School of Information Sciences

Get to know Jerrod Moore, MS student & Mix IT Up! scholar

[image1-right]Jerrod Moore is passionate about connecting information and people. He is applying his corporate experience, which includes work as a strategic resource intern at State Farm, and his coursework in community informatics toward his goals of becoming a library director and increasing diversity in the information professions. As a Mix IT Up! scholar, he focuses on issues of youth advocacy in library and information science through his classes and engagement with community organizations that serve youth.

Why did you decide to pursue an LIS degree?

I chose to pursue a degree in LIS because I find it interesting and rewarding to have the ability to connect people with information.

Why did you choose GSLIS?

I chose GSLIS for two reasons. First, I appreciated the warm embrace and honesty I got from the GSLIS recruiters. Second, GSLIS has the number one library and information science master’s program.

What particular LIS topics interest you most?

I am very interested in learning more about community informatics. I am in the process of taking classes now, and I would like to learn as much as I can while I can.

What surprises you about the field of LIS?

Even though I have been around the field for a few years now, the willingness to collaborate and share information never stops amazing me.

What do you do outside of class?

When I am not in class, I enjoy traveling and trying out new restaurants and bars—and I study, of course.

What career plans or goals do I have?

I would like to become library director of an undergraduate college and improve the diversity in the library profession as much as possible. I believe that in order to best serve our patrons, we must be able to identify with them and make them feel comfortable.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Nathaniel Allen Pila

Eight iSchool master's students have been named 2025–2026 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Nathaniel Allen Pila earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College.

Nathaniel Allen Pila

Get to know Eugene Gurevich, analyst

In his role as analyst at Nicor Gas, Eugene Gurevich (BSIS '23) is making sure the natural gas system that millions of people use stays safe and dependable. He credits the iSchool with teaching him technical skills—such as how to clean, transform, and visualize data—as well as how to communicate effectively with different audiences. Gurevich encourages current students to "explore unconventional career paths."

Eugene Gurevich

iSchool participation in iConference 2026

The following iSchool faculty and students will participate in iConference 2026, which will be held virtually from March 23–26 and physically from March 29–April 2 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The theme of this year's conference is "Information Literacies, Authenticity and Use: The Move Towards a Digitally Enlightened Society."

Wang receives AccessComputing funding for video game project

Informatics PhD student Olive Wang has been awarded a minigrant by AccessComputing, an organization that supports people with disabilities in computing. The $5,000 grant will support Wang's work on the video game Loadouts, which teaches players why accessibility is important. In the game, players learn why video games are inaccessible for players who are low-vision and how accessibility features such as high contrast, auditory cues, and multimodality can be effective.

Olive Wang

Hassan and Bashir receive distinguished paper award

A paper co-authored by PhD student Muhammad Hassan and Associate Professor Masooda Bashir received the Distinguished Paper Award at the Workshop on Security and Privacy in Standardized IoT, which was held last month in San Diego, California, in conjunction with the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium 2026. 

School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel St.

MC-493

Champaign, IL

61820-6211

Voice: (217) 333-3280

Email: ischool@illinois.edu

Back to top