Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Student Leadership In Western Washington University’S Honors Program, Emma Wiechert

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

After serving as the Student Honors Board President for the WWU Honors Program and in various other volunteer roles, I completed my senior capstone on student leadership in not only our honors program but programs across the country. The goal of this project was to highlight what WWU is doing well in terms of student leadership and what could be improved.

Depression Symptoms Of College Students During Covid-10 And The Universities’ Response, Anamika Paulay

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In early spring 2020, universities worldwide shut down their campuses in response to a global pandemic. The present study examines the potential effect of the shutdown and other pandemic-related stresses on student well-being at Western Washington University. It assesses students’ depression symptoms using the IDAS-II General Depression Scale. The study also considers two campus resources (the Counseling Center, and Prevention and Wellness Services) that students can turn to for help with mental health issues, and gauges students’ awareness and utilization of these resources. The study subjects were Western undergraduates (N = 252), who answered a survey that included the IDAS-II …

Taste Of Place And Provenance, Alison Stevens

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Bioregionalism is a framework that could serve to bridge the gap between humans and the land that they inhabit. A bioregional food system exemplifies the reduction of large scale agriculture and economy to one that falls within climatologically and geographically determined regions, superseding anthropogenic and political borders. Not only would a bioregional food system encourage mindfulness of the ecosystem that surrounds a community, but create a secure, community-based economy scaled to match the bioregion. The valuation of products and crops of local farmers and artisans would reflect the reliance on bioregionally specific wares, as well as ground members in their …

Friday Night Lights: A Photo Gallery Normalizing The Psychological Struggles Faced By Student Athletes, Sam J. Reardon

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This photography-based project aimed to capture moments that encapsulated various psychological conditions student-athletes may be facing in universities. These bold photographs would serve to be eye catching and draw viewers if they were to be hung up in a gallery for students to see. Under the images there would be captions on which students could read statistics regarding the amount of student -athletes that experience these conditions and an avenue for them to find help if they were struggling with the condition. Studies show that collegiate athletes underreport their struggles with psychological conditions though they occur with greater frequency in …

Framing Feminism: How U.S. And French Media Frame #Metoo And #Balancetonporc From A Feminist Perspective, Kira Erickson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The purpose of this website is to provide a cross-cultural analysis of the .. Me Too" movement in the U.S. and France. These feminist movements are absolutely critical to the ongoing fight against sexual harassment and assault. The creation of this research website explores cultural differences in framing of the subjects in news stories from The New York Times and Le Monde. The #MeToo movement is compared and contrasted with France's counterpart, #BalanceTonPorc.

Website Link:

https://ericks663.wixsite.com/framingfeminism

Wildfire Education In Washington School Districts, Jessica Martin

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Wildfire education is an important and often overlooked unit of a comprehensive public school education. Ecology, earth science, and disaster preparedness for events like earthquakes and house fires are examples of subjects already taught to students in schools throughout Washington; however, given the effects of climate change, wildfire education warrants much greater integration into school district curricula. To assess the general extent of wildfire education in Washington state, Washington state public school districts were contacted and asked if they provided their students with wildfire education. A majority of the school districts contacted reported that they either do not formally include …

Public Meetings: Barriers And Solutions, Pauline Mogilevsky

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Public meetings and hearings are some of the most common avenues of interaction between government officials and the public. In many circumstances, they are a legally required element of the public involvement process. However, elected officials, government staff, and residents often find public meetings to be frustrating, unrepresentative, and ineffective (Hajnal and Trounstine, 2016; McComas et al, 2007; Walters et al, 2000). This has prompted many planners to employ other, more nontraditional methods of public participation in order to gain meaningful feedback and build relationships with residents. Though these newer methods, which include workshops, tours, and charrettes, are often more …

A More Sustainable Future: Energy Efficiency Policies In Buildings, Campbell Miller

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Energy efficiency is often times the most cost effective solution towards reducing energy demand. Energy usage in buildings accounts for upwards of 40% of the total energy consumption in the United States, as well as the vast majority of the growth in energy demand. Despite this buildings are often not built to be energy efficient, causing the residential and commercial sector to paying for hundreds of millions dollars on unnecessary energy use. The reason for this is the many market failures including: risk, lack of information, and access to capital. Looking at policies by the United States and China attempting …

