Dottie Roland ’25 started as the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program undergraduate coordinator for Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C., campus this fall.

Roland takes the place of former WHIP coordinator Mary Wheeler, who stepped into a part-time role with the D.C. campus in the spring. Roland said it was Wheeler’s nudging that prompted her to apply for the job. “I had not really considered D.C. for post-grad. I was pretty set on moving back home to Omaha, Nebraska,” Roland said. “I was going to work in a law firm, and had that all laid out. Then Mary sent me this message like ‘I really want to encourage you to apply.’ So I said, ‘OK, Mary, I trusted you when you said I needed to go on WHIP, I trusted you when you said I needed to work on the Hill, and now I trust you that this could be good for me.’”

As a student, Roland was a rhetoric and media major and economics minor, a member of Chi Omega sorority, and volunteered for A Few Good Men. She also worked for the athletic department and was a fellow for the Center of Commerce of Freedom in the economics department.

Roland, who participated in WHIP the fall semester of her junior year, officially started her role with the college in June and spent the summer preparing programming for the fall semester. But Roland said it was difficult to get a big-picture understanding of the job before students arrived in August. “It was a little hard to see my purpose on my team without the undergrads,” Roland said. “But once everyone got to campus, it was very easy to see how fun and how meaningful my work could be.”

When encouraging Roland to apply for the role, Wheeler, who now serves as Hillsdale in D.C.’s digital communications coordinator but was the WHIP coordinator when Roland was a student, said she knew Roland’s poise and professionalism would suit her well. “I remember talking to her internship supervisor and he said he would hire her in a heartbeat,” Wheeler said. “That, of course, stands out because it means that she made such a good impression on her coworkers and on her superiors.”

Wheeler said Roland has the bright personality to succeed in the position, which requires communicating with a range of people — from current and future WHIP students to the Hillsdale in D.C. team. “I knew her reputation on campus was so strong and she’s so personable and everybody loved her, so I thought that would be a really good aspect of it that she’s already got strong friendships at Hillsdale and a good reputation,” Wheeler said.

Roland said that the role of WHIP coordinator is multi-faceted, with recruiting students on main campus as one element of the job while also balancing planning programming for the current WHIP class. Roland said this includes formal dinners with Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government Matthew Spalding and visiting historical sites such as Mount Vernon and Gettysburg.

The role also entails ensuring students are thriving in their internships and are managing classes well, Roland said. “We want to make sure that their limited time in D.C. — that one semester — goes as smoothly and is as enjoyable for them as it possibly can,” Roland said. “We want to make sure that they are being challenged, and to make sure we’re seeing that growth we’ve promised.”

Wheeler said in her experience, the first weeks of the semester can be the most difficult, as the role requires onboarding students in D.C. while traveling to main campus for recruitment events. But, Wheeler said, Roland has handled the busyness with the same composure she brings to the Hillsdale in D.C. team. “She’s got a very calming presence about her which I think is really good especially in D.C. because a lot of times we’re doing so much all at once,” Wheeler said. “It’s nice when people are stressed or have a lot going on to have that calming presence that Dottie brings.”

Junior Ellie Soeleman, a current WHIP student, said she and Roland were in Chi Omega at the time when Roland found out she would be taking over the job. “I was really, really excited for her,” Soeleman said. “I was already accepted into WHIP at the time, so knowing that we would both start this together was really cute.”

Soeleman said Roland has given this semester’s WHIP class new and unique experiences, such as attending a performance of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” at the Museum of the Bible and a D.C. United soccer game. “She’s been so awesome,” Soeleman said. “Seeing her transition from an undergrad student to a director position has been so seamless, and she handles it so well.”

With only a year or two separating Roland and most WHIP students, Roland said it can be difficult to balance the dichotomy of being a former student-turned-authority figure. But junior Elizabeth Gaines said she admires how Roland has handled the transition. “I’ve really appreciated how Dottie balances being a friend and mentor to us while running the program,” Gaines said. “She has been a great guide through the process of getting an internship and getting settled in the city.”

In her time as WHIP coordinator moving forward, Roland said she wants to expand the program both in number of students and in types of courses offered.

Ongoing construction on the Kirby Center, which Roland said is expected to finish soon, will expand the college’s reach in D.C., including the number of graduate and undergraduate students the college can hold, as well as the types of courses that the campus can provide.

“The campus was already beautiful to begin with, but now it is truly feeling like an extension of the home campus in Hillsdale,” Roland said. “With that, we want the Hillsdale in D.C. campus to reflect a larger and more diverse undergraduate presence.”

Some changes will start next semester, Roland said, with the campus adding an additional journalism credit with Mark Hemingway, journalist and senior writer at RealClearInvestigations, and a new politics course meant to reflect the rigor of a law school class.

Roland said her hope is that the campus will appeal to students from all over campus — from classical education minors to STEM students. “That means it’s not just for your politics majors and your journalism minors,” Roland said. “Yes, those people have the greatest need and want and desire for a WHIP semester, but we want all of campus to know that D.C. is a campus where there is something for you.”

Since she started the role, Roland said the Hillsdale in D.C. team has been nothing but supportive of her goals for the program moving forward. “The kind of faith that they so quickly placed in me was just so reassuring,” Roland said. “This is a great place to start a career post-grad, working under an institution that I greatly admire, have a lot of respect for, but also am able to teach other undergrads about the self-governance and the beauty that is Hillsdale in D.C.”

Learn more about the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program.