Wisconsin Division for Early Childhood.

* The mission of the WDEC is to support individuals who work with children with special needs, birth through age eight, and their families.

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Wisconsin Early Childhood
                        Jenny Lange Scholarship
If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to this wonderful scholarship program, please click HERE
for more information. Thanks!

 

This scholarship is to honor and sustain the accomplishments and qualities of Jenny Lange.  It celebrates her career and contributions as the pioneer in early childhood special education in Wisconsin.  It honors her impact on programs and services for young children with disabilities and their families.

 

Jenny began her career at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the early childhood special education program. Jenny brought with her a love of children, a respect for individual differences, and a warm personality that made her friends too many.  As a UW-Whitewater student, under the direction of David Franks, Jenny learned a comprehensive approach to serving young children with disabilities; she learned the importance of parent involvement, and the importance of a team approach to services.  Jenny developed the knowledge and skills that later became the foundation for the state’s early childhood special education program and services.

 

Upon graduation, Jenny took her skills, knowledge, and dispositions into the field.  Her early work at Cooperative Educational Services Agency #5 and later at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) made early childhood special education what it is today.  But rather than talk about her jobs, we want to honor and recognize her qualities and their impact.  Turning to her co-workers and friends around the state, we learn of the “Jenny” behind this scholarship.

 

Jenny knew that young children with disabilities are children first.  They live with families and participate in communities.  Jenny built the collaborative nature of our current early childhood system with these concepts in mind.  She began the conversations that have shaped today's collaborations.   She promoted the importance of a system that aligns services for children from birth through the school years.  Her discussions of least restrictive environments opened the doors for Head Start and child care collaborations.  Always striving for ideas to find commonalities, she adopted the concept of outcomes that are meaningful to families. 

 

Jenny understood the importance of connecting higher education with those working out in the field.  Throughout her tenure at DPI, she worked very closely with faculty in higher education to keep them informed and involved in state activities.  These powerful collaborations between state agencies and higher education continue today. This legacy lives on and is one continuing source of strength for Wisconsin's EI and ECSE programs.

 

Jenny embodies the ideal of life-long learning.  She encouraged many young teachers through the program support network she created. She set a standard for high expectations and unwavering support; two variables in effective teaching, mentoring, and parenting. As a state consultant, Jenny was always available for questions; her answers were a balance between training and expertise, problem solving, and caring. 


These and many others are the qualities that make this scholarship important.  This scholarship provides the dream that each year’s recipient will carry on Jenny's legacy.   Scholarship donors have a vision that Jenny’s legacy for quality early childhood programs and services will be modeled in the field.  They hope to sustain her legacy through the selection of a recipient who values high expectations, professional preparation and continued education.   And most of all, they hope to impact the lives of a new generation of young children with disabilities and their families, bringing them a life of optimism and success.