the design of this course and related lectures. Together, we will address various topics within the field, including foundations, lived experiences, sexuality, popular culture, arts, representation, policy, and digital humanities (broadly defined).
become a FYCARE Facilitator!
Interested in becoming a leader on campus? Register for the Spring 2022 CARE Class (CHLH 126), TU/THR 3:30 PM – 4:50 PM. Participants in the course will gain a deeper understanding of sexual violence prevention, meet passionate, intelligent, and enthusiastic peers, gain skills to create positive change in your communities, and develop public speaking & facilitation skills. Open to all undergraduate students! Students who successfully complete CHLH 126 are eligible to serve as FYCARE Facilitators. For more information, contact fycare@illinois.edu.
Apply now to get ahead!
Applications open to present at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Symposium
Application deadline: Tuesday, March 15
This Office of Undergraduate Research is accepting submissions to present at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Symposium set for Thursday, April 28 at the Illini Union. For more information, including answers to frequently asked questions, follow this link.
University of Michigan Student Publication Looking for Staff Writers
They’re looking for students at the University of Illinois who are interested in creative and argumentative writing to join our team of undergrads as staff writers, particularly focusing on creative nonfiction, book reviews, literary analysis, and American culture. MC is an independent, inter-university student organization. Positions are not paid, as staff are most akin to “club members” at a more typical university club.
This is a great opportunity for UIUC students to practice and hone in their writing, research, and argumentative skillsets outside the classroom in a uniquely undergraduate space.
Application link —> https://forms.gle/oHBEQFC8nqE6N3hK8
Website —> midwesterncitizen.com
The Summer Institute for Languages of Muslim World
The Summer Institute for Languages of the Muslim World (SILMW) is an annual intensive language program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We invite students to join the 9% of Americans who choose the unique and meaningful experience of learning a Less Commonly Taught Language (LCTL). This summer SILMW will take place from June 13 to August 6, 2022, and we will be offering Arabic, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, and Wolof. The program is 8 weeks and is divided into two, 4-week semesters. This is an immersive experience, complete with instruction, cultural activities, opportunities for language practice, conversation tables, cooking classes, movie nights, and more! We invite you to check out our website for more details about the program in general and for the application requirements in particular. The following selected web pages might be of interest to you, should you want to learn more about the program:
Don’t forget these!
Academic + Career Advising!
You can now schedule in-person advising appointments with Anna on Thursday mornings at HPRC! You’ll have a private appointment in the HPRC conference room (105 Greg Hall) and then you can stick around to talk to Julie or Kirstin about career planning. It’s one-stop shopping!
Sign up for HUM 275 to explore career paths
LGBTQIA+ peer support
HRI Survey
Humanities Research Institute wants to hear from undergraduates who are interested in the humanities! By completing this survey, you are helping us learn what kinds of events and research activities you’d like to see us offer. You do not need to be a declared humanities major or minor to participate in this survey. As long as you’re interested in the humanities —books, TV and film, history, culture, philosophy, politics, religion, arts, theatre, and similar topics—we want to hear from you! The survey will remain open through December 31, 2021.
LAS Student Voices Needed
The College of LAS is interested in how students are feeling about their academic, wellbeing and career development.
All LAS undergrads received an email invitation with a unique link to the LAS Pulse survey. They can also find their link at: feedback.illinois.edu.
The current survey will take about 5-10 minutes of students’ time. Respondents who complete this survey will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win 1 of 15 $10 gift cards. In addition, respondents who complete all three LAS Pulse surveys will be entered into a special drawing with a chance to earn 1 of 5 $100 gift cards. Names will be randomly selected after data collection is complete and the winner will be notified by email.
Wellness and Diversity Workshop Series
The College of Applied Health Sciences and Delta Xi Phi Multicultural Sorority, Inc. is sponsoring a 6-part dynamic workshop series where students will engage in guided discussions on how different cultural groups navigate barriers and sustain access to resources that impact their overall health.
The synchronous workshop will take place through Zoom on Tuesdays from 7-8pm starting Oct. 19th. Participants are welcome to come only to the topics of interest or enroll in the certificate program. Register to participate in either format here https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/595116968
OMSA Fall Tutoring
Sunday Resume, Cover Letter, and LinkedIn Reviews
Get feedback on your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile without having to schedule an appointment. Reviews are via Zoom. Click here to begin your Sunday drop-in review:
go.illinois.edu/SundayDropins.
curious about research? Ask an ambassador!
Undergraduate Research Ambassadors are accepting virtual meetings with students throughout the semester. Staff from the Office of Undergraduate Research are available for one-on-one virtual and in-person meetings to answer any questions you have about undergraduate research at Illinois.
Schedule an appointment today at: http://go.illinois.edu/AskOUR
Tuesday @7 counseling center workshops
Need to talk to someone?
The Counseling Center has resumed face-to-face services for all counseling modalities except group (which will remain on Zoom). They are also offering online scheduling for initial appointments and you are also welcome to reach out to the embedded LAS counselor, Andy Novinska, at anovinsk@illinois.edu.
