Courses
Credit Hours
The core of Illinois in Washington is academic excellence. IIW is administered through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and you can expect the same excellent instruction through IIW that you receive on campus.
You will earn 12 credit hours for the fall and spring semesters and 6 credits for the summer term.
Internship Course
Credit: 4 hours fall and spring; 6 hours summer
Letter-graded
All IIW students take the Internship Course, whether in fall, spring, or summer session. Different from traditional classroom-based instruction, this course provides a program of study related to your internship placement. You will demonstrate experiential learning in writing assignments such as journals, reflection papers, and a work portfolio based on your internship experience. The course culminates with a research paper in which you explore connections between the coursework and your internship experience
The Washington Leadership Experience
Credit: 4 hours
Letter-graded
Students who intern in either the fall or spring semester take the Washington Leadership Experience course. This introductory course explores the uniqueness of the "inside the beltway" political culture and the connection of that culture to governance. Besides relying on readings and class discussions, this course uses field trips and guest speakers from the DC metropolitan area to teach about the beltway culture and the peculiar beltway perspective on governance.
A 300-level Political Science course such as Principles of Public Policy or an Independent Study in the student's major
Credit: 4 hours
Letter-graded
Students who intern in either the fall or spring semester usually take the Principles of Public Policy course, but may arrange an Independent Study within their major.
Principles of Public Policy is a political science course that examines important issues that are relevant to government and public policy in general or that might be focused specifically on some public policy issue that is currently of particular interest or concern. This course is designed to be accessible to non-political science majors.
Independent Study courses are arranged on an individual student basis in cooperation with the student's major department.
A Typical Schedule
A typical schedule might look like this:- You will usually work in your internship M-Th 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. The Internship Class will meet on Fridays.
- Your Washington Experience class, Fri 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
- The third class, usually the Principles of Public Policy, will meet from 6:00-9:00 p.m. one evening per week.