Deborah S. Valentine, first Recipient of the
David K. Sengstack Endowed Graduate Fellowship

Deborah S. Valentine (B.A. Wheaton College, IL; M.A. Wheaton College, IL), second-year doctoral student in the Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers-Camden, has been selected as the first recipient of the David K. Sengstack Endowed Graduate Fellowship.

Ms. Valentine is an exemplary student whose academic work, commitment to social justice and early childhood education and leadership qualities impress all who meet her.  Ms. Valentine has maintained a 4.0 grade point average in her two years of coursework at Rutgers and has passed her Second Year Review (our Ph.D. qualifying mechanism).  The importance and originality of Deborah’s research project on race, child welfare and the Playground Movement have been acknowledged both within and outside of Rutgers University:  she is slated to deliver a paper entitled “Present But Not Included: African American Children on Philadelphia's Playgrounds in the early Twentieth Century” at the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth conference to be held later this month at the University of California, Berkeley.  She has a forthcoming publication on the history of the US Playground Movement that will appear in the Encyclopedia of Play (2009).  She has discussed her research into pedagogical methods in Childhood Studies as part of the Department of Childhood Studies’ Research Seminar.  Ms Valentine is also an officer in the Childhood Studies Graduate Student Organization.

Ms. Valentine is a person of the highest integrity, sensitivity and intelligence.  The Department of Childhood Studies is delighted to name her as the David K. Sengstack Fellow for AY 2009-2010 (to begin September 1, 2009).

The Department of Childhood Studies is pleased both to introduce Deborah Valentine and to honor the memory of David K. Sengstack.   Our deepest thanks are owed to Mrs. Alice Sengstack for her generosity in endowing this fellowship in Mr. Sengstack’s name and for her commitment to making the vision of a better world through helping children a reality.

For more information about Deborah Valentine, please see her profile on the Department’s website:http://childhood.camden.rutgers.edu/graduate_students.htm#valentine

Last updated: September 2, 2009