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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- Creators: Lee, Christopher
- Creators: O'Flaherty, Katherine
DescriptionThis project is designed to generate enthusiasm for science among refugee students in hopes of inspiring them to continue learning science as well as to help them with their current understanding of their school science subject matter.
ContributorsSipes, Shannon Paige (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Gregg, George (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
This thesis project examines the likely factors that cause students to drop out of Barrett, the Honors College. Honors literature regarding retention and attrition suggests four areas encompassing individual student attributes and honors program characteristics which may impact a student's decision to stay or leave an Honors College. The primary question in focus is, "Why do students leave the Honors College?" followed by the tertiary questions of, "what can be done to mitigate this occurrence?" and, "how does this affect the quality of an honors education?" Assessing attrition can be broken down into biographical, cognitive-behavioral, socio-environmental, and institutional-instrumental components. Students who graduated with honors and those who did not graduate with honors were assessed on these four components through survey methods and qualitative interviews to investigate specific reasons why students leave the honors program. The results indicated a wide array of reasons impacting student attrition, the most significant being negative perceptions towards (1) honors courses and contracts, (2) difficulty completing a thesis project, and (3) finding little to no value in "graduating with honors." Each of these reasons reflect the institutional-instrumental component of student attrition, making it the most salient group of reasons why students leave the Honors College. The socio-environmental component also influences student attrition through peer influence and academic advisor support, though this was found to be within the context of institutional-instrumental means. This project offers solutions to ameliorate each of the four components of attrition by offering standardized honors contracts and more mandatory honors classes, mandatory thesis preparatory courses instead of workshops, and emphasizing the benefit Barrett gives to students as a whole. These solutions aim at increasing graduation rates for future honors students at Barrett as well as improving the overall quality of an honors education.
ContributorsSanchez, Gilbert Xavier (Author) / Parker, John (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This thesis project was a response to the NFL's struggles with domestic violence in the recent past. To contextualize the issue, this paper examines key domestic violence statistics and rates in the United States. Also discussed are the issues that United States law enforcement has with domestic violence cases, namely a problem with under-reporting and inconsistent arrest policies from state to state. Controversy surrounding NFL players and domestic violence was sparked by Ray Rice's arrest in 2014 and exacerbated by the league's light discipline of Rice. This paper attempts to uncover the root causes of the NFL's domestic violence problem and identifies issues the league has in terms of its inconsistent punishment history for domestic violence offenses, recent arrest trends for NFL players and the efforts the league and its members have made to combat the issue. Also considered are the ways the NFL has attempted to resolve the issue of domestic violence. The paper examines the policies set forth in the NFL's personal conduct policy as well as partnerships the league has made with nationwide organizations dedicated to education and prevention of domestic violence, including NO MORE and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. This thesis also compares the NFL's policies regarding domestic violence to that of its peers, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. Lastly, the thesis offers several recommendations to the NFL for how it can rectify its prior shortcomings. These recommendations include revamped education programs for players, heightened disciplinary standards and more open communication with fans and outsiders.
ContributorsBeck, Ian Christopher (Author) / DeCarolis, Claudine (Thesis director) / Brumfield, Kenya (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
As the population of the United States grows, child maltreatment will remain a constant problem in our society. Current victimization theories do not portray a clear picture of the factors and influences of victimization associated with children. By combining routine activities and lifestyles theories, a full picture of maltreatment emerges that can be applied to a wide range of types, areas, and victims. It is possible that the current policy on victimization and crime can be changed to incorporate this new view of maltreatment. Further research needs to be done to understand the applicability of such a theory and if high-risk populations will benefit.
ContributorsHaverkate, Danielle Lynn (Author) / Sweeten, Gary (Thesis director) / DeCarolis, Claudine (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Zoraida Ladrón de Guevarra was born in 1936 in Coyula, Mexico, a small village in the state of Oaxaca. Her father’s passing required Zoraida to find a job at age fourteen to support her family. Her story, a 200-page memoir entitled “After Papa Died,” follows Zoraida’s time as a servant and eventual nanny in Veracruz. Flashing back to memories of her hometown and the people living in it, the story ends before she enters America first as a visitor in 1954, and later on a working Visa in 1957—the first woman in her village to leave to the United States. Hers is a story relevant today, evident with the paradoxes explored between poverty and riches, patriarchy and matriarchy, freedom and captivity. Assimilation impacts the reading of this memoir, as Zoraida began writing the memoir in her 80s (around fifty years after gaining American citizenship). This detailed family history is about the nature of memory, community, and in particular, the experience of being an immigrant. This thesis project centers on this text and includes three components: an edited memoir, informational interviews, and an introduction. Beginning as a diary steeped in the tradition of oral history, the memoir required a “translation” into a written form; chapters and chronological continuity helped with organization. Topics of interest from the story, such as identity, domestic violence, and religion, are further explored in a series of interviews with Zoraida. The inclusion of an introduction to the text contextualizes the stories documented in the memoir with supplemental information. The contents of the project are housed on a website: alongwaybabyproject.net.
