Digital Commons Network^™

Social Change Engagement And Leadership Development Among College Students, Andrew Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Young people are increasingly in the public view as agents of social change. As suggested in the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, those who develop the seven values of socially responsible leadership (consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, common purpose, collaboration, controversy with civility, and citizenship) are prepared to engage in the leadership process by creating positive social change. Findings from this study suggest that the socially responsible leadership value of citizenship was the value most consistently related to social change engagement. Additionally, social generativity, or the desire to leave a legacy for future generations, as well as participating in …

Ethical Branding, Lane Gibbons

Marriott Student Review

In this article, BYU senior Lane Gibbons outlines the details of ethical branding and emphasizes the importance of corporate social responsibility in the modern era.

Reducing Gun Violence In New York City, Jeffrey A. Butts, Sheyla A. Delgado

Publications and Research

Most large American cities experienced falling client crime rates in recent decades, with New York City only being second to San Diego is the scale of its decline. This databit looks at the array of initiatives the city implemented to address gun violence as a possible contribution to the decline.

Bridging The Gap? The Impact Of A Media Literacy Educational Intervention On News Media Literacy, Political Knowledge, Political Efficacy Among Lower-Educated Youth, Sabine Geers, Mark Boukes, Judith Moeller

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Scholars generally agree that there is a gap between lower- and higher-educated citizens on civic competence, which solidifies during adolescence. This two-wave panel study examines how an educational intervention focused on media literacy influences civic competence among lower-educated youth (age 16 to 26). Additionally, the level of civic involvement among participants is tested on three measures of civic competence: news media literacy, political efficacy and political knowledge. The findings suggest that the educational program has influenced the level of political efficacy and news media literacy. Furthermore, participants with the most active involvement in the program, i.e. co-created the educational video …

Service-Learning In The Covid19 Era: Learning In The Midst Of Crisis, Lauren Grenier, Elizabeth Robinson, Debra A. Harkins

Pedagogy and the Human Sciences

No abstract provided.

Transforming Higher Education: Responding To The Coronavirus And Other Looming Crises, Michael Mascolo

Pedagogy and the Human Sciences

Higher education is being deeply challenged by the coronavirus. The immediate threats of the coronavirus come at the heels of an existing panoply of problems that already threaten higher education as we know it. These include, of course, the looming enrollment crisis, the high cost of higher education, intractable student debt, the corporatization of education, limited learning on campus, and a general loss of faith in higher education among many sectors of the nation. How are colleges and universities to respond to these challenges? This paper calls upon colleges and universities to consider the need for structural transformation in order …

Pod + College Crusade Photo Journaling 2020, Project Open Door

Project Open Door + Onward We Learn

Participating artists: Jaylyn B., Jeremy R., Karlim T., Kelssy B., Kenneth B., Maria L., Maria-Camila M., Maria R., Sanilda V., Andrea G., Astrid C., Christiana V., Edgar N., Fredy G., Genesis M., Ilanis R., Jeffri P., Larissa P., and Toluwani A.

Photography is a tool that can help us to “SEE.” What does this mean? If we are not visually impaired, we can, of course, physically see. But how much do we miss seeing? How much do we take for granted unless we take the time to look? With assignments that hope to inspire careful observation, we can use the …

Pod + Onward We Learn (College Crusade) Photo Journaling 2020, Project Open Door

Publications + Documents + Videos

Participating artists: Jaylyn B., Jeremy R., Karlim T., Kelssy B., Kenneth B., Maria L., Maria-Camila M., Maria R., Sanilda V., Andrea G., Astrid C., Christiana V., Edgar N., Fredy G., Genesis M., Ilanis R., Jeffri P., Larissa P., and Toluwani A.

