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.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 58
Description
It is no secret that humans at some point in their lives will endure some sort of immense pain or suffering that continues, making life difficult to live in such a way. The question then becomes how a sufferer goes about dealing with their distress and whether or not they choose to deal with it or continue to live a life that is detrimental to them. This is a topic in which I will discuss in the terms of modern day psychology and how people who suffer from psychological disorders can embrace a new path to recovery through words and being able to rewrite their stories. Throughout this thesis, I shall argue, with the assistance of various philosophic works, that everyone is born into a story and responsibility lies within a person either to continue with a story to which they have become accustomed or choose to embark on a new journey all together. When the decision is rendered to rewrite the path one has taken, it is essential to look at what is driving the story or the goals one has been pursuing. The person suffering can then go to treatment based upon the exchange of words between them and their psychoanalyst in hopes of regaining a sense of responsibility in their lives.
ContributorsWilson, Bailey Rachelle (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Piemonte, Nicole (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
I Am Not A Millennial is an honors thesis project that combines research with a creative application to determine the best practices for companies and advertising agencies. The thesis consists of three main sections: an overview of what a millennial is, bursting the millennial hype bubble, and discussion of whether new targeting techniques, new ideas for content, or new ways of advertising are necessary to engage the Millennial consumer. The thesis will first look at the Millennial Generation to answer the question of "Who are they?" with the emphasis on removing the negative stereotypes from the Millennial generation. This section will be supported by the following section which will discuss the lack of statistical information that truly separates the Millennial generation from its predecessors. Finally, by presenting information on my experiences leading a student-run advertising non profit, case studies, and working within an account management department of an advertising agency, this thesis will present conclusions that advertising agencies and businesses need to develop targeting and content practices that focus in on consumers' interests and tell the story of "why" in order to connect with Millennials.
ContributorsCondo, Ashley Roelle (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Giles, Bret (Committee member) / Department of Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Aventure is the newest contemporary luxury men and women’s apparel and accessories boutique in Arizona. The boutique will be located in Downtown Scottsdale, specifically in McKellips Plaza conveniently located near Scottsdale Fashion Square. Aventure is the first of its kind in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, providing Millennial fashion fanatics with a destination that fills the empty void in the city’s growing fashion scene. At Aventure, we bridge the gap between pop culture, streetwear, and high-fashion. Through our mantra ‘Redefining the Luxury Retail Experience,’ we aim is to promote expression of one’s self to the fullest extent through style.
‘Aventure,’ which means “experience” or “adventure” in French, defines this upscale boutique and its essence of inclusion. This store does not aim to be your traditional retailer; instead, Aventure aims to build a community within and around the store for individuals with similar styles and passion for fashion. At the moment, the city of Scottsdale (and the Metro Phoenix area as a whole) does not have its own identity in the fashion world. There is no reason why Metro Phoenix cannot, with time, become more recognized in the global fashion community. With an array of exclusive luxury merchandise and an urban atmosphere, Aventure aims to pioneer the Valley’s establishment on the national high-end fashion scene.
The boutique is a result of the vision of its founder Ahmed Imam. Ahmed is a graduating Honors student at Arizona State Univeristy’s W.P. Carey School of Business, pursuing concurrent degrees in Finance and Business Entrepreneurship. Having been passionate about fashion for as long as he can remember, Ahmed will leverage his connections to the industry and excellent understanding of the Metro Phoenix market to turn Aventure into a hallmark of the community. Through his professional experience and educational background, Ahmed also brings the necessary knowledge and skills to the table to effectively run a startup.
The retail industry is experiencing steady growth, with the luxury goods sector expected to perform very well in the coming years. Using market-based sales forecasting, Aventure is estimated to break even by the third year of operations. Sales are expected to grow 20 percent after Year 1, and grow 5 percent thereafter. Net operating income of $83,643 is estimated in Year 1, growing to $141,351 by the end of Year 3. Overall, total startup expenses are estimated to be $206,574, made up of investments from owners and a term loan from Bank of America. The owner investment will be used to cover capital equipment, location, and administrative expenses. These include furniture, equipment, machinery, rent, utility, legal and accounting fees, prepaid insurance, and other expenses. The majority of the term loan will be used to finance opening inventory and advertising expenses, with the rest going towards cash on the balance sheet to ensure liquidity.
