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Robin Muza, Program Director
Welcome the Human Development and Family Studies website. My name is Robin Muza, and I am the Program Director. The human development and family studies program is a great place to learn not only about families and individuals but yourself as well. If you’re interested in working with people, this might be the major for you. In this field, we have people working in the areas of adoption, social services, adolescence, early childhood, gerontology (or working with the elderly as its also known), and we also have people working in probation and parole, big brothers big sisters, to name but a few organizations that people are working in.
In the major itself you will get a good grounding of family dynamics, how families change over time as new members leave and come to the family. About individuals across the lifespan. What happens cognitively, physically, social/emotionally as we go through life. In addition, you will learn about how families and individuals are affected by government and other contextual parts of society. This major prepares you not only for entry level jobs but jobs as you change careers as you yourself change with age and family. I hope you will take a few moments to look at our website and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. My information is on this website. Thank you again, and good luck.
Aria Snyder, Sophomore
Hi, I am Aria Snyder and I am a sophomore here at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and this is my first semester in the Human Development and Family Studies major and the reason why I chose this major is because I want to become a K-12 guidance counselor. This is the fastest track towards getting into grad school. So far this semester I really like my HDFS classes -- they are really interesting and fun and I really like the teachers. This is definitely a major for someone that wants to help -- help families, help children and learn about the development of families and children. It's just a really great major for helping people. I'm really glad I chose HDFS as my major.
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Mckenzie Anderson, Junior
My name is McKenzie Anderson and I am in the Human Development and Family Studies major. I chose this major because I want to do something with helping people as well as anything involving educating families and children on different life issues. This is my fourth year in this major. I transferred into this major my sophomore year, because I didn't think that education was what I wanted and this is the next step up. You can get into so many different things, such as social work, foster care, human resources, family life education. You can also work in nonprofit organizations for abused women, battered, domestic violence, pretty much anything along those lines.
What I am going for is a social work certificate as well as a family life education certificate. I want to work in a non-profit organization working with children and along those lines. What's really good about this major is that the professors are extremely helpful -- they will basically guide you though this whole process and get you situated wherever it is you want to be. Also it is so broad you are able to go into so many different things from different ages, pretty much any age you can think of. If you want to work with the elderly, if you want to work with delinquents, children, parents anything along those lines -- it is a pretty good experience. I will be done soon so that's exciting to get out in the world.
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Leigh-Anna Fournelle, Senior
I am Leigh-Anna Fournelle and I am a junior here at Stout. I originally came in my freshman year as "undecided" so I decided to take the career class and through many different surveys and questionnaires I found out that I wanted to work with people -- it was one of my main concerns. And they said that the HDFS program dealt mostly with families and children and that would be a good option for me if I wanted to work with people. So I enrolled in the HDFS program and am going to get my degree next year.
With my degree I plan to go on to become a graduate student at the U of M (University of Minnesota) hopefully and from there I am thinking of working in social work or adoption or a field like that. What I really like about the HDFS program is that the professors are very concerned; they are very involved.
There are also a lot of options within the HDFS program. There are many different fields you can go into through this education such as social work, you can work with Juvenile delinquents, you can work in adoption, you can become a counselor, and that is what I really like about it since I wasn't sure what I wanted to do that this gave me a lot of options, and that I why I think the HDFS program is a great option.
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Emily Seelhoff, Senior
Hi, my name is Emily Seelhoff and I'm a senior at UW-Stout pursuing a degree in human development and family studies to work as a child life specialist. I'll be graduating in a couple weeks here. It's been a really great time here. I've enjoyed all the course work. It's been a very diverse experience learning a lot of different things I feel have really equipped me to be successful as a professional and as a personal individual.
I've learned a lot about myself while I've been here. And have really felt connected as a part of Stout and the campus. It's been a really great experience I would encourage anyone to consider Stout as an option, especially if you have a heart for people. HDFS is a great place to start because it is so broad, you can take it anywhere. You are really allowed to pursue your own passion and make it what you want.
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Kevin Doll Ph.D., Assistant Professor
My name is Kevin Doll and I am an assistant professor here in HDFS. I teach primarily developmental courses. I think students that enjoy this program, that enjoy coming here, like working with people. You have the opportunity to work with children, you can work with adolescents, you can work with adults, and you can work with individual near the end of life as well after retirement age. If you enjoy hands on activities, if you enjoy working in the community, you will really enjoy this major. I think that also the class sizes-they have no more than 30 students per professor. There's a lot of interaction, there's a lot of community between the students, but also opportunities to get to really know your professors and also for us to get to know you.
So if you enjoy working with people and at any age range and if you are looking into going in to marriage and family therapy, being a guidance counselor, working in probationary offices, this is the place for you and we would enjoy having you here.
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Susan M. Wolfgram, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
So why would a student want to come into Human Development and Family Studies? This program at Stout is probably one of the most comprehensive curriculums that you will find in terms of working with the family. I really feel that we address 21st Century issues of the family. The family right now in the United States, only approximately 22 percent of the family is your traditional nuclear family. Families today are very diverse. They come from alternative kinds of family forms. We have so many single families, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender families, extended families; we have many immigrant families that are also changing the fabric of the family in the United States.
We focus a lot on diversity in this department. A lot on bridging theory with practice and focusing on critical thinking. I can speak for two of my classes. The first class that I would like to speak to is Abuse in the Family. I truly believe that students learn mostly from applying what they are learning outside the walls of the classroom. I've listened to students over the years and this is what they've told me. And as we learn about different types of family violence, then the students empower themselves by coming up in groups of about five or six with their own social action projects. They come up with an issue about abuse that they are passionate about and then they take it outside the walls of the classroom. So for instance they have organized concerts to raise money for domestic violence. They go into classrooms and they educate middle school students on sexual assault and family violence, they go into high schools, whatever they are interested in, they come up with, and then they become empowered individuals to be able to go out into the world and actually make a difference. And they realize that a small group of people can make a difference in the world. And really that is all that has ever made a difference. So that's just an example of that.
Then I also teach Family Research Methods. What I think what is very unique about our family studies department, is that students do an actual study from beginning to end, coming up with their own research question about the family collecting their on data, analyzing their own data having the opportunity to disseminate their results through presentations, again outside the walls of the classroom, which are excellent resume items, they also are published in the Journal of Student Research, we've had three pairs of students with the fifth edition that was just published that were able to get their work into that journal. Students that perhaps were hesitant about graduate school after they complete this project, they know that they have done a mini thesis, and they begin to gain confidence in themselves that they can in fact go to graduate school and be successful. So what I really think is important, a lot of what we do here is that we empower individuals to be very active agents in contemporary society. That we foster creativity, we foster flexibility, and we really want to attract a very diverse student body as well.
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