IE's Past and Present
IE was founded by Dr. Richard Cherwitz in the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) in 1997. Under Cherwitz's stewardship (1997-2003), IE enrolled in classes, workshops, internships, and other activities more than 4,000 students in over 90 academic disciplines from every college and school on UT's campus.
While many of the IE graduate-level professional development initiatives begun by Cherwitz continue to operate in OGS, since 2003 IE has evolved into an inter-collegial “Consortium.” In 2007, IE became part of the Division of Diversity & Community Engagement (DDCE). IE is an overarching vision and philosophy of education that extends to public schools, the undergraduate experience, graduate study, post-doctoral training, faculty research and the connections between universities and society. IE is not a program; nor is it a compartmentalized academic unit. IE is a way of conceptualizing and discharging the mission of universities in the 21st Century—an engine for deploying and configuring resources in a world whose challenges require flexible, organic and sustainable approaches to education capable of transforming lives for the betterment of society.
Current and recent initiatives of the IE Consortium include: the Project in Interpreting the Texas Past (ITP), the Pre-Graduate School Internship, the IE/NSF IGERT Partnership, Entrepreneurship in the Arts, the St. Edward's McNair Scholars/IE Internship, Entrepreneurship in Science, Academic Engagement, IE Undergraduate Mentorship Course, IE/MCC It Could Be U Program (mentorship initiative for middle and high school students), the IE Dissertation List-Serve/Resources and Job/Career Resources for graduate students, Entrepreneurship in Science, IE-NSF Mentor Training Institute, and Dean's Scholar Seminar.