‘Aventure,’ which means “experience” or “adventure” in French, defines this upscale boutique and its essence of inclusion. This store does not aim to be your traditional retailer; instead, Aventure aims to build a community within and around the store for individuals with similar styles and passion for fashion. At the moment, the city of Scottsdale (and the Metro Phoenix area as a whole) does not have its own identity in the fashion world. There is no reason why Metro Phoenix cannot, with time, become more recognized in the global fashion community. With an array of exclusive luxury merchandise and an urban atmosphere, Aventure aims to pioneer the Valley’s establishment on the national high-end fashion scene.
The boutique is a result of the vision of its founder Ahmed Imam. Ahmed is a graduating Honors student at Arizona State Univeristy’s W.P. Carey School of Business, pursuing concurrent degrees in Finance and Business Entrepreneurship. Having been passionate about fashion for as long as he can remember, Ahmed will leverage his connections to the industry and excellent understanding of the Metro Phoenix market to turn Aventure into a hallmark of the community. Through his professional experience and educational background, Ahmed also brings the necessary knowledge and skills to the table to effectively run a startup.
The retail industry is experiencing steady growth, with the luxury goods sector expected to perform very well in the coming years. Using market-based sales forecasting, Aventure is estimated to break even by the third year of operations. Sales are expected to grow 20 percent after Year 1, and grow 5 percent thereafter. Net operating income of $83,643 is estimated in Year 1, growing to $141,351 by the end of Year 3. Overall, total startup expenses are estimated to be $206,574, made up of investments from owners and a term loan from Bank of America. The owner investment will be used to cover capital equipment, location, and administrative expenses. These include furniture, equipment, machinery, rent, utility, legal and accounting fees, prepaid insurance, and other expenses. The majority of the term loan will be used to finance opening inventory and advertising expenses, with the rest going towards cash on the balance sheet to ensure liquidity.
ContributorsImam, Ahmed Mohamed (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Schlacter, John (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
My thesis argues Romanticism and feminism are utopian allies, and Romanticism, understood as a philosophical movement, should be recognized as an essential aspect of critical feminist theory. I claim feminism must be understood as holding an undischarged utopian potential, liberated and inspired by a dynamic neo-Romanticism. This critical discourse gives birth to Romantic-feminism, which reinterprets Romantic works and rereads feminist theory, cultivating their shared revolutionary aspirations. While the claim that feminism buoys Romanticism—potentially creating a space for a singularly genuine kind of Romantic thought—is fairly bold, the core of this project rests upon an argument of even greater magnitude: feminism is as in need of Romanticism as Romanticism is in need of feminism. In fact, feminism is in desperate want of the revolutionary, aesthetic, and utopian vision of Romanticism, and a reinvented, reinvigorated feminism capable of confronting grave contemporary issues will not be possible without philosophical and artistic Romantic influence. A dynamic and progressive feminism not only betters Romantic texts, but provides the only possible condition for the realization of genuine revolution within Romanticism as a whole . As such, the second half of this project focuses on close readings of three poems by 19th-century women: “On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea because it was Frequented by a Lunatic” by Charlotte Smith, “The Lily” by Mary Tighe, and “Lines of Life” by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. Approaching these Romantic works will necessitate an openness and welcoming of both tradition and the strange, a critical emphasis on intersectional feminist concerns, an innovative critique of modernity informed by Marxist and socialist thought, a willingness to transform (the text, the self, and the world), and revolutionary and utopian desires.
ContributorsGosse, Raelynn (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Mann, Annika (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This Barrett, the Honors College senior thesis connects the experiences of cosplay with public speaking confidence. “Cosplay, abbreviated from the word ‘costume play,’ is a performance art in which the participant masquerades as a character from a selected film, television, video game, or comic book” (Gn, 2011, p. 583). The ability to “cosplay” in front of other relies on performing in front of an audience much like public speaking. When students speak with confidence, students will know their ideas are being expressed with conviction and assurance. Having the ability to speak professionally and publicly, is a highly valued skill in the workforce and key to success in all types of employment. Communication skills are frequently a top factor in determining whether a college student will obtain employment (Beebe & Beebe, 2006, p. 275-276). Despite their different definitions, there are multiple connections between cosplay and public speaking. This thesis explores the connection between peer support and belief in one’s self in both cosplay and public speaking. Now those who have direct support become self-reliant and confident as a result of these connections. This projects highlights Goffman’s identity theory, the Pygmalion effect, theories of fashion and identity, role-play, narrative paradigm, dramatism, and non-verbal communication, and explores how cosplay can contribute to the formation of one’s public speaking persona. The issue of anxiety is also included in the conversation as it is central to both cosplay and public speaking. Ultimately, this thesis explores the questions: Can cosplay help students become empowered public speakers?