POD partnered with Onward We Learn (formerly known as College Crusade) to provide unique and engaging virtual summer workshop experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this online workshop, students were given daily photo challenges to create portraits and still life photographs. They found textures, shapes, colors, numbers, and letters through photographic explorations of their familiar surroundings. In doing so, …

Examining African American Male Mentors Relationships With African American Boys: Benefits, Barriers, Recruitment, And Retention, Quenton Angelo Richardson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Currently there is a shortage of African American male mentors available to build meaningful relationships with young African American boys and young men. Approximately 200,000 youth mentors are working in community agencies in any given year, yet only 6% of these mentors are African American men. Research supports that youth can benefit from a homogeneous mentoring relationship. Very limited research has been conducted that explores the benefits, barriers, recruitment, and retention of African American male mentors from an African American perspective. Therefore, this research gathers information and explores the benefits and barriers of African American adult males who mentor young …

Reported Crime In Map Communities Compared With Other Nyc Areas. Map Evaluation Update Number 5., Jeffrey A. Butts, Sheyla A. Delgado, Richard A. Espinobarros, Gina Moreno

Publications and Research

This is the fifth of six Evaluation Updates reporting interim results from John Jay College’s evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). The study analyzes public safety outcomes in 17 public housing developments participating in the MAP initiative and finds meaningful and sometimes statistically significant improvements.

“You’Re Almost In This Place That Doesn’T Exist”: The Impact Of College In Prison As Understood By Formerly Incarcerated Students From The Northeastern United States, Hilary Binda, Jill D. Weinberg, Nora Maetzener, Carolyn Rubin

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This qualitative study examines the immediate and lasting impact of liberal arts higher education in prison from the perspective of former college-in-prison students from the Northeastern United States. Findings obtained through semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated people are presented in the following three areas: self-confidence and agency, interpersonal relationships, and capacity for civic leadership. This study further examines former students’ reflections on the relationship between education and human transformation and begins to benchmark college programming with attention to the potential for such transformation. The authors identify four characteristics critical to a program’s success: academic rigor, the professor's respect for students, …

A Heart Of Gold

DePaul Magazine

An interview with alumnus, retired insurance executive and DePaul Life Trustee Bertram ("Bert") Scott, chairman of the American Heart Association (AHA). He hopes to help focus attention on the social determinants of health, increase research, address vaping illnesses and foster diversity communities to get involved with the AHA.

Impacting The Community Through Knitting, Ashley Guenther

Honors Projects

The purpose of this project is to address the needs of my community. Specifically, it addresses the need that homeless people in Toledo have for winter apparel. I decided to fill this need through hand knitted items; this paper details the organization of the collection and distribution process of said items. It also describes the various problems I encountered when completing my project, most notably the disinterest of those I reached out to, and my attempts to overcome these issues. Although part of these attempts include more than one restructuring of my project, I am still able to fulfill my …

A Drawing A Day Keeps The Pandemic Away: Vol 9, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

A Drawing a Day Keeps the Pandemic Away

The project is called A Drawing a Day Keeps the Pandemic Away. We created it on March 17th, which was the day when we realized that we weren’t going to be able to go back into the museum and continue installing the exhibitions we had been planning to open on March 27th. People were asking us what we, as an art museum, were going to do to reach out to the community during the pandemic shutdown and honestly we were wondering that ourselves, so we had an online brainstorming session and came up with the idea of posting a daily …

Freed Faces, Our Past Americans: Collaborations To Create, Digitize And Describe The “Former Slaves In Freedom” Collection, Gayle Porter

Collaborative Librarianship

The Chicago State University (CSU) Archives collaborated with the International Society of Sons and Daughters of Slave Ancestry (ISDSA), a Chicago-based lineage society, to digitize, describe, and make accessible online a collection of 359 private historic photographs of formerly enslaved African Americans, and 90+ brief family histories, submitted by descendants. This case study describes the benefits, processes, and challenges of this unique, unfinished collaborative project. The study also describes: 1. Creative, flexible approaches to collaborative digital projects by an academic institution and a community organization; 2. Balancing cataloging/metadata standards while respecting a curator’s goals for the collection.

