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Steele award winners standing in front of UD backdrop with Dean Henry and Laura Desimone

Marion H. Steele Symposium celebrates student research with panel and poster presentations, keynote speaker and student awards

May 1, 2023

On April 28, the 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.

Over the past 36 years, more than 450 undergraduate and graduate students have presented their research in this symposium. This year, students shared their research in college readiness, early childhood, data-driven learning and teacher professionalism, pre-service and in-service teaching, writing motivation and more with faculty, staff, fellow students, donors and invited guests.

The event featured student presentations and poster sessions, remarks from Gary T. Henry, dean of CEHD and professor in the School of Education and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, a keynote address from Matthew Patrick Shaw, assistant professor of law and assistant professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, and the presentation of student awards, which recognized excellence in undergraduate and graduate research.

Supporting student research

In his remarks, Henry 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. Steele spent her 41-year career at the American Home Economics Association and served as the longtime editor of the Journal of Home Economics. 

“Marion Steele was a passionate supporter of this field, not only dedicating herself to producing a high-quality academic journal, but also taking an active interest in the development of the Association’s International Scholarship Program, which she oversaw from 1947 until her retirement in 1969,” said Henry. “Her groundbreaking support of international study is greatly valued at UD, especially as the University celebrates 100 years of its study abroad program this year.”

In addition, Henry also spoke about CEHD’s graduate programs, including the College’s advancement in its U.S. News and World Report rankings for online graduate programs and in-person graduate programs. CEHD’s online graduate programs are now ranked in the top 6% of all programs in the nation, and in-person programs are ranked in the top 10%.

Steele’s keynote address

Matthew Patrick Steele standing in front of UD podium giving keynote talk at Steele Symposium
Matthew Patrick Shaw presents his keynote address,” Much Ado about Critical Race Theory”.

Henry also introduced Shaw, Steele’s keynote speaker. Shaw’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of federal law and educational policy and explores education rights and regulations through critical legal history, doctrinal analysis and econometric policy studies. 

Shaw’s keynote address, titled “Much Ado about Critical Race Theory,” shared insights from legal disputes over the teaching and learning of critical race theory. The address shared a legal framework that Shaw developed called the “public right to education,” which focuses on the relationship between the state’s responsibility for education and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

Excellence in undergraduate and graduate research

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

The following undergraduate students won paper and poster awards.

  • Lauren Baran, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences’ (CAS) Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, won the First Place Undergraduate Paper Award for her paper, “Sleep Disparities in Adolescents: Does Stress on Sleep Change Brain Connectivity?”
  • Nuo Chen, a recent psychology graduate, won the First Place Undergraduate Poster Award for the poster, “Women from Minority Ethnolinguistic Communities Struggle to Access United States Healthcare.”
  • Shubreet Kaur, a senior in CAS’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, won the Second Place Undergraduate Poster Award for the poster, “Association Between Time of Day and Computational Thinking.”

The following graduate students won paper and poster awards.

  • Taylor-Paige Guba, a Ph.D. in education student specializing in learning sciences, won the First Place Graduate Paper Award for her paper, “Metacognitive Monitoring in Pre-service Teachers During Fraction Comparison Tasks.”
  • Elena Silla, a Ph.D. in education student specializing in learning sciences, also won the First Place Graduate Paper Award for her paper, “Using Latent Profile Analysis to Examine Variability in Procedural Flexibility.”
  • Thomas Maldonado-Reis, an Ed.D. in educational leadership student, won the Second Place Graduate Paper Award for his paper, “Country-based Exemptions in English Language Proficiency Policies among Adult Continuing Education Programs in Higher Education.”
  • Jonathan Kittle, a Ph.D. in education student specializing in literacy, won the First Place Graduate Poster Award for his poster, “The Influence of Spanish Phonology and Orthography on Spanish-speaking Multilingual Learners’ English Spelling Achievement in K-5: A Systematic Review.”
  • McKenna Halverson, a Ph.D. in human development and family Sciences student, won the Second Place Graduate Poster Award for her poster, “Pandemic-Era WIC Participation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Participants’ Experiences and Challenges.”
  • Ariel Chavers, a Ph.D. in education student specializing in literacy, won the Third Place Graduate Poster Award for her poster, “Unique Patterns of Intergenerational Risk Transmission: Adolescent Mothers Confer Heterogeneous Risk to Offspring’s Literacy Performance.”

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

Image caption: From left Thomas Maldonado-Reis, McKenna Halverson, Ariel Chavers,Elena Silla, Nuo Chen, Laura Desimone, Lauren Baran, Gary T. Henry, Taylor-Paige Guba, Jonathan Kittle, and Shubreet Kaur.   

Article by Jessica Henderson. Photography by Shelly Silva.