Students & Alumni News

All trauma, all the time. For decades, research into queer life focused solely on discrimination, stress and stigma. Mainstream film and television (when they featured queer characters at all) explored the same. The entire LGBTQ experience flattened into a single hardship narrative. Queer identity became synonymous with struggle. So what …

Learning and connection. That’s what drew Juliet Samuel, now a high school chemistry teacher at Brandywine School District’s Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, to University of Delaware’s Teacher Residency program. Housed in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and funded by the Delaware Department of Education, the …

Antonia Vázquez did not set out to be the University of Delaware’s youngest Class of 2026 graduate. She was just satisfying an insatiable thirst for knowledge and research. At just 18, she will graduate with a 4.0, a finance degree from the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and …

Summer camps remain one of Antwain Flowers’ fondest childhood memories. “I can still remember the teachers and counselors who poured into me — the ones who saw potential in me before I fully saw it in myself,” said Flowers, who graduated from the College of Education and Human Development’s (CEHD) …

On May 21, 2026, the University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) celebrated 496 degree candidates in the fields of education and human development at its Convocation ceremony at UD’s Field House. The ceremony recognized the participants of the Career and Life Studies Certificate (CLSC) program and …

In May, University of Delaware’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS), School of Education (SOE) and master of social work program, housed in the College of Education and Human Development, celebrated outstanding achievements with end-of-year ceremonies.  HDFS hosted its annual ceremony and reception on May 1, 2026, at …

With a specialization in LGBTQ+ development, University of Delaware Assistant Professor Eric Layland often works to support LGBTQ+ well-being through research and affirmative community interventions. That’s one reason why he partnered with UD colleagues across the university to host the inaugural LGBTQ+ Research Symposium in May 2026. “Rigorous research shows …

Doctoral students certainly spend countless hours on solitary research, lab work, data analysis, fieldwork and writing papers, but that depiction doesn’t tell the whole story. While on their way to attaining a degree held by only 2% of the U.S. population, plenty of doctoral students engage in extracurricular activities that …

The traditional college experience is often portrayed as a straight path — four years, one program, one campus — all leading to new adventures away from home. But for University of Delaware senior Kaitlyn Hand, success took a different route. It began in an associate program in her Southern Delaware …

Rena A. Hallam, a professor of human development and family sciences, has been named the new dean of the University of Delaware’s College of Education and Human Development, Interim Provost Bill Farquhar announced today. Her appointment is effective immediately. A UD alumna, Hallam has served as interim dean since August 2024. …