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: School of Film, Dance and Theatre
- Creators: O'Flaherty, Katherine
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
Immortal Warrior Sky Falconer is a seventeen-minute "proof of concept" animatic for a theoretical animated series. The thesis project was focused on the process of making such a product come to be. Through the two semesters I took ideas to my professor for approval starting with a basic pitch and slowly refined them into a singular product combination art, writing and sound effects. From script, to storyboard, to final cut, this project has been one of constant tweaking of the various components into the product you see today that is whole, but still has room to be built upon.
ContributorsSmith, Damon Randall (Author) / Connell, Ellery (Thesis director) / Renzulli, Virgil (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This honors thesis project provides analysis on the barriers to treatment seeking regarding mental health. Research on treatment seeking barriers was done, and then used to create a digital campaign that was run via organic sharing and a boosted Facebook post using custom audiences. The research begins to examine the relationships between stigma and help-seeking regarding mental health. The leading barriers for seeking mental health treatment include both social and self stigma. Social stigma involves fearing judgment from others regarding mental health, and self stigma involves people's negative judgments about having mental health issues themselves. There is a negative cycle between self and social stigma as people's self perceptions often reflect into society, and society's general opinions often influence people's perceptions of themselves. In order to decrease mental health stigma efforts must be made to erase both self and social stigma. Research on consumer psychology showed the effectiveness of targeting people's need for belonging. In order to target people's need for belonging the campaign was designed to show mental health issues as a commonality between people that can be solved, rather than as a negative discrepancy. Research into digital marketing trends showed Facebook as one of the most powerful platforms for reach and audience targeting, so it was chosen as the ideal platform for this campaign. The analysis of barriers to treatment seeking, consumer psychology, and digital marketing culminated in the digital campaign, "Just because you can't see it...doesn't mean it's not there," promoting mental health awareness, which ran for 5 days reaching 9,874 people and getting 5,117 views.
ContributorsCastronova, Naomi Liana (Author) / Ostrom, Lonnie (Thesis director) / Cavanaugh Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / Giles, Bret (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (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
My thesis is comprised of three components: the first is the short film, “State of Grace.” The second is a Project Portfolio of my films produced from May 2016 – April 2017; this document includes concept notes for each project, visual inspirations, shot lists, storyboards, and budget breakdowns. The individual video URLs are included at the end of the portfolio. The third component is a video showcasing each of those projects in a demo reel.
The short film, “State of Grace,” is about a woman who reminisces about a past relationship on a night drive. The memories of this relationship compel her to show up at his door. The title, “State of Grace,” is a reference to the character’s emotional state. She is unable to move forward with a new relationship because she is still in love with her ex-boyfriend; however, her ex-boyfriend has moved on and she cannot reclaim that love. The title also refers to the struggle of reconciling love with heartbreak. The film is predominantly silent, accompanied by a piano driven score that reflects the character’s state of mind. The project is highly imagistic, intercutting between happy memories of the couple and the woman driving alone. The piece ends with the character at her ex-boyfriend’s door, intending to tell him she’s still in love with him. She changes her mind when she realizes he isn’t alone. The production influences are described in greater detail in the Project Portfolio.
“ACT1” is the brand I’ve assigned to my films. The Project Portfolio includes concept notes for each of the seven projects I’ve produced, directed, and edited in the past year (May 2016 – April 2017). In addition to a written description of the creative influences on the project, I’ve included my visual inspirations for each piece. All of the films are silent, feature slow motion photography, and are accompanied by original music. The visual expression of emotion inspires most of my work, along with connections in human relationships. Overall, my films have a cinematic, surreal aesthetic, experimenting with ethereal lighting and high frame rates. The shot lists and storyboards are included for most of the projects, along with an itemized budget breakdown. Since I’m most inspired by imagery, my shooting style is improvisational—none of my films have formal screenplays. Intercutting and jump cuts are frequent editing techniques in my projects, including the demo reel.
I edited the reel, connecting the different projects via match cuts whenever possible. The match cuts are on similar composition, content, or camera motion. The music is original and synth-heavy. The title animation features parallax overlays and lens flares to reference the surreal aesthetics in my films.
The short film, “State of Grace,” is about a woman who reminisces about a past relationship on a night drive. The memories of this relationship compel her to show up at his door. The title, “State of Grace,” is a reference to the character’s emotional state. She is unable to move forward with a new relationship because she is still in love with her ex-boyfriend; however, her ex-boyfriend has moved on and she cannot reclaim that love. The title also refers to the struggle of reconciling love with heartbreak. The film is predominantly silent, accompanied by a piano driven score that reflects the character’s state of mind. The project is highly imagistic, intercutting between happy memories of the couple and the woman driving alone. The piece ends with the character at her ex-boyfriend’s door, intending to tell him she’s still in love with him. She changes her mind when she realizes he isn’t alone. The production influences are described in greater detail in the Project Portfolio.
