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For my Barrett the Honors College senior thesis project, I decided to utilize my knowledge of curriculum design to create a set of learning Modules. I was influenced by my involvement in the Next Generation Service Corps to create these Modules around college student community impact. In the end I

For my Barrett the Honors College senior thesis project, I decided to utilize my knowledge of curriculum design to create a set of learning Modules. I was influenced by my involvement in the Next Generation Service Corps to create these Modules around college student community impact. In the end I developed 6 Modules, each with 4-5 lessons and activities that focused on topics such as volunteerism, civic engagement, and meaningful careers. With interviews rolling through during the design process, I was able to iterate my design as I built it. The design was tested with 14 college students with positive feedback and engagement during the week-long period that it was available. Through this research and design, I found that such a collection of Modules could be beneficial to students to excite them about their potential and educate them about the opportunities that exist for them to take advantage of. This research could serve as a useful tool within the ASU community as an opportunity for the students to build up meaningful skills to create impact. ASU is passionate about education translating into real world applications and creating “changemakers”, and this collection has the opportunity to do just that.
Created2020-05
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RecyclePlus is an iOS mobile application that allows users to be knowledgeable in the realms of sustainability. It gives encourages users to be environmental responsible by providing them access to recycling information. In particular, it allows users to search up certain materials and learn about its recyclability and how to

RecyclePlus is an iOS mobile application that allows users to be knowledgeable in the realms of sustainability. It gives encourages users to be environmental responsible by providing them access to recycling information. In particular, it allows users to search up certain materials and learn about its recyclability and how to properly dispose of the material. Some searches will show locations of facilities near users that collect certain materials and dispose of the materials properly. This is a full stack software project that explores open source software and APIs, UI/UX design, and iOS development.
ContributorsTran, Nikki (Author) / Ganesh, Tirupalavanam (Thesis director) / Meuth, Ryan (Committee member) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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With the millennial and Gen Z generations being comprised of avid social media users, corporations have turned to online platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, as a way of communicating and connecting to their audiences. One method that corporations are using to attract consumers is utilizing internet memes. Brands and

With the millennial and Gen Z generations being comprised of avid social media users, corporations have turned to online platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, as a way of communicating and connecting to their audiences. One method that corporations are using to attract consumers is utilizing internet memes. Brands and corporations are now marketing through internet memes to enhance and define the brand’s personality and voice. This study examines the ways corporations use internet memes to personify their brand image and the overall effectiveness of meme usage in engaging consumers. Based on an exploratory analysis of brands over several media pages, we find evidence that brands with an edgy or humorous personality have increased engagement when using this method of communication, while more luxury brands should avoid using memes. Our research was conducted by examining and analyzing the social media accounts of four companies that use memes regularly as ways to promote their brands between November 1, 2018 and February 1, 2019. Our findings suggest that there is no definite correlation between internet memes and consumer engagement, rather that they are beneficial to use in addition to traditional marketing. In order to gain a stronger understanding of the relationships between internet memes and engagement, future research can study online brand personalities more in-depth and develop theories on the effectiveness of meme usage.
ContributorsReicks, Amber Michelle (Co-author) / Ahmas, Roxanna (Co-author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / School of Community Resources and Development (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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The United States is in a period of political turmoil and polarization. New technologies have matured over the last ten years, which have transformed an individual’s relationship with society and government. The emergence of these technologies has revolutionized access to both information and misinformation. Skills such as bias recognition and

The United States is in a period of political turmoil and polarization. New technologies have matured over the last ten years, which have transformed an individual’s relationship with society and government. The emergence of these technologies has revolutionized access to both information and misinformation. Skills such as bias recognition and critical thinking are more imperative than in any other time to separate truth from false or misleading information. Meanwhile, education has not evolved with these changes. The average individual is more likely to come to uninformed conclusions and less likely to listen to differing perspectives. Moreover, technology is further complicating and compounding other issues in the political process. All of this is manifesting in division among the American people who elect more polarized politicians who increasingly fail to find avenues for compromise.

In an effort to address these trends, we founded a student organization, The Political Literates, to fight political apathy by delivering political news in an easy to understand and unbiased manner. Inspired by our experience with this organization, we combine our insights with research to paint a new perspective on the state of the American political system.

