Steele Symposium 2025 Celebrates Student Research

On April 11, the University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) hosted the annual Marion H. Steele Symposium to share and celebrate the innovative research of its undergraduate and graduate students in education, human development and related disciplines.

Since 1985, hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students have presented their research in this symposium. This year, students shared their research on AI in teaching and learning, the experiences of first generation graduate students, literacy and writing, math motivation, spatial skills and the outcomes of children who are adopted or in foster care, among other topics with faculty, staff and fellow students.

“The Steele Symposium offers an opportunity for our graduate students to present their work to faculty and their peers, providing a unique forum for us to engage with each other around research, share ideas and learn from each other,” said Laura Desimone, L. Sandra and Bruce L. Hammonds Professor in Teacher Education, CEHD director of research and professor in the School of Education and Biden School of Public Policy and Administration. “It is wonderful for us to learn about each other’s work, to observe the peer-to-peer and faculty-student collaborations that drive the work, and to recognize where our work overlaps, builds on and leverages each others’ work in service of improving the lives of children and families.

The event featured student presentations and poster sessions, remarks from Rena Hallam, interim dean of CEHD, a d panel on community-engaged research in CEHD and the presentation of student awards, which recognized excellence in undergraduate and graduate research. Thanks to the engagement of CEHD faculty and students, this year’s poster session included 35 posters, doubling the number from previous years and filling the third floor of the FinTech Innovation Hub on UD’s STAR Campus.

Supporting student research

In her remarks, Hallam commended the student participants, offered a tribute to Marion H. Steele and thanked the Steele Family for their continued support of undergraduate and graduate research in CEHD.

Steele graduated from the University of Delaware in 1928 and dedicated her life to home economics, a discipline now housed in CEHD’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS). Steele spent her 41-year career at the American Home Economics Association and served as the longtime editor of the Journal of Home Economics. 

After Hallam’s remarks, Elizabeth Farley-Ripple, professor in CEHD’s School of Education (SOE) and director of CEHD’s Partnership for Public Education, and William Woelki, a Ph.D. in HDFS student, introduced the panel on community-engaged research. The panel included Sarah Curtiss, assistant professor in the SOE, Ruth Fleury-Steiner, associate professor in HDFS, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Chair and professor in the SOE, Amanda Jansen, professor in the SOE, and Teya Rutherford, associate professor in the SOE. 

With Farley-Ripple and Woelki as moderators, the faculty discussed research projects that center on meaningful partnerships with families, schools and other community organizations. The session also included a Q&A portion, which gave students the unique opportunity to ask questions about conducting research and receive tangible feedback to apply to their own research.

Excellence in undergraduate and graduate research

After the day’s panel presentations and poster sessions, several undergraduate and graduate students were recognized for excellence in student research.

• William Woelki , a Ph.D. in HDFS student, won first place for the paper “Co-Researchers, Co-Creators: Empowering Youth with Foster Care Experience through Participatory Action Research.”
• Rebecca Memmolo, a Ph.D. in education student, won second place for the paper “Making Sense of Evolving Instructional Visions For Mathematics Classroom Discussion in an Elementary School Context.”
• Sarah Ryan, a Ph.D. in HDFS student, won third place for the paper “The Activities Start the Conversation: A Case Study of the Anytime, Anywhere Family Math Intervention.”
• Zhixian Zhuang, a Ph.D. in education, won first place for the poster “National Community Consciousness and Identity Among Ethnic Minority in China from the Perspective of Cross-Cultural Adaptation Theory of the University Students.”
• Amanda Man, a Ph.D. in education, won second place for the poster “There’s Everything to See Here: Crisis Meaning Making for Educators.”
• Woelki, Sephora Cain, a human services sophomore, Julia Novelle, a human services sophomore, and Vandeka Rodgers, a Ph.D. education and social policy student, won third place for the poster “Exploring the Utility of Participatory Action Research for Transformative Change in the Child Welfare System: A Scoping Review.”

To learn more about this year’s event, its participants and the Steele Family, visit the event webpage.

Article by Jessica Henderson. Photos by Shelly Silva.