Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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Food is one of the most universal and uniting human experiences. It is a powerful tool to bring communities together and it is a simple way to bring joy to an individual. This project is an exercise in marketing and entrepreneurship that was inspired by these ideas, which culminated in a fundraiser bake sale to benefit Creighton Community Foundation, a local nonprofit.
The return to collegiate football at the forefront of the COVID-19 Pandemic was a highly debated topic. In this paper, I argue that when the SEC is treated as a business entity, the initial decision to return to play can be ethically justified.
This thesis analyzes the relationship between diversity within U. S. boards of directors and overall firm performance. In the summer of 2020, various political and social movements erupted, fighting against police brutality and racial violence. These events were followed by an influx of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks across corporate America. It was becoming increasingly clear that diversity within company leadership was lacking. A company’s board of directors, who is responsible for creating value for shareholders, was not an accurate representation of the people it served. First, I will begin by discussing the current state of diversity in corporate boards by discussing reasons firms diversify, benefits and risks of a diverse board, and major barriers to diversification efforts. A main goal of directors is to maximize shareholder return, which prompts the question: is there a financial benefit to having directors of different backgrounds, skills, and perspectives? In the second part of my thesis, I explore the correlation of board compositions and the company’s financial performance through a study of 45 Fortune 500 companies. Previous studies have mixed results; some studies concluded that there is a positive correlation, some found a negative correlation, and others were inconclusive. While the results of my study did not demonstrate that a relationship between firm performance and diversity exists, I want to emphasize that it does not mean that diverse boards do not contribute at all to the success of the board. There are various factors that contributed to my results, but regardless of my findings, I believe that further research of this topic is necessary and will be beneficial for those in corporate governance.
For our Barrett Honors thesis, our team decided to complete the Founders Lab thesis pathway. Founders Lab offers Barrett students the opportunity to spend their year working on developing entrepreneurial ideas into innovative new businesses by designing not only a business model, but the marketing, sales, and financial models of it as well. This team-based thesis/creative project empowers Barrett students to find solutions to a challenge and gain valuable experience launching a new business of their own.
Through the use of Arizona State University’s Founders Lab, our group of four Barrett, the Honors College Students completed a research thesis regarding the interest of college students in a sleep light technology product. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pioneered a sleep light technology with the ability to regulate melatonin production and circadian rhythm, resulting in an improvement of sleep quality. The technology was originally invented for astronauts to improve their sleep while in space on a spacecraft. Utilizing this technology, our group performed extensive market research with the intention of determining if college students would be interested in purchasing a consumer product incorporating the sleep light technology. We created a brand called Rhythm Illumination and began by building a website and brand guide. Next, we utilized Google Forms to generate responses to a variety of questions regarding current sleep habits, current sleep problems, and whether or not there was interest in a product like this. After determining that college students have room for sleep quality improvement and there is interest in this kind of product, we worked towards our goal of gaining traction for the product. We decided to utilize both Google Analytics results and a Zoom event’s attendance as proof of interest in our product. Google Analytics revealed over one hundred unique users on our Rhythm Illumination website. We also had eleven event attendees. Between these two tools, our team was able to conclude that there is interest among college students for a consumer product utilizing NASA’s sleep light technology
This thesis project was conducted in accordance with the Founders Lab, a Barrett Honors Thesis program, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at the W.P. Carey School of Business. This paper focuses on the development of Invicta Synergy, a student-led start-up that seeks to provide holistic approaches in developing healthy lifestyle practices as a solution to growing sedentary lifestyles (i.e., sitting at work, school, gaming, etc.) and recently increasing isolation amongst young adult populations. Primary research from interviews conducted during the customer discovery phase showed that many people suffer from self-esteem issues, the lack of a positive support system, and/or inadequate resources which were noted as more of a barrier than even time or financial constraints when it comes to engaging in healthier lifestyle habits. As a solution, Invicta Synergy seeks to connect people to safe, affordable, and engaging classes hosted by experts in yoga, breath-work, and guided meditation. Regularly engaging in these practices has been shown to have a positive effect on one's resilience and may divert health problems associated with chronic stress. This paper outlines Invicta Synergy’s traction since January 2022, including details on fourteen paying clients, four official business partnerships, four successful program classes with high attendance, the packaging and delivering of fourteen individualized wellness gift boxes to purchasing clients, a full-page publication in Elevate Magazine, and $420 in sales revenue so far.
This thesis project was conducted in accordance with the Founders Lab, a Barrett Honors Thesis program, hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at the W.P. Carey School of Business. This paper focuses on the development of Invicta Synergy, a student-led start-up that seeks to provide holistic approaches in developing healthy lifestyle practices as a solution to growing sedentary lifestyles (i.e., sitting at work, school, gaming, etc.) and recently increasing isolation amongst young adult populations. Primary research from interviews conducted during the customer discovery phase showed that many people suffer from self-esteem issues, the lack of a positive support system, and/or inadequate resources which were noted as more of a barrier than even time or financial constraints when it comes to engaging in healthier lifestyle habits. As a solution, Invicta Synergy seeks to connect people to safe, affordable, and engaging classes hosted by experts in yoga, breath-work, and guided meditation. Regularly engaging in these practices has been shown to have a positive effect on one's resilience and may divert health problems associated with chronic stress. This paper outlines Invicta Synergy’s traction since January 2022, including details on fourteen paying clients, four official business partnerships, four successful program classes with high attendance, the packaging and delivering of fourteen individualized wellness gift boxes to purchasing clients, a full-page publication in Elevate Magazine, and $420 in sales revenue so far.
The question that always gets asked by college students in today’s world is how and where I am going to find that first real job out of college. Students struggle with finding the right connections and networking required to get that dream job they have always wanted after completing their degree. As students graduating this year, it is related to us in a big way that we create a website that makes the job easier for students and employees to connect and get the job they are looking for. Our group decided to create a website that will give these students an opportunity to show a little bit of their personality to employers along with their skills and attributes that they would provide to a company. The website also gives employers the opportunity to narrow the search for a candidate and get the employee they are looking for in their company. The goal is to make looking for a job easier for newly graduated college students that are starting their careers. We have also created a link from our website that can be used to put on your Linkedin or other various websites to promote yourself. With the addition of our video feature and other qualities about the person, we believe our website is unique and will help candidates get the job they are looking for.