“ACT1” is the brand I’ve assigned to my films. The Project Portfolio includes concept notes for each of the seven projects I’ve produced, directed, and edited in the past year (May 2016 – April 2017). In addition to a written description of the creative influences on the project, I’ve included my visual inspirations for each piece. All of the films are silent, feature slow motion photography, and are accompanied by original music. The visual expression of emotion inspires most of my work, along with connections in human relationships. Overall, my films have a cinematic, surreal aesthetic, experimenting with ethereal lighting and high frame rates. The shot lists and storyboards are included for most of the projects, along with an itemized budget breakdown. Since I’m most inspired by imagery, my shooting style is improvisational—none of my films have formal screenplays. Intercutting and jump cuts are frequent editing techniques in my projects, including the demo reel.
I edited the reel, connecting the different projects via match cuts whenever possible. The match cuts are on similar composition, content, or camera motion. The music is original and synth-heavy. The title animation features parallax overlays and lens flares to reference the surreal aesthetics in my films.
ContributorsTufts, Amber Christine (Author) / Bernstein, Gregory (Thesis director) / Maday, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This paper serves to identify, explore, and discover my personal creative process. I utilized Rosemarie Anderson's Intuitive Inquiry method, focusing on the change that would occur across all five cycles of my research experience. I conducted interviews of those who have had an impact in my growth, as well as understanding of my creative process or the elements which make it. I logged personal journal entries, to emphasize the daily experience I have with my process, outside of a written paper. This paper is written from the perspective of one woman's personal experience, and thus contains both formal research articles and informal and personal journal entries. Journal entries are interspersed with academic writing, to affirm the simultaneous personal nature and academic relevancy of the topic. I began my research with five themes to guide me in various directions, with the hope I would uncover more information along the way, leading to more paths to follow. During the course of study, three new themes were uncovered, reaction, relation, and restoration, and juxtaposed with other research and personal reflection. I then, based off these later themes and further research, developed a set of instructions for use beyond my undergraduate experience, specifically for places where I must act without the guidance of instructors. The three new themes that emerged had much in common with the themes from previous cycles. This leads me to believe that I have been aware of my process all along, and had yet to put it into words. This in itself is a remarkable light bulb moment, as is knowing that I may be more aware of my habits than I realize, if only I am to write them down and purposefully acknowledge them for what they are.
ContributorsWalls, Emma Jane (Author) / Roses-Thema, Cynthia (Thesis director) / Kaplan, Robert (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
DescriptionThis document is a description of my research and process in building a fairy costume. As a theater major, specializing in costumes, I created a costume that incorporated different aspects of my education.
ContributorsWest, Kaytlin V (Author) / Furr Soloman, Constance (Thesis director) / Montoya, Melissa (Committee member) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The objective of this creative project was to gain experience in digital modeling, animation, coding, shader development and implementation, model integration techniques, and application of gaming principles and design through developing a professional educational game. The team collaborated with Glendale Community College (GCC) to produce an interactive product intended to supplement educational instructions regarding nutrition. The educational game developed, "Nutribots" features the player acting as a nutrition based nanobot sent to the small intestine to help the body. Throughout the game the player will be asked nutrition based questions to test their knowledge of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. If the player is unable to answer the question, they must use game mechanics to progress and receive the information as a reward. The level is completed as soon as the question is answered correctly. If the player answers the questions incorrectly twenty times within the entirety of the game, the team loses faith in the player, and the player must reset from title screen. This is to limit guessing and to make sure the player retains the information through repetition once it is demonstrated that they do not know the answers. The team was split into two different groups for the development of this game. The first part of the team developed models, animations, and textures using Autodesk Maya 2016 and Marvelous Designer. The second part of the team developed code and shaders, and implemented products from the first team using Unity and Visual Studio. Once a prototype of the game was developed, it was show-cased amongst peers to gain feedback. Upon receiving feedback, the team implemented the desired changes accordingly. Development for this project began on November 2015 and ended on April 2017. Special thanks to Laura Avila Department Chair and Jennifer Nolz from Glendale Community College Technology and Consumer Sciences, Food and Nutrition Department.
ContributorsNolz, Daisy (Co-author) / Martin, Austin (Co-author) / Quinio, Santiago (Co-author) / Armstrong, Jessica (Co-author) / Kobayashi, Yoshihiro (Thesis director) / Valderrama, Jamie (Committee member) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor) / School of Film, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Computing and Informatics Program (Contributor) / Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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