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The Department seeks to create a model of teaching, learning, scholarship, and service that is consistent with the needs of a rapidly changing global environment. Faculty collaborate both in and outside the classroom with students on a wide spectrum of issues that includes diverse families, early childhood, disabilities, adolescent and adult development, and policy issues. These collaborations occur on multiple levels: in the Department, throughout the College and the University, the State of Delaware, the Mid-Atlantic region and, at times, even in the national and international communities. Faculty and students share a strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and service to the community.
A growing focus in HDFS is on the role of social entrepreneurship. As private investment in preventative social interventions grows, we will see employment opportunities in this sector expand. In order to prepare students for these new opportunities, we are re-focusing our curriculum in collaboration with the Horn Entrepreneurship Program, on the relationship between the private and the public sectors. There is growing recognition that this traditional divide needs to be dismantled and that we need to work together in order to provide much needed services to society. Students who come into our majors are usually motivated by social goals rather than wealth accumulation. They leave our program understanding that their mission is to be change agents, and that it is through their creative endeavors that critical social needs will be addressed. By educating our students to address social issues in new innovative ways, our department is leading the way for learning and skills preparation for the 21st century.
Bahira Sherif Trask is Chair of the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware.