Statement of Intent
Laura C. Evans
I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, with a minor in sociology, from the
University of Chicago in 2003. Upon entering university, my career goal was to become an
academic psychologist. As an undergraduate, I was active in several student organizations,
including serving as the treasurer for the Undergraduate Student Association and serving as the
Vice President of Campus Communications for the Undergraduate Psychology Association. I
enjoyed these student administrative roles and began to consider a career that involved working
on a university campus. During my third and fourth years of study, I also met with a number of
department chairs, undergraduate and graduate student advisors, and other university
administrators to discuss the nature of their work and the process involved in becoming an
administrator. These conversations were instrumental in my decision to pursue a master's degree
in higher education administration.
In 2004, I was accepted into the Higher Education Program in the Educational
Organization and Leadership Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As
a graduate assistant during my first year of study, I co-instructed a section of a required
undergraduate course, which introduced me to teaching in the university environment. During
my second year of study, my graduate assistantship involved working in Student Affairs
Assessment, which is one of the departments of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student
Affairs. I assisted with the assessment and evaluation of a variety of Student Affairs programs
and services and greatly enjoyed this work. As a result, I became interested in a higher education
career that would allow me to undertake assessments and evaluations as part of my
administrative responsibilities. The master's thesis that I completed involved an evaluation of a
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program that was developed to identify the obstacles faced by under-represented students at the
university and to increase their retention and academic achievement. I presented the results of
this research at the 2006 American Educational Research Association Conference.
After completing the above master's degree in 2006, I began working in the Office of
Inclusion and Intercultural Relations, a department within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for
Student Affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My position as Assistant
Director for Intercultural Relations provided me with a wide range of experiences, including
developing and delivering workshops aimed at increasing the university community's
understanding of diversity and cross cultural engagement, assisting in the supervision of graduate
assistants, working with several databases of student information, developing reports for higher
level administrators, and interacting closely with other Student Affairs departments. I found my
time in this position to be highly rewarding, and I was able to expand and strengthen my research
and administrative skills considerably.
After working in the above position for several years, I applied to the Ph.D. program in
Educational Research and Evaluation (EDRE) at Virginia Tech and was admitted for the Fall
2009 semester. This program choice was based largely on my desire to acquire methodological
expertise, which I see as playing a central role in my future work as a higher education
administrator. Apart from various administrative responsibilities, I anticipate being involved in
the review, assessment, and evaluation of specific student affairs programs and services. I also
plan to continue conducting empirical research, with the goal of publishing this research in
academic journals and other scholarly outlets. Finally, I am interested in the possibility of
teaching as an adjunct professor and perhaps teaching full time at a later point in my career.
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My current research interests are focused primarily on topics within higher education.
First, I am interested in issues of assessment and planning in higher education. These interests
include understanding the reasons for conducting assessments, the stakeholders who are involved
in assessments, the uses that are made of the findings, and the impact that such findings have on
higher education as a whole. A second area of research interest deals with students' role in
campus safety and their responses to various forms of student intolerance. Third, I am interested
in how various types of higher education institutions create a campus climate that enhances
student, faculty, and staff appreciation of diversity and cross cultural understanding. Finally, and
most broadly, I am interested in undergraduate students' experiences, from the point at which
they apply and transition into university studies to the point at which they complete their degree.
In particular, I am interested in the experiences of special undergraduate student populations,
including minority students, GLBT students, mature students, and single parents.
I have chosen evaluation research as my area of focus because it will provide me with the
methodological expertise that I need to conduct various forms of evaluation research, which, as
mentioned earlier, is central to my career goals. Completing the Ph.D. program in EDRE will
allow me to develop methodological skills in evaluation research, statistics, qualitative research,
mixed methods research, and measurement. Each of these methodological traditions can play a
key role in evaluation research, depending on the nature of the research questions that are
investigated. More specifically, completing a Ph.D. in EDRE will provide me with skills in
designing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods studies; developing and administering
survey instruments; conducting individual qualitative interviews and focus group interviews;
using various statistical and qualitative data analysis procedures; and developing research reports
that effectively meet stakeholders' needs, among other skills. Thus, obtaining a Ph.D. in EDRE
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will allow me to develop a wide range of methodological skills, which are critical to the
achievement of my stated career and research goals. The evaluation research focus area is also an
excellent fit for me personally because of my practical orientation. As indicated in my Plan of
Study, many of the courses that are included within the area of focus are evaluation, qualitative,
and mixed methods courses that are offered by the EDRE program. Two statistics courses that
are not part of the research methodology core requirement, and an EDHE course that deals with
assessment and planning, are also included in this section of the Plan of Study.