By: Claudia Loman, Bicentennial Intern, Class of 2020, Marketing and International Business, Bloomington
When I first came across this internship opportunity I was immediately intrigued by it. Growing up I have always had an interest in history due to my parents.
On almost every family vacation we take we always have some type of educational component to it, whether it’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Museum in Atlanta, or the U.S.S Midway in San Diego, history has always pulled my interest. So, I may not be a history major but I was very excited to be able to do an internship on something that I enjoy in my free time.
The topic that I am researching is a minority scholarship program called Hudson and Holland Scholars Program. I felt a personal connection to this project because I am currently a Hudson and Holland Scholar.
I did have some prior knowledge of Hudson and Holland before because of a class that I took for this program last semester, but I didn’t know too many details. I was excited when I got this topic because of not only being a scholar in the program, but because I love learning about diversity as well.
Starting out, I wasn’t too sure what I would be doing as an intern or how I was going to necessarily find new information on this program, but I quickly learned. When I first started going to the IU Archives or searched on the online archives, I struck out. Not much information has been added to the archives over the twenty-five-year span of the program. This is because most of the information collected by Dr. Herman Hudson and Dr. James Holland was kept in boxes in their offices.
This was exciting for me because I got to go through their personal scrapbooks, which included photo albums and many news article clippings they preserved. In the boxes, I found many different videos, papers from events, and pictures.
While researching, I came across a lot of different things but I felt a true connection when I’d read articles about when Dr. Herman Hudson and Dr. Holland passed away. They did so much for so many people through their mentorship and you could truly see this through the way that people spoke so highly of them. These boxes are where I found most of the information that I will be using for my project.
This research gave me a deeper appreciation for this program because a lot of the articles talked about all the things the people had to go through to start this program and get it funded. The government wasn’t giving very much money to Indiana University specifically for minority students, so they had to try to scrape up the money from various places.
Starting out though, the program wasn’t called Hudson and Holland, it started out as two separate minority programs called Minority Achievers Program and the Mathematics and Science Scholarship. These programs were put into place to attract high achieving minorities to Indiana University and merged in 2004 and were renamed Hudson and Holland to honor Dr. Herman Hudson and Dr. James Holland.
Dr. James Holland was the associate professor in the IU Department of Biology. For over the 30 years that he spent at IU, he was a mentor to many students across campus and had a true passion for the sciences. Along with this, he was a major component in getting the MAP and MASS programs at Indiana University because he wanted to see more diversity on campus.
Dr. Herman Hudson arrived at Indiana University in 1968 and was one of the first major African American leaders to come to IU. Dr. Hudson had a passion for the arts and ended up creating different programs that showcased African American performing arts, such as the Soul Revue, the Choral Ensemble, and the African- American Dance Company. These two men were very influential in helping bring diversity to IU’s campus.
At first this program was aimed to attract first generation college students, but today this isn’t necessarily the case as these students are now second and third college generation. The vision that Dr. Herman Hudson and Dr. James Holland had continues to grow today with over 1,400 scholars on campus today.
This program serves more students than they could have ever imagined because when the Minority Achievers Program began it had a mere 34 students! Having a program as large as it is today was Hudson and Holland’s goal, because they wanted to give as many minorities as they could a chance at succeeding at Indiana University.
Overall, the intern experience has been great. I have been able meet different people around campus that are outside of Kelley, and work with different faculty members I may have never met otherwise.
It has also given me insight on how individuals worked so hard so students just like me can attend such a great school with support. The research that I’m discovering will provide a basis for the timeline I am producing, so stay tuned.