Digital Commons Network^™

Enabling Community And Trust: Shared Leadership For Collective Creativity, Mohammed Mohammed, Kurian Thomas

The Foundation Review

The strength of nonprofit organizations comes from well-developed human connections that spur productive collaboration across levels of hierarchy. This article, exploring the experience of the Fetzer Institute, demonstrates that workplace creativity is best fostered if it is matched by a style of leadership that invites a wider spectrum of internal actors to actively participate.

While acknowledging the significance of shared leadership, this article does not necessarily advocate for the dissolution of hierarchy; rather, it points out that the key lies in finding the sweet spot between organizational structure and a creative community.

The article describes tools that are particularly effective …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

What We Have Learned About Grassroots Philanthropy: Lessons From Mexico, Artemisa Castro Félix, A. Scott Dupree

The Foundation Review

Mexico is going through a transition from traditions of authoritarian, top-down social and political management that have tended to marginalize the efforts of community groups in addressing social and environmental challenges.

While there are many important questions about strengthening civil society organizations in general, grassroots groups in particular are challenged by the weak enabling environment for social action.

Despite this, the Action in Solidarity Fund has found that it is very possible for philanthropists to reach small grassroots groups with the support they need and to begin to strengthen the social fabric for communities to act on their own behalf. …

Executive Summary

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Peeking Behind The Curtain: The Operations And Funding Priorities Of Rural Private Foundations, Dorothy Norris-Tirrell, Brandi Blessett, Claire Connolly Knox

The Foundation Review

This article examines the operations and funding priorities of rural private foundations in Florida, using data from the U.S. Census, the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics, and interviews with foundation leaders.

The study found that grantmaking by rural foundations is split between out-of-state and in-state giving, determined by the intent of a benefactor or the personal choices of a foundation founder and/ or family.

This finding presents opportunities for nonprofit organizations and community groups in rural counties to communicate community needs in order to retain a larger amount of foundation dollars in the foundation’s home state and county.

Editorial, Teri Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Maximizing Return: An Evaluation Of The Walton Family Foundation’S Approach To Investing In New Charter Schools, Matthew Carr, Marc Holley

The Foundation Review

The Walton Family Foundation’s social-impact goals include reform of the American K-12 education system by increasing the number of highquality schools available to low-income students. One of the foundation’s signature strategies toward this end is to support charter schools.

This article presents the findings of a study that suggests the foundation’s investment approaches to charter school startups have been successful in supporting the creation of high-quality seats for low-income students. Specifically, the foundation has invested in charter schools where test-score performance has shown greater improvements than at local district schools and charter schools that have not received foundation funding.

These …

Drugs, Depression, And Dating Violence: Partnering With Schools To Collect And Use Data On Adolescent Risky Behaviors, Rebecca H. Donham, Shari Kessel Schneider

The Foundation Review

In 2005, the MetroWest Health Foundation launched a 10-year initiative to conduct the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey biennially with every high school and middle school student in the foundation’s 25-town region. The survey asks students about substance use, violence, sexual behaviors, mental health, and nutrition.

In the first year of the initiative, about two-thirds of public high schools and half of the middle schools in the region participated. By 2012, every public high school and middle school participated. Encompassing some 40,000 students, the survey is considered to be one of largest, if not …

Giving Circles In Asia: Newcomers To The Asian Philanthropy Landscape, Robert John

The Foundation Review

Amid the rapid development of philanthropy across Asia, over the past 10 years a number of giving circles have appeared in the region.

This form of philanthropy, where individuals pool resources and provide grants to nonprofit organizations in their community, is well known and studied in the U.S. This article examines the phenomenon in Asia, and finds giving circles there to be either indigenous or based on models transplanted from the United States or Europe.

While ancient traditions of charitable giving have existed for centuries in Asia, the concept of organized philanthropy in order to effect specific societal benefit is …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Redefining Expectations For Place-Based Philanthropy, Katelyn Mack, Hallie Preskill, James Keddy, Moninder-Mona K. Jhawar

The Foundation Review

This article discusses how The California Endowment has used a midcourse strategic review to refine Building Healthy Communities, aiming to provide insight for other place-based initiatives and to add to the body of knowledge about how to support transformative community change.

