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: O'Flaherty, Katherine
- Creators: Eaton, Kathryn
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
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
Asana Arizona is a concept created by Arizona State University students Halie Blauser and Stephen Argentati to sell handmade jewelry. They were inspired to start making jewelry in their free time, and were interested to see if they could create a profitable small business. Their first priority was to create a strategic marketing plan, to examine the current external/internal environment and find marketplace opportunities. As a part of this they performed research to determine which fashion styles would be the best target demographic to market their products to, and found that consumers who identified as "Bohemian", "Hipster", and "Punk" were the best target demographics. They also found that a majority of college students do not care whether or not a product is handmade or locally made, and primarily just care about price. Online social media pages were created for Asana Arizona on Instagram, Etsy, and Facebook, and a Facebook ads were created and boosted towards the target fashion styles.
ContributorsArgentati, Stephen (Co-author) / Blauser, Halie (Co-author) / Eaton, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Schlacter, John (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
The United Nation's forecasts the World's population to grow to 9 billion by year 2050. This statistic, coupled with the fact that current organic food production yields average near 40% lower than conventionally grown crops, indicates that current methods of "sustainable" agriculture are sure to strip the planet of more wildlife habitat in order to feed so many mouths. Plus, erratic weather causing inconsistent crop production will leave vulnerable groups highly susceptible to famine. Agriculture today has a very complex supply chain that pulls resources from around the world to take to market. The Vertical Farm, LLC (TVF) seeks to change this reality and make 100% chemical free product, available locally to all major markets. The Vertical Farm, LLC is much different than a typical farm and operates on a soil-less hydroponic growing system. This system uses up to 95% less water and less than 50% of the fertilizer that an open-air organic farm would consume, by delivering all of the necessary nutrients directly to its crop's roots and recycling the solution in a closed loop system. TVF seeks to operate in unutilized warehouses and retail spaces, which will serve to control every aspects of the growing environment. This entails replacing sunlight with specially designed LED lights for horticulture applications and an HVAC system that creates the perfect growing conditions for plants to transpire. All of these capabilities translate into TVF being able to grow consistently year-round, regardless of weather, and produce quality local vegetables 30% faster than a conventional farm. In order to determine the economic feasibility of this business model, a prototype first had to be designed, which can be seen on Appendix A, B, & C. This system, designed in collaboration with University of Arizona's Controlled Environment Agricultural Center's Director, Gene Giacomelli PH. D., has determined that the roughly 1.75-acre system is capable of producing over 2.5 million pounds of lettuce every year. The footprint of the building includes all 3 major aspects of produce production, growing, harvesting, and packaging, and this vertically integrated business model allows The Vertical Farm to capture the most value, while taking its product to market. The net operating income of this prototype design is estimated to be 11.94%, with revenue in excess of $5.7 million and the largest costs being the LED lights and electricity. The Vertical Farm has mitigated its potentially largest cost, labor, by streamlining all processes of production in addition to employing the use of high-tech materials handling robots to transport crops within the facility. The Vertical Farm's production facility is not designed with human comfortability in mind (aisles are only 3' wide), but instead maximizes floor space utilization in order to produce as many pounds of product as possible. As a result, The Vertical Farm's prototype not only demonstrates the economic feasibility of indoor vertical farming today, but also gives significant merit to its growth potential to capture a portion of the $20 billion American vegetable market.
ContributorsNickerson, Michael Scott (Author) / Eaton, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Schlacter, John (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Every year, millions of people find themselves displaced from their homes because of fear or threats of violence. Some of these people will become refugees, who will then be resettled in the United States. In order to help with the resettlement process, refugees are given cultural orientations through their resettlement organizations. The Phoenix Police Department teaches one of these cultural orientations for local resettlement agencies in order to dispel some of the fears refugees have about law enforcement and build a stronger relationship with the refugee community. Past research on this topic has been limited within the United States, but communities are still trying to figure out how to interact with refugees despite not knowing how to do it. There are various possible complications inherent in the integration process and many potential methods of trust building available to the refugee community and public services like law enforcement. This project seeks to understand the refugee resettlement process through field observation of the cultural orientation taught by the Phoenix Police Department and interviews with detectives familiar with the process in Phoenix. Cultural and language differences as well as lack of education and research on the topic of refugee resettlement are all key points in comprehending what the police, refugees, and resettlement organizations are doing during the integration process. Once these issues are addressed to alleviate gaps in knowledge about refugees, it may be possible to adjust the process to be easier for stakeholders involved in refugee resettlement.
