Spring 2026 Gardner Institute Graduate Intern: Who? What? When? Where? Why?

By Ethan Williams

Hello! My name is Ethan Williams, and I am the Spring 2026 Graduate Intern for the Gardner Institute. I am a third semester Doctor of Education (EdD) in Higher Education student at University of North Texas. I am a part-time student in addition to my full-time role in Higher Education Student Affairs at UNT Health Fort Worth. I hold a bachelor’s degree in recreation management from Oklahoma State University and a Masters of Business Administration from West Texas A&M University. Outside of work, internship, and school, I am a father to a beautiful baby girl, a husband to my lovely wife, an avid lover of all outdoors activities, and a voracious reader, when I am not reading scholarly articles.

What?

As the Spring Graduate Intern with the Gardner Institute, I am working with my supervisor, Dr. Cindy Kane, on three areas of focus. The first area is innovation, where my goals revolve around incorporating concepts, theories, and practices from my program and professional experiences. At the Gardner Institute, this includes my involvement in planning for a community of practice and joining one of the Symposium workshop teams. The second area is increasing professional competencies by acquiring knowledge and important skills related to my career path. This semester, I am doing this by helping to develop materials for our Redesign Processes through applying my on-the-ground student affairs practitioner lens. The third area is research and assessment, including involvement in the working group working on our evaluation and assessment of Gardner Institute engagements and planning for upcoming focus groups.

When?

It goes without saying that my term with as an intern with the Gardner Institute runs through the end of the spring semester, which is already coming too quickly. In the meantime, it is an important goal for me to soak up everything possible from the wonderful Gardner Institute staff. I have already had the opportunity to meet with several members of the leadership team to gain their insights into their extensive higher education careers, what brought them to the Institute, their areas of focus, and their advice as a new professional seeking a career in higher education.

Where?

I am currently based in Fort Worth, Texas, which makes the remote aspect of this internship very convenient. I have lived almost my whole life in Texas, with a brief stint in Washington state and two and a half years in Portland, Maine. Texas has a fascinating higher education landscape, and being in a doctoral program and working at a state institution in the current climate is an interesting experience. It is also timely that there is a Texas cohort engaged in the Gardner Institute Transformation Process, so I am fortunate to be involved in some in-person aspects of the Gardner Institute’s work.
In Texas, I work at UNT Health Fort Worth, an academic health sciences institution that serves solely graduate and professional students. Among the programs that we serve on campus are a medical school, pharmacy program, public health, biomedical science research program, and a variety of other health professions. In my full-time role, I coordinate all of the orientation programs for approximately 850 incoming students that start school throughout the year. 

Why?

On the theoretical side, my “why” for pursuing this internship and a career in higher education is all related to the student experience. I believe in the value of higher education in cultivating citizens and opening doors for students in our community. I am particularly energized by supporting the graduate and professional student population, because they are an often overlooked population in the field of higher education. Graduate and professional students are often perceived as “having it all figured out” or “they have done school before”, meanwhile, they often have the same needs and worries as undergraduate students. Many of these students also have special circumstances, such as children, full-time jobs, career gaps, or other obligations that are different from the typical college student profile.

Professionally, my “why” for pursuing this internship is to gain a broader view of the field of higher education nationwide. I believe there is value in learning from others, not just adhering to the status quo of the “way things have always been done” at a specific institution. One of my professional goals is to contribute to overall student success across the field, and the Gardner Institute is at the forefront of research and application in achieving this goal. Ultimately, my goal is to leverage my education, experience, and network to become a senior student affairs officer, such as a Dean of Students or Vice President of Student Affairs, at an institution. I would also like to continue advancing the knowledge around supporting graduate and professional student support through research and publication, a process that I hope to kickstart with my dissertation on the topic of supporting graduate and professional healthcare student transitions through a centrally planned orientation program. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I am very excited to be a part of the Gardner Institute for this spring semester. I look forward to all of the knowledge and connections that I will gain, as well as the contributions that I can make to advance the Institute’s great work. I also look forward to sharing my journey through the Intern Insider blog. Thank you for joining me on this journey!

Ethan Williams is the Spring 2026 Spring Graduate Intern at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education. He is a student in the Doctor of Education (EdD) in Higher Education program at University of North Texas, and he serves as the Senior Student Services Coordinator in the Center for Student Life at UNT Health Fort Worth.