Seeking Asylum: Immigration Law In The Context Of Human Rights, Hannah Blank

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The purpose of this paper is to understand the dynamic between Latin American countries and the United States in relation to asylum, mass migration and the process of legally entering the country. This explores the implications of the United States’ current legislature in place and how this caters to the U.S.’s interests. Furthermore, the theoretical implementation of asylum and its political origins are evaluated in the context of organized crime and social issues that impact migration trends. While the movement of goods is acceptable the movement of people is heavily scrutinized and politically charged. My proposed argument is that the …

Regional Textile Production: Mapping The Pacific Northwest Fiber Network, Caroline Vogl

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Inspired by the slow food movement, more people have started to question the source of their clothing and textiles due to the environmental and human rights abuses in the current global fashion industry. The Pacific Northwest in particular is a place where questions about textile production and sourcing have been raised and where many textile farmers, retailers and makers already exist. Currently there are many gaps in production and a lack of connection between the various players in this regional economy. The first step in creating a stronger regionally-based fiber economy is to connect the participants in this economy. To …

Women's Agency In Movements Of Collective Violence, Juliet Knowles

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Though not common in literature, women have frequently taken it upon themselves to form collective movements to address their grievances with society and their discontent within it. To demand change, and when the motivation of the group are strong enough, the methods through which women will achieve political representation will not stop short of violence.

The Subject(S) Of Feminism: Gender Identity, Emotion, And Deconstruction In Contemporary Feminist Politics, Gwen Frost

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The way we think, understand, and speak about gender is changing . In 2019, more people than ever are identifying as nonbinary or gender fluid. Feminism as theory and as political practice has long assumed the subject of ‘women’ as its primary and essential subject, but the issues and subjects that feminism speaks for are not necessarily self-identified or even perceived as ‘women.’ Through analyzing influential feminist works and thinkers, I aim to elucidate the identitarian commitment of canonical feminism, and to offer an alternative to the politics of feminism as always grounded in the subject of ‘women.’ My thesis …

Finance In The Fifth Dimension: Lessons In Logic For The Social Sciences, Dawson J. Sanders

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The purpose of this paper is to highlight lessons from various areas of academia that I feel would benefit all social science. I will discuss physics, biology, sociology, and more, doing my best to explicitly state their relationships to economics throughout the paper. I hope that the lessons learned here will together serve as a means for prescribing and evaluating solutions to social problems and assist in the development of models through a new level of methodological dimensionality where applicable. The fifth dimension will serve to metaphorically illustrate this new way of thinking, through which we will construct a theoretical …

Library Strategic Planning: Impacting Change On A Local Level, Elizabeth Yarbrough

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

How are public libraries responding to the changing needs of today? This project outlines the theory behind Libraries Transforming Communities and Turning Outward, an ALA initiative developed to aid libraries in connecting with the broader communities, and how the Bellingham Public Library in Bellingham, WA is incorporating those theories into their strategic plan.

Becoming Indigenous: A Story Of The Moklen People, Olivia Zimmerman

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The context and ways in which the Moklen people of Southwest Thailand are accessing their indigenous identify.

Victimizing Cap-And-Trade: How Policy Narratives Influence Policy Realities, Alyssa Rehwald

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

When a cap-and-trade bill was introduced to the Washington legislature in 2009, it was met with staunch opposition from a coalition of businesses and industry leaders. In the end, the opposing side won when cap-and-trade legislation was removed from the bill. My goal was to better understand if there were differences in how the Pro and Con Coalitions presented policy narratives, and how they may have influenced the policy outcome. Using the Narrative Policy Framework, I analyzed public testimony produced by both coalitions and examined the use of narrative elements, narrative strategies, and policy beliefs between and within the coalitions. …

“Did It Change Your Life?”: An Evaluation Of Student Growth On Western Washington University International Service-Learning Programs, Tess Bentley, Elizabeth Mogford

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of three service-learning study abroad programs at Western Washington University through a survey administered to seven cohorts of these programs over six years. Pre-trip and post- trip self-assessment questionnaires are used to analyze student growth in topics related to global citizenship.