With Building Healthy Communities, the endowment is taking a new approach to community change using a dual strategy to build community capacity in 14 places and scale the impact of its local efforts through statewide policy advocacy and communications. In 2013, it commissioned a strategic review to reflect on what it has learned from the first three years of …

How Increasing Personal Care Service Might Delay Or Prevent Nursing Home Placement, Sandra L. Spoelstra, Charles W. Given, Tracy Dekoekkoek, Monica Schueller

Peer Reviewed Articles

There is a pressing need to retain dually eligible elderly Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in the community. The objective of this study was to examine median personal care services (PCS) hours, and how increasing PCS to the median (for those below), might delay nursing home placement (NHP) and save cost. Methods: Retrospective study of PCS hours, costs, and NHP in a statewide home and community based waiver program in the Midwest serving 6525 dually eligible Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries aged 65 and older. Two Minimum Data Set-Home Care assessments and Medicaid claim files were examined to identify PCS hours and cost. A …

Opinion Editorial: When Will Our Lives Matter?, Jamar Ragland

College Student Affairs Leadership

When Will Our Lives Matter?

Opinion Editorial: Why Is It That So Many White People Fear Black Men?, Dmitri C. Westbrook

College Student Affairs Leadership

Why is it that so Many White People Fear Black Men?

A Quantitative Exploration Of The Effects Of Employment On High-Achieving African American College Students, John A. Gipson Jr

College Student Affairs Leadership

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between employment status and student involvement for academically high-achieving African American students (HAAASs) attending one master’s-granting, large, predominantly White institution in the Midwestern United States. Findings from this study contribute to and expand upon existing literature by suggesting that employment does not influence the amount of time HAAASs study or participate within student organizations. Implications for future research are also explored.

Using Fowler's Faith Development Theory In Student Affairs Practice, Alison Andrade

College Student Affairs Leadership

This article provides a review and analysis of James Fowler’s (1981) theory of faith development, while also describing the literature that surrounds his theory. Drawing from the work of Kohlberg, Erikson, and Piaget, Fowler developed a stage theory of faith development that has been continuously referred to by those interested in the faith development process, both in praise and criticism. While it was not initially intended to be a student development theory, Fowler’s work can certainly be applied to the context of higher education. The author explains the relevance of faith development theory to the field of higher education and …

Editor's Corner: Controversy, Control And Confronting Structural Injustice, Lindsay Greyerbiehl

College Student Affairs Leadership

Notes from the editor-in-chief.

"If You Have No Men, You Have No War!”: A Critical Overview Of Edgar Selwyn's Men Must Fight (1933), Ryan R. Copping

Cinesthesia

ABSTRACT: Edgar Selwyn’s Men Must Fight (1933) is an obscure yet culturally relevant science fiction drama. An atypical film from its era, the movie has an unusual subject for a Classical Hollywood film- gender socialization. The film didactically argues that wars are inevitable because men are inherently violent, and that, conversely, world peace world occur if women were in power, a possibility that appears to be regrettably impossible. It is also remarkably prescient in predicting that World War II would begin in 1940, only one year off from the German invasion of Poland. This paper combines a close content analysis …

Moral Anxiety, Mortal Terror: Considering Spielberg, Post-9/11, Jake T. Bart

Cinesthesia

In the wake of 9/11, a defining moment in the young 21st century, Spielberg’s thematic concerns undergo a marked evolution. As film historian Joseph McBride noted, “(n)o other American artist confronted the key events of the first decade of the century with such sustained and ambitious treatment” (450). Together, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005), Munich (2005), and Minority Report (2002) create an informal trilogy, each exploring a different facet of American shock and anxiety in the War on Terror era.

An Apartment Of One’S Own: Personal Initiative And Private Ownership In Frances Ha, Anna Bowles

Cinesthesia

In “Ideology, Genre, Auteur,” Robin Wood says that by approaching film through the framework of ideological theory, we can become sensitized to “the opposing pulls, the tensions, of one’s world (593).” Even in a film that is not explicitly political, these tensions can find expression. In Frances Ha (Baumbach 2012), a young woman struggles to chase her dream while also staying afloat in the harsh landscape of New York City. Until near the end of the film, it seems that Frances might float forever. The supports that Americans used to take for granted are no longer apparent. Having lost her …

The Zone: James, Tarkovsky, And Understanding Reality, Travis Wheeler

Cinesthesia

Using the philosophy of William James as comparison, this essay attempts to understand Andrei Tarkovsky's view of reality and the strategies his characters use to experience it.

Lanthorn, Vol. 49, No. 31, December 8, 2014, Grand Valley State University

Volume 49, July 7, 2014 - June 1, 2015

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Famine In Context: Possible Long-Term Effects Of Exposure To Starvation And Malnutrition In Early Life And Subsequent Implications For The Current Crisis In South Sudan, Jenna Mae Stoken

Honors Projects

Central focus

The central focus of this thesis is to examine the historical and sociopolitical roots of famine. In examining the root causes of famine, we can more carefully analyze its effects on the human condition. More specifically, in analyzing the pathologies associated with food deprivation and malnutrition at an early age, we can examine the possible long-term consequences of malnutrition on human health. In doing so, we can apply this understanding to the current crisis in South Sudan, to consider the implications that the current political situation presents for future generations of South Sudanese people.