User Guide To The Mds Collection Of African American History In Huntington, West Virginia, Kelli Johnson

User Guides

Various people have worked over the years to collect stories and artifacts about Black history in Huntington, WV. This site seeks to gather that information in one place and make it available for all.

Speaking Volumes: The Failure Of American Courts To Address The Underlying Themes Of Silence And Patriarchy Within The Civil Order Of Protection Process In Davenport, Iowa, Catherine Priebe

Sociology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Domestic abuse is a pervasive issue within the United States. Approximately three women will be murdered by an intimate partner every day and around half of all women will experience psychological abuse by an intimate partner in their lifetime. As such, it is important to have legal avenues that survivors can pursue in order to ensure safety for themselves and their children. There are many obstacles to obtaining a civil order of protection despite it being the most common legal option survivors choose to pursue. Survivors must take on the burden of proof and hire their own attorney if they …

Humanity, Above All: Facing Covid-19 With Altruism, Compassion And Empathy, Michael Jenkins

Social Space

In Singapore, we have seen many examples of altruism, compassion and empathy taking place during this challenging COVID-19 period. These ACE attributes, as I call them, are instances of humanity in action.

The State Of Nonprofits In Southeast Louisiana: The Impact Of Covid-19, Steven W. Mumford, Kellie Chavez Greene

Political Science Reports, Studies, and Presentations

The Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF) in partnership with the University of New Orleans’ (UNO) Political Science Department undertook a study to gain insights on the impact the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is having on nonprofit organizations located in Southeast Louisiana and to share this information as a resource to philanthropy, nonprofits, and civic leaders in our region. GNOF and UNO conducted online and phone surveys beginning March 23, 2020 through April 13, 2020 which targeted 501(c)3 public charities, excluding churches, foundations, and unique groups of larger nonprofits such as hospitals, universities, and charter schools. Our research examined ten essential questions …

Spatial Politics And Literacy: An Analysis Of Little Free Libraries And Neighborhood Distribution Of Book-Sharing Depositories In Portland, Oregon And Detroit, Michigan, Desiree Wilson

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The purpose of this research is to interrogate whether Free Little Libraries (LFL), the largest branded book-sharing movement in the world, continues to uphold its currently stated mission to provide book access to communities where book accessibility is low (determined by how many estimated books are in each household). Though the Little Free Library nonprofit has flourished in the decade since it was founded, indicating a fondness and appreciation for the Little Library as an idea and neighborhood ornament alike, critics of the organization have raised multiple concerns about whether the library boxes provide service to those who need them. …

Disappearing Act: Are Free Speech Rights Decreasing?, Michael Conklin

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Pushing The Boundaries Of Healing, Alankrit Shatadal

VA Engage Journal

This paper explains a summer volunteering opportunity at a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a home environment for low-income families coming to city hospitals for intensive pediatric care. The importance of social determinants of health during the healing process is explored through examples of services provided by the Ronald McDonald House. These services range from meeting basic human needs to emotional care of pediatric patients. In addition, routes to potentially ameliorate observed challenges associated with pediatric hospitalization are discussed.

In fall 2020, Alankrit Shatadal will begin her senior year at Washington and Lee University, where she is pursuing degrees in …

“Change Is The Essential Process Of All Existence:” Transformation Through Civic Learning And Democratic Engagement’S Theory Of Emergent Change, Molly B. Kerby

eJournal of Public Affairs

The higher education system in the United States is currently in flux. The cost of attending college is experiencing unprecedented increases, while federal and state support and resources are shrinking. In addition, public demands are shifting the culture of critical analysis common in liberal arts institutions to a focus on workforce development and job readiness. We have entered a new era and environment in which college administrators are confronted with an array of challenges that have the potential to threaten traditional, holistic education as well as civic and democratic engagement curriculum. This paper identifies the origins of social change theories …