This thesis analyzes various issues identified through our observations and research, with a heavy emphasis on using examples from the 2016 election. Our focus is how new technologies like data analytics, the Internet, smartphones, and social media are changing politics by driving political and social transformation. We identify and analyze five core issues that have been amplified by new technology, hindering the effectiveness of elections and further increasing political polarization:

● Gerrymandering which skews partisan debate by forcing politicians to pander to ideologically skewed districts.
● Consolidation of media companies which affects the diversity of how news is shared.
● Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which allowed media to become more partisan.
● The Citizens United Ruling which skews power away from average voters in elections.
● A Failing Education System which does not prepare Americans to be civically engaged and to avoid being swayed by biased or untrue media.

Based on our experiment with the Political Literates and our research, we call for improving how critical thinking and civics is taught in the American education system. Critical thought and civics must be developed pervasively. With this, more people would be able to form more sophisticated views by listening to others to learn rather than win, listening less to irrelevant information, and forming a culture with more engagement in politics. Through this re-enlightenment, many of America’s other problems may evaporate or become more actionable.
ContributorsStenseth, Kyle (Co-author) / Tumas, Trevor (Co-author) / Mokwa, Michael (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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Description
This thesis explores European identity through the European Union and the Eurovision Song Contest using Michael Walzer’s hyphenated American identity by expanding his argument to the EU, culture, and broadening the definition of diversity. Walzer had three main points about the American identity that makes it unique. First, a hyphen

This thesis explores European identity through the European Union and the Eurovision Song Contest using Michael Walzer’s hyphenated American identity by expanding his argument to the EU, culture, and broadening the definition of diversity. Walzer had three main points about the American identity that makes it unique. First, a hyphen with a many side and a one side exist with no expectation of assimilation. Second, the should be a hyphen and can be emphasized. Third, there are unsuccessful patriotic fevers. On the political level, the EU has a hyphenated identity but fails with expectations of assimilation and successful patriotic fevers like Brexit. Walzer does not examine the cultural aspect of identity, this is where this thesis goes beyond his idea in examining European identity in the cultural institution of Eurovision. The literature and winning songs confirm that a hyphenated identity exists in Eurovision. I sorted the winning songs into three categories of diversity, national identity, and neutral. I did not reject two of my hypotheses, there were more neutral songs, and songs in diversity and national identity became common after 1992. The hypothesis I rejected was that national identity songs would be more common than diversity songs, this was not the case. I used Ukraine 2004 for diversity and Greece 2005 for national identity case studies. Overall, when there is a United States of Europe its identity will be the same as Walzer’s American identity. It is just not there yet, but with further European integration, it will.
Created2019-05
Description
Project C.U.R.E. is a nonprofit organization that delivers donated medical supplies and services to developing nations across the world. Currently, the Phoenix location has three full time employees, so a majority of the manual work is completed by episodic and long-term volunteers as well as semesterly interns. Volunteers are the

Project C.U.R.E. is a nonprofit organization that delivers donated medical supplies and services to developing nations across the world. Currently, the Phoenix location has three full time employees, so a majority of the manual work is completed by episodic and long-term volunteers as well as semesterly interns. Volunteers are the backbone of the organization's daily productivity. Productivity among the Project C.U.R.E. warehouses varies greatly by location and is not directly related to the size of the warehouse. Productivity if hereby defined as as a warehouse's capability to meet the organization's goal of one container per week. Productivity can be increased or decreased based on the number of volunteers, funding, and catalogued inventory. Across all warehouses there is generally an overflow of donated equipment and consumable products, and therefore this is not usually a factor in productivity. In order to better understand why the Phoenix warehouse is the second most productive despite being the smallest, we researched how the motivations of volunteers. A survey was conducted to assess the motives of Project C.U.R.E.'s volunteers by quantifying their responses according to the Volunteerism Functional Inventory (VFI). The survey also produced information regarding volunteer demographics (ie. including gender, age, and occupation), as well as statistics about how often they volunteer at Project C.U.R.E. and their overall satisfaction with the organization. The data was then analyzed to determine the most relevant VFI characteristic. Upon analyzing the data, it was observed that the majority of participants were male (58.95%) and were between the ages of 18 and 25 (82.11%). The results also showed that Project C.U.R.E. utilizes a large number of episodic volunteers from Arizona State University (due to its close proximity to the Phoenix warehouse) was supported in that the data showed 72.63% of participants were undergraduate students and that 48.42% had just volunteered for their first time. After combining survey questions that corresponded to the same characteristic of volunteerism as outlined by Clary et al. (values, social, career, understanding, protective, and enhancement) the average of the responses was taken and used to determine the most relevant motives for our volunteer population. Based on the data, values (average score of 5.0) and understanding (average score of 5.0) were the two most relevant characteristics and protective (average score of 1.0) was the least relevant to volunteers. Additionally, 41.1% of survey respondents reported food would incentivize them to return to Project C.U.R.E. Additionally, 35.6% of survey respondents reported receiving Project C.U.R.E. merchandise would incentivize them to return in the future. Moving forward, it is recommended that the Project CURE Phoenix location begin providing their volunteers with merchandise and other forms of recognition based on the number of hours they committed to the organization.
ContributorsPrimiano, Sarah (Co-author) / Maglajac, Benjamin (Co-author) / Wang, Lili (Thesis director) / Kizer, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / School for the Science of Health Care Delivery (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
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Description
Experience Ireland is a multimedia interactive website about ten different heritage tourism sites and traditions. The sites range from a farm in Dublin to a fort on the edge of a cliff in the Aran Islands. The website also includes traditions such as storytelling and Irish dancing. Hear from experts,

