The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is providing undergraduates a valuable, behind-the-scenes opportunity that offers a glimpse at how a major academic unit works. Called the Peter and Joan Hood Internship, this year’s intern, Colette Roth, is right in the middle of it and describes how the position is preparing her for a career in higher education.
Named for and supported by Peter and Joan Hood, the internship helps one upper-level undergraduate who want both professional experience and an insider’s view of student academic affairs.
Peter Hood served as assistant, then associate dean for academic affairs for the College of LAS from 1970-1986. He then became assistant vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois System and directed the University Office of Academic Policy Analysis until his retirement in 1997.
“My many years assisting students with academic advising were especially rewarding for me. Helping them reach their academic goals provided an incentive to establish and to endow a program offering undergraduates experience in higher education administration,” Peter Hood said. “During the several years since it was founded, my wife, Joan, and I have enjoyed meeting the outstanding juniors selected for the Peter and Joan Hood Internship in the LAS Academic Affairs Office.”
Colette is a senior double-majoring in political science and psychology. She has been involved with student-facing services since her sophomore year, first in LAS Career Services. Her current position is now the Hood intern, a rotating and developmental role that places the intern inside several LAS offices over the course of the year. She applied at the end of her junior year and began the internship as a senior.
The position runs roughly 10 hours per week and includes departmental meetings and independent project work. Because the internship is rotational, Colette spends six to eight weeks embedded with different LAS units, which may include LAS International Programs, the LAS Office for Inclusive Excellence, Access and Achievement Program, the LAS Honors Program, and the First-Year Experience program.
“This internship let me see what advisors, directors, and student-success staff actually do,” Colette said. “I already knew I was interested, but now I get to watch how departments make decisions, how fast things move, and what day-to-day work actually looks like.”
LAS assistant director of student engagement Steven Cox, who oversees the Hood internship program, said Colette has handled the variety especially well.
“She’s done an excellent job. She has a great attitude and has been flexible and eager to do different things,” Cox said. “She’s been willing to jump in with international programs and then transition to the Inclusive Excellence office with great energy.”
That flexibility matters because the internship itself is evolving. Cox said the Hood Internship used to be more regimented, with every rotation running on a set timeline and staying strictly within student academic affairs. Now they have loosened the structure so the intern can stay longer in a unit that has more work and move on faster when a project wraps up. They may even take on assignments with the LAS Office of the Dean for extra professional experience.
The goal, Cox said, is to make sure the internship responds to what the student wants to learn. Some examples of the work performed by the Hood intern include managing LAS Lineup, the college student e-newsletter that’s sent to some 13,000 recipients. In previous weeks, Colette also helped create a weekly e-newsletter for the Global Perspectives Abroad program under LAS International Programs. Coming up, Colette will help conduct needs assessments, support application materials, help with interview processes, and continue learning from unit heads.
As the only Hood intern, Colette said that “There are moments it feels overwhelming because I have to keep track of both the past and future events, but this setup pushed me to be more organized and learn to keep up with changes.”
For Colette, the internship has provided invaluable experience.
“This position provides solid transferable experience that I can bring to a multitude of career paths, and offers me the realism of a higher education career,” she said.
Looking ahead, Cox said he would give future applicants for the Hood internship the following advice: Come in knowing how the internship fits your career goals.