Managing ‘Send Her Back’: Civil Discourse And Educating For Democracy As Campus Culture, Jeremy Tuchmayer Phd, Dennis Mccunney Phd, Tara Kermiet

eJournal of Public Affairs

Until recently, Research University had a small culture of marches, protests, and other free speech actions. However, police involved shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, followed by the 2016 summer of violence with the mass shooting in Orlando and more police-involved shootings in New York, Chicago, Minnesota, and Texas, dramatically changed the culture at Research University. During the 2016-17 academic year, Research University student organizations hosted more than 25 campus protests and demonstrations—relatively few compared to other institutions, but a large increase for our campus community. Even with wide-ranging topics -- from Black Lives Matter to Turning Point USA speakers …

Student Agency And Collective Bootstrapping In Integrated Career And Technical Education: A Photovoice Project, Panagiota Athinelis

Educational Studies Dissertations

Secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) provides students with a full education in academic areas as well as a career area of interest, allowing students to apply their school-based learning in the real world through work-based learning. At the same time, urban CTE adolescents have historically been marginalized and placed in a deficit model. The purpose of this qualitative study was to uncover the ways in which student agency is co-created in an urban, transdisciplinary CTE high school program, as well as to identify the institutional systems and structures that support or hinder the development of student agency.

Eight students …

Examining Minority Youth Swimmers’ Versus Non-Swimmers’ Perceptions Of Swimming Involvement, Timothy M. Dasinger, Laura L. Brown, Ashton J. Sawyers

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Drowning is one of the leading causes of death in youth, especially among minority populations (Gilchrest & Parker, 2014). According to the World Health Organization (2014), every hour of every day approximately 42 people lose their lives to drowning. Additionally, African-Americans are 14 times more likely to drown in a pool than other racial or ethnic group members (Waller & Norwood, 2011). The purpose of this study was to examine survey results between swimming and non-swimming minority youth participants. Forty African American students between the ages of 5-17 from an after-school program completed the Swimming Involvement Survey. Results indicated that …

Book Review: Neighborhood Church: Transforming Your Congregation Into A Powerhouse For Mission, Brandon Pierce

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Neighborhood Church: Transforming Your Congregation into a Powerhouse for Mission, by Krin van Tatenhove and Rob Mueller. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2019. 146 pages, $20.00.

Campus Activism: Understanding Engagement, Inspiration, And Burnout In Student Experiences, Jessica Gagnon

Honors Scholar Theses

Around the world, countries are seeing a rise in youth activism, and the United States is no exception. Universities are a hot spot for activism, but student activism is not yet fully understood. Student activists face unique challenges and often experience burnout. In this qualitative study, student activists were interviewed to elucidate both the pathways that led them to activism and burnout that they face. I reveal important implications for individual activists, organizations, and universities for helping student activists protect themselves from burnout and heal when they do experience it.

International Civic And Citizenship Education Study, Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) identifies and monitors students’ knowledge, attitudes and activities related to civic and citizenship education. The study is grounded in core themes in civic and citizenship education such as young people’s understanding of civic principles and institutions, their knowledge of how to engage in civil society, exercise critical judgment, and their understanding and appreciation of the rights and responsibilities of a citizen. In addition, ICCS embraces concrete themes that have become of increasing importance in the twenty-first century, such as global citizenship, environmental sustainability, the use of new social media for civic engagement, …

Factors Influencing Participation In Liberal Student Organizations On College Campuses, Nathan Johnson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Despite a long history of student organizations on college campuses there is relatively little research on participation and student experiences in such groups, especially on what factors motivate students to become involved. This study sought to examine factors that influence participation in political organizations on college campuses through dependent variables of attendance and holding a leadership role. The sample focused on groups understood to be “liberal” such as the College Democrats, environmental groups, and others. Respondents were reached through personal connections, social media, and distributing the survey to student organizations. The examined factors accounted for less than a fifth of …