Coal Trains And Home Values: The Effect Of The Gateway Pacific Terminal Project On Housing Prices In Bellingham, Washington, Rose G. Howe

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The proposal to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal generated much controversy in Bellingham, Washington. As a deep-water port slated to export large quantities of coal and other commodities, the Gateway Pacific Terminal (GPT) threatened to increase the amount of rail traffic passing through the region.The following study uses a hedonic price model to test whether proximity to the railroad affected the sales price of houses in Bellingham after the announcement of the GPT environmental review process. Little previous research focuses on the effect of rail traffic on housing prices in the Pacific Northwest and no empirical studies have examined the …

Crime Blindness: The Impact Of Inattentional Blindness On Eyewitness Description Accuracy, Claire Tyler

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States. Inattentional blindness, the failure to become fully aware of an object or event despite its presence in the center of one’s visual field, may render some eyewitnesses unable to accurately describe the culprit of a crime that had occurred right in front of them. The members of Ira Hyman’s research lab explored the relationship between inattentional blindness and the ability to provide accurate eyewitness testimony. We asked participants to watch a video of a staged theft, instructing the experimental groups to either count the number of people …

Effects Of Microfinance Penetration Rates On Education Participation, Samuel W. Martinez

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Microfinance, or the extension of financial services to low-income individuals unserved or underserved by traditional financial institutions, has been championed as a method of reducing poverty and creating social change, especially in developing countries. However, empirical studies examining the effects of microcredit programs have found mixed results as to the success of these loans. This study attempts to determine the impact that the presence of microfinance institutions in a country has on education participation rates, specifically examining country- level World Bank data over a 10-year period. Regression results for this data suggest positive effects of microfinance penetration on secondary education …

Spanish News Framing Of The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Ariana Hoyer

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

During 2015 and 2016, Europe dealt with the largest migratory crisis since WWII due to the escalation of the Syrian civil war and ongoing conflict and violence. When an issue as significant as the Syrian refugee crisis occurs, it is crucial to carefully examine the news framing of the issue due to its strong power to influence public discourse. This influence can originate from many different aspects of framing, but one of the most influential is word choice. The word choices used to refer to groups of people can change the feelings of identification or “otherness” among readers. This paper …

The Economic Impacts Of Cross-Border Retailing, Daniel Edgel

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

An economic impact estimation of cross-border shopping from British Columbia to Whatcom County and forecast of the impact of future changes in retail shopping trends.

The Gender Wage Gap And Child Poverty: A Statistical Analysis, Kristine Farwell

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Child poverty is an immense societal problem because of the unnecessary hardship it creates for the children who experience it, and the ways in which it negatively impacts others as well. Poor children experience malnutrition, lower academic performance, and higher death rates than children not in poverty. In addition, poverty continues to follow them throughout their life time. There are additional negative results for society as well. Higher healthcare costs and lower productivity can harm the economy. Communities with high child poverty levels also experience additional education and interaction challenges (Griggs and Walker 2008). Reducing child poverty would not only …

Off-Campus Student Life Survey, Heather Rees

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In Spring quarter of academic year 2011-2012, 3,571 students at Western Washington University were emailed to solicit their participation in the Off-Campus WWU Student Life Survey. This survey was sponsored by the Campus Community Coalition and was intended to generate a more accurate picture of the experiences of Western students living off-campus in Bellingham. One thousand twenty four students (28.7%) responded and 901 (25.2%) completed the survey in its entirety. Sixty seven percent of respondents were female, 80% (712) of students self-identified as Caucasian/white and 42.8% were seniors. Eight hundred and forty six (94%) of respondents indicated they were renters. …

/Ɡizəskɪfi/ (Give Me A Clue) - Linguistic Features Of Scottish Accents And Dialects, Sarah Knudsen

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Powerpoint presentation describing the author's research, conducted in Scotland, regarding Scottish dialectal features and the sociolinguistic connotations associated with the dialects. Outside research is also incorporated.

The Revitalization Of An Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha, The National Political Science Honor Society, Kiku Huckle

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The Revitalization of an Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha, The National Political Science Honor Society by Kiku Huckle, a Western Washington University Honors Project.

Better Teams Through Type, Jeremy Dwyer

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

When business people are asked what skills are most important in business, and especially management, they often answer “ability to communicate with other employees.” Successful communication though, takes more than mastery of English and knowing a few things about active listening. Effective communication requires the ability to understand, and appreciate, how the other person thinks. If people don’t understand their differences they will communicate in different ways and the efficiency and cohesion of your organization will suffer.

Type theory, upon which this course is based, attempts to describe personalities so that people can come to understand, and appreciate, the perspectives …