ContributorsGallardo Rojas, Lizette (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Wentzel, Bonnie (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
It seems that we are incessantly scolded about the importance of the American political process and its virtue of practicality in contemporary society. Whether through the accumulation of the so-called facts about the issues that inform the veneration of the contest between candidates, the stern and noble duty of becoming an activist performing dreary tasks, or the religious fervor surrounding the sacred obligation of voting, we are assured and reassured that our system is sound and that we must only confront problems of implementation rather than structural ones. From here, the narrative goes that if we subscribe to the doctrine of exclusively employing the efficient, strictly rational, and the immediately realistic, we will almost assuredly succeed in persuading others toward producing the resolutions required to solve our shared challenges. Admittedly, these ideas serve a role in addressing the issues we face. However, when unaided by sophisticated and nuanced notions and applications of the fantastic, the beautiful, the ideal, the possible, the playful, the useless, in a word, dreaming, we foreclose the possibility of building a future that can qualitatively improve society and more meaningfully elevate our being-with-one-another in the world. Therefore, this work aims to validate the aforementioned claim by engaging in a critical, political, and hermeneutic exploration of what it means to dream against the backdrop of present-day American politics. It will honestly seek to analyze the prevailing notions of contemporary western thought and action to work on the way toward a new, yet latent, way of understanding. This understanding would fundamentally revolutionize the task of civilization as being grounded upon the appropriate channeling of our desires and dissatisfactions toward actualizing the projections of our imagination. Simply put, this project seeks to repudiate the mandate of work as toil and order as oppression to clear the way for envisioning a more suitable alternative.
ContributorsGoldsmith, Adam Jay (Author) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Thesis director) / Gruber, Diane (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This project investigates how experiences colleges create for admitted students impact students' excitement for, satisfaction with, and likelihood to attend the college, analyzed by different subgroups, and how non-yielded students compare their college selection to W. P. Carey on various metrics. This study found that top admit students were less likely to attend, less satisfied, and less excited with the services offered than their counterparts and recommendations were made to improve the gap.
ContributorsGullo, Kelley (Co-author) / Dwosh, Bennett (Co-author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Olsen, Douglas (Committee member) / Desch, Timothy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Project Overview This marketing analysis and plan is developed in conjunction with the InnovationSpace program offered through Arizona State University. My InnovationSpace team has worked the Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 semesters to develop an innovative product, but little attention has been spent on detailing the marketing of such a product. As such, the following report is supplemental to the InnovationSpace project and intended to provide a more detailed analysis of marketing research conducted for the project and to create a marketing plan for the newly designed product.
ContributorsBeebe, Weston (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Lastovicka, John (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Combining the research of case studies with a creative application, this thesis consists of four main sections: an overview of data surrounding current application marketing efforts on mobile devices, an analysis of three brands that have successfully used applications marketing to engage their audiences and sell their products, the creation and explanation of a proposed application marketing strategy, and a practical use of the previously found conclusions to a mobile application marketing strategy for Nutella USA. The outcome is to determine how companies use mobile applications to successfully engage consumers and lead to product purchases.
ContributorsBooker, Rebecca Allison (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Giles, Bret (Committee member) / Sabbatini, Cristina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Entrepreneurs have always existed in some form. Many researchers have attempted to define the core characteristics and personal traits of entrepreneurs. Few authors have presented significant research about the relationships between these entrepreneurs and their mentors. The purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate the need for mentoring student entrepreneurs. Quantitative data on the subject is scarce, but there are several sources that provide qualitative data that are available for review and interpretation. This study will review the available research and draw from the insights and conclusions to provide a framework to improve the success of entrepreneurship through mentoring.
ContributorsViramontes, Stephen (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05