ContributorsVan Slyke, Shea Elizabeth (Author) / Meloy, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Most research on domestic violence has been regularly generalized, on the issue and the people involved, who are most commonly but not necessarily, only women. Previous studies have focused mainly on women in the United States facing a domestic violence situation and the criminal justice response to them, however studies on the immigrant populations are limited. In this qualitative research we attempt to answer the question of how do domestic violence circumstances during childhood and young formative years, 12 - 18 years old, affect people from diverse cultures, as they become adults in the U.S. This study looks at the perceptions of women from Cambodia, Mexico, Russia and Vietnam as well as the United States, involving Native American women and their dependent children who have emigrated to or lived in the U.S. and experienced violence from their intimate partner and their experiences with the law, culture, Child Protective Services and other programs. Through previous interviews with women of these cultures we gain an understanding of their struggles and thoughts about their experiences and understandings and look into what changes can be implemented in order to help the various cultured victims of domestic violence in the law, community and criminal justice system and programs.
ContributorsBenado Smasch, Alisys Antanaychene (Author) / DeCarolis, Claudine (Thesis director) / Fox, Kate (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Undergraduate on-campus residential education is a topic of significant inquiry within the field of higher education, and specifically student affairs. It has become commonplace for institutions of higher education in the United States to leverage the intersections between academics and residence life in order to promote student success by offering on-campus housing options that strategically place students in residential communities that provide additional connection to the students' academic experience, often by major, college, department, or other focus areas. Such models vary by institution, but are often referred to as living-learning communities or residential colleges, depending upon their structure and goals. For example, Barrett, the Honors College on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University implements a residential college model within its student housing; honors students live and study together, with the addition of three "special communities" designed for students majoring in Engineering, Business, or the Arts. This honors thesis case study describes and investigates the impact the visual and performing arts Barrett residential community has upon its residents in their first-year college experience. Through the lens of student development theory, this research focuses upon examining this specific residential community in detail in order to gain an understanding of its effect upon residents' academic and personal well being.
ContributorsBieschke, Sara Danielle (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Rendell, Dawn (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description"Writing the Races" is a documentary exploring how two writers talk about race in their comedy television shows. http://www.writingtheraces.com/
ContributorsTyau, Nicole Jenice (Author) / Rodriguez, Rick (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The sport of football has become one of the most widely loved and watched sports in the United States. Fans of football are extremely dedicated to the sport and form very personal, emotional attachments to teams within the National Football League. Through studying these fans, three main analysis topics will be addressed in this thesis: the established fan knowledge that creates rules within the fandom on how a fan participates and the exceptions to those rules, the need that fan's who do not fit into the normative patterns of the fandom feel to explain their motivations, and the degree of fanship that can be measured through a fan's explanation for their deviant behavior. For this fandom analysis, two sets of data will be referenced throughout the discussion. The first is anecdotal data pulled from various reddit threads on the personal experiences of each fan as well as some opinion sharing about the National Football League fandom. The second set of data is primary data that I have compiled via a survey. The established fan knowledge within this fandom is two fold: First, fans choose their team for a specific reason (usually based off of the team their parent's are a fan of or the state they grew up in), which typically takes place by age twelve. Secondly, once a fan chooses a team, they should stick with that team through their entire fanship. This second piece of fan knowledge is the most important rule within the fandom. This idea of loyalty is what guides fan participation. Identifying this rule led me to my main question about this fandom \u2014 if fans are so dedicated to their chosen team, what does it mean when someone switches to a new team. I feel that this breaking of a bond that seems so personal to fans is important and should be researched. This brought me to researching these fans that have switched teams, learning why, as well as what this group of fans can say about the National Football League fandom as a whole.
ContributorsGutierrez, Brooke Kathleen (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Lee, Christopher (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The purpose of this project was to evaluate possible adjudicative causes of wrongful convictions, which were strictly defined as cases where a defendant is convicted for a crime in which they are factually innocent. Most of the existing research on the causes of wrongful convictions suggests that errors occur during the investigative process. However, there is little to no research on how the court system, whose purpose is to catch and correct these mistakes prior to sentencing, fails to do just that. As such, a few possible adjudicative causes were proposed based on existing literature: errors in expert witness testimony, prosecutorial misconduct, representation by the defense, and race. Interview questions were generated based on each of these topics. Four attorneys \u2014 two prosecutors, one public defender, and one private defense attorney \u2014 were interviewed with these questions in order to qualitatively evaluate the legitimacy and the accuracy of these proposed adjudicative causes. The results indicated that attorneys rely on (and believe that jurors rely heavily on) an expert witness' performance rather than their statements and that race does not play a role in the likelihood that a defendant will be wrongfully convicted. Likewise, all four attorneys indicated that both prosecutors and defense attorneys are eager to pursue justice and that no one person is to blame for a wrongful conviction. In conclusion, errors made in the adjudicative process that lead to wrongful convictions might simply be the cause of human error.
ContributorsHietala, Kira Victoria (Author) / DeCarolis, Claudine (Thesis director) / Szeli, Eva (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12