Thesis rationale

This thesis …

Decline Of Diporeia In Lake Michigan: Was Disease Associated With Invasive Species The Primary Factor?, Courtney S. Cave, Kevin Strychar

Funded Articles

Populations of the freshwater amphipod Diporeia spp. have steadily declined in Lake Michigan since the late 1980’s. Prior studies have provided inconclusive data on possible reasons for their decline. However, some authors suggest that food competition and/or diseases associated with aquatic invasive species (AIS), such as zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha), may have caused the collapse of Diporeia. In this project, the possibility of pathogens as the cause of the collapse of Diporeia has been examined. Linear regression modeling show a significant positive linear association between percent of Diporeia exhibiting a pathogenic infection and year (r=0.7202264, p2 = …

Lanthorn, Vol. 49, No. 30, December 4, 2014, Grand Valley State University

Volume 49, July 7, 2014 - June 1, 2015

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Professional Experiences Of Women Administrators In Student Services, Christy M. Mayo

Masters Theses

The number of women pursuing higher education now outnumbers that of men. However, the number of women in administration and faculty roles does not mirror that of the student population. Instead, women are often found in midlevel and low level positions, especially within student services and student affairs. This thesis is a qualitative study that employs the phenomenological method to explore and examine the professional experiences of seven midlevel administrators in student affairs and student services at GVSU. The constant comparative method of coding was used to analyze the data, identify themes, and articulate assertions. The themes that emerged from …

Fern Community Reassembly In Secondary Forests Of Puerto Rico: Predictors, Complexity, And Niche Model Assessment, Thomas J. Schmidt

Masters Theses

Approximately 94% of Puerto Rico’s forests were converted into agricultural systems by 1950. Since then, extensive abandonment of agricultural land has resulted in a considerable amount of forest regeneration throughout the main island. Ferns are a major non-woody component of oceanic, tropical island forests comprising up to seventy percent of the flora. Consequently, the composition and community structure of ferns may be indicative of the relative richness of these secondary forests. I used Maximum Entropy (Maxent), a widely-used mathematical tool for distinguishing suitable versus unsuitable fern niche space, along with ENMTools, a tool that assists Maxent with proper model selection, …

Neuroprotective Effect Of An Α-7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist And A Positive Allosteric Modulator In An In Vitro Model Of Glaucoma, Leah Lyons

Masters Theses

Glaucoma is one of several neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system for which a pharmacologic cure is yet to be discovered. In previous studies acetylcholine (ACh) has provided neuroprotection for retinal ganglion cells (RGC) in the mammalian retina under glaucomatous conditions (Wehrwein et al., 2004). More specifically, an α7 nicotinic ACh receptor (nAChR) agonist has demonstrated neuroprotection for RGCs in both in vitro and in vivo models of glaucoma (Iwamoto et al., 2014). In this study, this α7 nAChR agonist was combined with a positive allosteric modulator (PAM) in dissociated adult porcine retinas to evaluate its effect on isolated …

Genetic Structure Of Yellow Perch Populations In Coastal Areas Of Eastern Lake Michigan, Jessica N. Wesolek

Masters Theses

Genetic population substructure is often overlooked because of discontinuities between management and actual population structure as in the case of yellow perch, an ecologically and economically important indigenous fish species in the Laurentian Great Lakes. A knowledge gaps pertaining to the natural history of yellow perch relates to the biological connectivity between nearshore Lake Michigan and drowned river mouth (DRM) lakes, where it remains unclear whether resident yellow perch from Lake Michigan use DRM lakes for spawning or whether DRM lakes contribute to nearshore yellow perch populations in Lake Michigan. I used DNA fingerprinting (genotyping) to explore biological connectivity between …

Structural Comparison Of Arctic Plant Communities Across The Landscape And With Experimental Warming In Northern Alaska, Jessica L. Gregory

Masters Theses

Understanding vegetation change is central to forecasting the impacts of climate change. Percent cover, determined from a point frame method, is commonly used to monitor vegetation change. Cover is influenced by canopy structure which may change with the size (growth) or number (density) of individual plants. The overarching objective of this project was to document the relationship between vegetation cover and traits representing plant growth and density and determine if these relationships changed with warming. We used regressions and analysis of covariance to detect which of several traits was most strongly related to cover in vegetation at a wet and …