UF is looking for a few great scholars to better educate young children

July 7, 2015

With the help of a four-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, UF is seeking future leaders wanting to earn a Ph.D. and then apply their knowledge to improve early childhood studies.

The Preparing Leaders in Early Childhood Studies and Implementation Science grant program will help fund five doctoral students in the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies and the College of Education’s special education program. The goal is to develop the next generation of leaders in the field.

Maureen Conroy, the Anita Zucker Professor of Early Childhood Studies and co-director of the Zucker Center, and Brian Reichow, an associate professor and core faculty member of the center, are spearheading this new training initiative.

“While there are other doctoral preparation programs in early childhood, to my knowledge this is one of the first programs that prepares future leaders in special education, early childhood studies, advanced research and evaluation methods, andimplementation science,” Conroy said.

Patricia Snyder, the David Lawrence Jr. Chair in Early Childhood Studies, is optimistic that the highly competitive scholarships offered through the grant will attract some of the top graduate students in the country.

“The Preparing Leaders grant program, which focuses on children from birth to age 5, builds on synergy created over the past seven years among faculty at the Anita Zucker Center,” said Snyder, who directs the interdisciplinary center and is a co-principal investigator of the project.

Through the UF Preeminence initiative funded by the Florida Legislature to accelerate research, Snyder and Conroy were able to recruit two accomplished research scholars with expertise directly related to the project. Along with Reichow, Professor Mary McLean joined the center’s core faculty last year. Both serve as co-principal investigators for this project.

To be eligible, doctoral student applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents; able to attend school full time; and adhere to the requirements established by the U.S. Department of Education and implemented by the Personnel Development Program Data Collection Center. Selected students will receive a competitive monthly stipend and tuition waiver.

For additional information or to apply, please call the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at 352-273-4287, or email ceecs-info@coe.ufl.edu.