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December 19, 2013

Julie Mapes Wilgen Award in Sexuality and Gender Studies

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2014 Julie Mapes Wilgen Award in Sexuality and Gender Studies.

Open to all undergraduate and graduate majors at UD, the award is designed to encourage and recognize outstanding achievement by a student who has demonstrated a commitment to the field of human sexuality and gender studies and who has shown an appreciation for diversity and for the betterment of society.  The award honors the lifelong work of Dr. Julie Mapes Wilgen, a faculty member in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

The deadline for applications for the Wilgen Award is January 24, 2014. Interested applicants should follow the application procedures in the award description.

The 2013 Wilgen Award recipient was Human Services major, Joanne Sampson (’15). Over the past two and a half years, Sampson has given over 70 programs regarding sexual awareness and health wellness to UD students and faculty as well as parents and students in the Newark community.  She helped create a program with the director of Student Wellness and Health Promotion, Nancy Chase, called “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” that helps people deconstruct commercial advertisements’ use of sexuality to sell products. 

“Sampson has demonstrated a remarkable talent, juggling multiple responsibilities,” says Wilgen.  “She has a spouse, a 16-year-old daughter, maintains a 4.0 GPA, and was accepted into the Human Development and Family Studies 4+1 program where she plans to work with Dr. Fleury-Steiner focusing on reproductive coercion (an under-researched topic of men interfering with their significant other’s pregnancy).  Her ultimate goal is to become a sexuality educator – something she already pursues through teaching the OWL (Our Whole Lives) curriculum to teens in her local church in Newark.”

For her efforts, Sampson has received more than 12 awards for her outstanding success at UD.  She is seen by peers and teachers as someone who is smart, driven, and completely dedicated to helping others.  In fact, Sampson is often recognized for her work as a peer educator and mentor. 

The first Wilgen Award winner was named in 2009, and the first recipient, Andrew Christy (AS ’09), clerked for Fairfax, Virginia, Circuit Court Chief Judge Dennis Smith and recently helped write an opinion striking down as unconstitutional a law on licenses to perform marriages. Christy is now clerking for Judge Facciola on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

HDFS Departmental Awards

  • HDFS majors who have demonstrated leadership in their field and meet the requirements can apply for the Lila C. Murphy Award for Women’s Equity and Leadership or the Catherine Bieber Scholarship for Academic Achievement and Leadership in Human Development and Family Studies.
  • Graduate students with advanced standing in HDFS who, by reason of scholarship ability, professional orientation, communication skills and personal commitment to becoming a strong advocate for children, may qualify for the Strattner-Gregory Graduate Child Advocacy Award.
  • Students who are human services majors and have demonstrated outstanding service to the local community may qualify for the Lila C. Murphy Community and Family Services Scholarship.
  • Students who have a major in HDFS, fashion and apparel studies, nutrition and dietetics, or hotel, restaurant and institutional management, or a minor in HDFS, and who are proud of a paper or poster completed for class are welcome to submit their paper or poster to the annual Marion H. Steele Symposium. Monetary awards are given to the best graduate and undergraduate submissions in each category.

The application deadline for HDFS department awards is Friday, Feb. 14, 2014. For more information on these awards and scholarships, including the nomination forms, visit the HDFS award website, email the HDFS office or call 302-831-6500.