In celebration of The Week of the Young Child April 6-12, Desalyn De-Souza, Ph.D., assistant professor, SUNY Empire State College, will be honored for her community service, advocacy for children’s education, and commitment to training child care professionals with the 2014 Altes Prize on April 8. A 2012 graduate of the Falk College’s Department of Child and Family Studies at Syracuse University, De-Souza dissertation was entitled, “Child Care Center Directors’ Perceptions of Continuity of Care: A Qualitative Investigation.” Her CFS advisor was Dr. Bruce Carter. The Altes Prize is named for retired, long-time vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Empire State College, Jane Altes, and is awarded annually to a member of the college faculty. De-Souza was awarded the Graduate School All University Doctoral Prize in 2012. This prize is awarded to students who have demonstrated originality, contribution to the field, creativity, methodology soundness, and quality of writing in their dissertation.
The Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world’s largest early childhood education association, with nearly 80,000 members and a network of over 300 local, state, and regional Affiliates. The purpose of the Week of the Young Child™ is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. NAEYC first established the Week of the Young Child™ in 1971, recognizing that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) lay the foundation for children’s success in school and later life. The Week of the Young Child™ is a time to plan how we—as citizens of a community, of a state, and of a nation—will better meet the needs of all young children and their families.