Steele Symposium Celebrates Student Research

On April 19, 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 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, a keynote address from Valerie A. Earnshaw, associate professor in CEHD’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS), 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 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. 

Henry also spoke about CEHD’s graduate programs, including the College’s forthcoming master’s of social work. Henry commended Ohiro Oni-Eseleh, program director, for his work in developing the program and looked forward to collaboration with other Delaware universities to prepare the next generation of social workers. 

Steele’s keynote address

Henry also introduced Earnshaw, Steele’s keynote speaker. Earnshaw’s scholarship research focuses on understanding how stigma undermines health outcomes and how we can develop interventions to improve the wellbeing of vulnerable and at-risk children, youth, and families. 

In her keynote address, titled “Stigma, Disclosure and the Opioid Crisis,” Earnshaw shared what Henry called “a masterful talk on the valence of disclosure” and gave the audience an “eye into how an expert researcher does her work.” Earnshaw charted the growth of the opioid crisis in the United States, discussed stigma as a complex social process with the power to affect health outcomes and shared her work on an intervention she designed to help people with the disclosure process. 

Excellence in undergraduate and graduate research

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

• Lien Vu, a Ph.D. in educational statistics and research methods student, won the First Place Graduate Paper Award for “Evaluation of the Impacts of Kumon Using Propensity Score Matching.”
• Christy Metzger, a Ph.D. in education student, won the Second Place Graduate Paper Award for “Examining Physics Professors’ Perceptions of Ideal Students Through the Lens of Power and Identity.”
• Samatha Akridge, a Ph.D. in education student, Arielle Lentz, a Ph.D. in educational statistics and research methods student, and Latrice Marianno, a Ph.D. in educational statistics and research methods student, won the Third Place Graduate Student Paper Award for “Operationalizing the Principles of QuantCrit in Education: Insights and Practical Examples for the Field.”
• Jon Oluwadero, a Ph.D. in education and social policy student, won the First Place Graduate Poster Award for “Assessment of Policy Responses to Flood-Induced Food Insecurity in Nigeria: A Multilayered Community-Based Participatory Research Approach.”
• William Woelki, a Ph.D. in human development and family Sciences student, won the Second Place Graduate Poster Award for his poster, “Unveiling Intersectional Realities: Understanding LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness.”
• Sotheara Veng, a Ph.D. in education student, won the Third Place Graduate Poster Award for “Potential Use of Generative AI to Optimize Cognitive Load for Self-Regulated Learning.”

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

Article by Jessica Henderson. Photography by Shelly Silva.