For my thesis/creative project, I created a prototype for a mental health app. Each section of the prototype has a purpose of instilling mindfulness and healthy habits that can promote and lead to sustainable mental health. Throughout the paper I explain my reasoning for starting this project, the science of mindfulness and how it can bring about positive mental and physical changes, and the design theory behind the prototype.

Stress for college students is nothing new and as more kids go to college the number of cases are on the rise. This issue is apparent at colleges across the nation including Arizona State University. StreetWise aims to help students prevent or appropriately deal with stress through interactive lessons teaching students life skills, social skills, and emotional intelligence.<br/>In order to prove the value of our service, StreetWise conducted a survey that asked students about their habits, thoughts on stress, and their future. Students from Arizona State University were surveyed with questions on respondent background, employment, number one stressor, preferred learning method, and topics that students were interested in learning. We found that students’ number one stressor was school but was interested in learning skills that would prepare them for their future after graduation. We used the results to make final decisions so that StreetWise could offer lessons that students would get the most value out of. This led to us conducting a second survey which included mock ups of the website, examples of interactive lesson plans, and an overview of the app. Students from the first survey were surveyed in addition to new respondents. This survey was intended for us to ensure that our service would maintain its value to students with the aesthetic and interface that we envisioned.

We attempted to apply a novel approach to stock market predictions. The Logistic Regression machine learning algorithm (Joseph Berkson) was applied to analyze news article headlines as represented by a bag-of-words (tri-gram and single-gram) representation in an attempt to predict the trends of stock prices based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The results showed that a tri-gram bag led to a 49% trend accuracy, a 1% increase when compared to the single-gram representation’s accuracy of 48%.

The history of Arizona is filled with ambitious pioneers, courageous Natives, and loyal<br/>soldiers, but there is a seeming disconnect between those who came before us and many of those<br/>who currently inhabit this space. Many historic locations that are vital to discovering the past in<br/>Arizona are both hard to find and lacking in information pertaining to what happened there.<br/>However, despite the apparent lack of history and knowledge pertaining to these locations, they<br/>are vitally present in the public memory of the region, and we wish to shed some much-needed<br/>light on a few of these locations and the historical takeaways that can be gleaned from their<br/>study. This thesis argues the significance of three concepts: place-making, public memory, and<br/>stories. Place-making is the reinvention of history in the theater of mind which creates a<br/>plausible reality of the past through what is known in the present. Public memory is a way to<br/>explain how events in a location affect the public consciousness regarding that site and further<br/>events that stem from it. Lastly, stories about a place and event help to explain its overall impact<br/>and what can be learned from the occurrences there. Throughout this thesis we will be discussing<br/>seven sites across Arizona, the events that occurred there, and how these three aspects of study<br/>can be used to experience history in a personal way that gives us a special perspective on the<br/>land around us. The importance of personalizing history lies in finding our own identity as<br/>inhabitants of this land we call home and knowing the stories gives us greater attachment to the<br/>larger narrative of humanity as it has existed in this space.

The privatization of prisons within Arizona has been a hot button issue and needs to be further analyzed to determine their benefits and expenses. To begin this investigation into the effectiveness of private prisons within Arizona and possible steps that need to be taken for its rehabilitation certain definitions and prior research need to be understood. Following this explanation, areas such as costs analysis across different types of prisons, liability rates across differing types of prison guards, and the differing psychology of different types of prisons can be examined to gain an overall assessment of the current performance of privatized prisons within Arizona. After this in-depth analysis of the current private prison system within Arizona, the flaws of the system will become abundantly clear and the solutions that should be implemented to alleviate these problems will be discussed.

Indian-American young adults are often caught between the cultures of their parents and their environment, and these two cultures can impact their views based on the cultures' views. In this project, I created an overview of personal accounts of Indian-American young adults on their experiences with mental health struggles, and receiving counseling and treatment. This study analyzed a sample of accounts and testimonials previously collected through a qualitative review. I found that many of the Indian-American young adults were open to mental health counseling and treatment, but saw Indian cultural views as a barrier.

Psychedelics have sparked widespread interest as they offer a potential new form of therapeutic treatment. This thesis paper explores the current and upcoming psychedelics that are being researched for their use in a therapeutic setting. The main substances discussed are lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy/molly/MDMA), and ketamine (esketamine). This paper also discusses the mechanism of action for each drug and the underlying research that has been found to support the ethical use of these substances alongside talk therapy