Experience Ireland is a multimedia interactive website about ten different heritage tourism sites and traditions. The sites range from a farm in Dublin to a fort on the edge of a cliff in the Aran Islands. The website also includes traditions such as storytelling and Irish dancing. Hear from experts, tour guides, and tourists about the history behind each site/tradition and what it means to them.
Created2019-05
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Description
As a member of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) and the new Next Generation Service Corps (NGSC), I began this project interested in investigating the benefits and outcomes of these programs on my development throughout my undergraduate experience. Since interdisciplinarity is a core component of

As a member of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenge Scholars Program (GCSP) and the new Next Generation Service Corps (NGSC), I began this project interested in investigating the benefits and outcomes of these programs on my development throughout my undergraduate experience. Since interdisciplinarity is a core component of both programs, my thesis focused on the development and analysis of a survey to measure the interdisciplinary competence of undergraduate students in various programs and majors throughout ASU. In order to develop the survey items, we adapted questions by Lattuca, et al, which only analyzed the interdisciplinary competence of engineering students. Based on our responses, the quantitative data surfaced some interesting discrepancies between students in engineering and non-engineering majors. Broadly, the data also showed that students in GCSP and NGSC have higher interdisciplinary competence, implying there may be some benefits to both. Additionally, a preliminary theme analysis of the qualitative data seems to demonstrate that students appreciate a wide variety of opportunities to be exposed to disciplines outside of their primary major, and programs such as GCSP and NGSC which highlight interdisciplinarity expose students to opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have known about. In the future, I would recommend evaluating the impact of students’ motivations for joining each program and examining the possible implications on their interdisciplinary competence. There are other outcomes that weren’t examined as part of this study, so it may also be interesting for future researchers to investigate other components of each program like the impacts of service learning or entrepreneurial experiences.
ContributorsChen, Diana Karen (Author) / Ganesh, Tirupalavanam (Thesis director) / Trowbridge, Amy (Committee member) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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Description
Germany, a Western-European country famous for its beer, pretzels, and beautiful castles, is rated among the top countries in the world for quality public education and health care with a population of around 82,927,922 (U.S. News, 2019). While Germany is typically seen as a very progressive country, where do they

Germany, a Western-European country famous for its beer, pretzels, and beautiful castles, is rated among the top countries in the world for quality public education and health care with a population of around 82,927,922 (U.S. News, 2019). While Germany is typically seen as a very progressive country, where do they stand when it comes to women in the business world? German women have the same rights as men, but do they have the same opportunities? My research aimed to find out whether traditional gender roles in Germany still impact businesswomen to this day. As an American woman, who one day hopes to work in sales in the private sector, I was curious as to what it would be like if I were to live in Germany. This was especially interesting to me as a Business Management and German student who also was an exchange student in Germany during high school. Throughout my research I gathered a plethora of information about traditional German gender roles, the current situation for German business women, and what the hope for the future is. (abstract)
Created2021-05
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Description

In a COVID-19 world, student engagement has suffered drastically as organizations and universities shifted to an online format. Yet, there is still an opportunity and a space for digital content creation to bridge the gap in a virtual and hybrid university lifestyle. This project looks at how student groups can

In a COVID-19 world, student engagement has suffered drastically as organizations and universities shifted to an online format. Yet, there is still an opportunity and a space for digital content creation to bridge the gap in a virtual and hybrid university lifestyle. This project looks at how student groups can still engage students at ASU Tempe through digital content creation and which tools to use to enter the space.

ContributorsJavangula, Rahul (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Shipley, Austen (Committee member) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05