Business Design is a thesis project where students can work in groups and consult for various projects. I had the opportunity to work on three major projects for my thesis involving a small entrepreneur looking for a go-to market plan for her board game, an app developer looking for a better way to connect to their target audience, as well as create my own digital product and consulting services that helped founder's lab groups build their online presence through e-commerce. All these projects allowed me to hone my critical thinking skills by working my way through real-life problems that don't have direct answers. I was also able to take away some valuable lessons in leadership and working in a team of very capable students.

Student engagement is a crucial tool that Arizona State University uses through multiple different methods to improve the student experience and increase retention. While student engagement has been implemented for decades, many methods come with weaknesses and areas for improvement that are evident through research on student engagement, critical factors towards student’s success, and high impact student engagement practices. Through research, student engagement has proven to be multi-faceted, crucial for a student’s success, and an ever-evolving tool that the university must continue to improve to meet the changing needs of the student body. This paper defines student engagement and high impact student engagement practices, lists and explains the many methods of student engagement, explains critical factors for student engagement, details Arizona State University’s current student engagement methods on the Downtown Phoenix Campus, and provides recommendations for improvement based on those aforementioned findings. This paper finds that many of the current methods could be improved through the implementation of new practices and programs such as Engage-Credits, the use of Design Thinking, and improvements for current systems surrounding collaboration, diversity initiatives, advising, student’s relationships with faculty and staff, and implementing the difference between engaged and disengaged students.

Milk has long played an important role in American society and remains a popular staple of many Americans’ diets. Yet, despite its long standing popularity, the role of milk within American society has begun to develop new meaning in recent years. This paper aims to understand the symbolism that today’s Americans ascribe to milk. Academic journal articles, advertising campaigns, online articles, and government policy pertaining to milk were researched in order to identify the themes that characterize consumers’ perceptions of milk. In recognition of the diverse types of milk that are now accessible to many Americans, this paper uses the word “milk” to refer to cow-derived, fluid (liquid) dairy unless otherwise specified. This research reveals eleven principal themes that describe consumers’ perceptions of milk: milk symbolizes health, American values, is associated with athleticism, is unhealthy, is not preferable to plant-based alternatives, is bad for the environment, is animal cruelty, represents white supremacy, is anti-feminist, is reflective of consumer lifestyles, and there is a general trend of consumers being uninformed about the milk that they consume. This research helps to understand consumers; therefore, this research can be used to help dairy-related industries shape their business strategies and target their customer segment and to help policymakers design effective dairy-related policies. Furthermore, this paper invites further research to identify the consumers that hold the beliefs this research describes, and the extent to which these consumers share said beliefs.