HDFS uses collaboration, prevention, resources and provides educational opportunities to assist individuals and families throughout their lives, encouraging service in the areas of social need with a positive, holistic and family focus.

The Human Development and Family Studies BA and BS degrees are approved by the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR), and allows students to become Certified Family Life Educators (CFLE). The degrees prepare graduates to work in human service agencies serving children, youth and adults responding to the needs of an increasingly diverse society. The HDFS field is any organized effort to provide family members with information, skills, experiences, or resources intended to strengthen, improve or enrich their family experience. HDFS uses collaboration, prevention, resources and provides educational opportunities to assist individuals and families throughout their lives. The degree program encourages service in the areas of social need with a positive, holistic and family focus.

Students in the Human Development and Family Studies degree program will take classes to understand:

• families and their relationships to society

• strengths and weaknesses in all families

• physiological, psychological, and social aspects of sexual development

• relationships and how to maintain them

• decisions individuals make about money, time, space, etc.

• how parents teach, guide and influence children

• ethical issues and the philosophy of family studies

• how to plan, implement and evaluate programs

The HDFS Degree Program prepares graduates to serve as:

• counselors for at-risk youth

• governmental policy makers for children, teens and adults

• providers of support services for youth with mental or physical disabilities

• provide services for children, youth and families of military personnel

• Provide care, create and administer programs for older people

• directors of recreational programs, youth group leader

• 4-H and Extension specialists, parent trainers

• adoption and foster care specialists

• Military family liaisons

• human services agency directors

• child life specialists working with children, youth and families in children’s hospitals or pediatric wards