ContributorsBaumgartner, Rachel Paige (Author) / Telep, Cody (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
DescriptionThis marketing proposal is designed to identify Nonnah Consulting's, a social media marketing company, current position of where they're at, where they want to be, and how they should get there.
ContributorsGilpin, Shannon (Author) / Eaton, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Schlacter, John (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
This creative project is a collection of profiles focused on Arizona nonprofits and refugees. The profiles share stories of refugees, volunteers, employees and others involved in the community serving refugees. Nonprofits are a vital resource for refugee resettlement. These organizations offer services to support refugees as they transition into new communities. Some services include: housing, English language learning, cultural orientation, job placement, medical treatment, education, and farming. Each of these programs support resiliency for refugees and for the communities in which they live. We Are Resilient was created first, to show the important role nonprofits have in serving refugees. Second, to connect people to a few of the stories and experiences within the Arizona refugee community. And third, to build understanding of the strength refugees bring to communities of Arizona and by extension the country. Visit weareresilientaz.com to learn more.
ContributorsGray, Elizabeth (Co-author) / Johnson, Kelcie (Co-author) / Shockley, Gordon (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Postmodernism has been one of the dominant modes of thought in literature and philosophy since the 1960s, but its roots go back much further. This thesis is an examination of Brechtian frameworks in an assortment of popular postmodern works. Both literary texts, such as novels, films, and music, and philosophical texts are used to form a general understanding of the postmodern project, and these concepts are then placed in conversation with ideas from the works of the 20th century German playwright Bertolt Brecht. I found that despite certain differences, the central ideas of postmodernism can be seen as the extension of Brecht’s philosophy, especially his concept of the Verfremdungseffekt. First, multiplicity—in perspectives and understandings—can be seen as an attempt to achieve this Verfremdungseffekt in the reader, and second, transgression in these texts can be used to evoke the same feeling. Many of the identifying techniques of postmodernism, e.g. juxtaposition, unreliable narrator, self-reference, and so on, can be interpreted as the extension of ideas pioneered by Brecht in the 1920s and 1930s. My thesis illustrates these connections.
Keywords: Postmodernism, Bertolt Brecht, Verfremdungseffekt
Keywords: Postmodernism, Bertolt Brecht, Verfremdungseffekt
ContributorsTeipen, Jakob Corry (Author) / Gilfillan, Daniel (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This honors thesis study aimed to gain a better understanding of millennials and how to effectively use interactive marketing to advertise to this generation. The thesis was broken up into three segments. The first segment includes a literature review on: identifying and comparing within the millennial generation, millennials impacts on marketing, and an introduction to interactive marketing. The second segment covered the methodology study including the application of the research findings to analyze the effectiveness of interactive marketing and the shift brands have made to reach millennials. Lastly, the final section covered an overall conclusion and recommendations. This paper first identified who the millennial generation is and discussed the differences between the older and younger millennials among the generation as a whole. Then the paper moved into defining what interactive marketing is and how it is being used and targeted towards the millennial generation. The next section identified the key differences within the millennial generation and the main areas in which this generation impacted brands and the company's interactive marketing efforts. The research suggests what the most influential take-a-ways from the millennial generation are and how brands shifted in order to better target the new types of consumers. Additionally, the information obtained from understanding the millennials' perspective on interactive marketing provide companies a better idea of how to market to them. Lastly, the recommendation checklist for companies to follow on how to create a successful interactive marketing advertising campaign helped to position brands in the most efficient way possible when entering this new form of marketing and specifically targeting millennials.
ContributorsRamsey, Victoria Rebecca (Author) / Eaton, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Montoya, Detra (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05