The Journey Of Accompaniment: Pastoral Care Education For The Laity At The University Church Of Christ In Abilene, Tx, Alejandro Ezquerra

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This Doctor of Ministry project addresses the need for intentional pastoral care formation among lay members at the University Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas, with particular attention to its bilingual ministry context. Grounded in the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers as articulated in 1 Pet 2:9, the project argues that pastoral care is not the exclusive responsibility of ordained clergy but a shared calling within the body of Christ. In response to congregational interest in chaplaincy and caregiving, a five-session curriculum titled The Journey of Accompaniment: Forming Hearts for the Ministry of Care was developed to equip …

Reflections On Building Data Harnessing Literacy: A Three-Tier Approach For Business, Redzuan Abdullah

Research Collection Library

This is part of a summary of my presentation at the INCONECSS 2025, on SMU Libraries’ approach to offering data discovery services to its research community. As academic libraries evolve into vital research partners, business librarians face unprecedented demands to support complex, data-intensive research across financial and business databases. This piece explores a fundamental question: How do we keep up?

Deep Distortions In Faces And Places, Daniel M. Bialer, C.J. Brainerd

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deep distortions occur when a person remembers multiple incompatible reality states as true, producing logical impossibilities. Those impossibilities include violations of basic logical principles such as additivity, countable additivity, and universal event. Previously, deep distortions have been detected in experiments using word lists and using real-world facts. We report two experiments in which we extend these findings to realistic pictures that figure prominently in legal cases. In Experiment 1, we presented participants with images of celebrity faces and asked them true or false questions about their identities, which were either conventional probes (e.g., "This is Alexander Hamilton") or disjunctive probes …

How Licensing Compromised The Library, Aaron Perzanowski

Articles

Libraries are under attack on multiple fronts. Fueled by right-wing talking points, social-media misinformation, and conspiratorial fantasy, efforts to remove or restrict access to books in public and school libraries have exploded across the United States. At the same time, libraries have confronted a disturbing rise in threats of violence and harassment directed at staff and patrons. State and federal actors have targeted library budgets. And on occasion, local residents have voted to defund their own libraries.

But it gets worse. Libraries face new challenges to their basic operations. Materials are harder than ever to acquire, and many in-demand digital …

Policy Analysis Of Utah's Family Vlogging Bill: Examining The Influence Of The Mormon Church On Utah State Legislation And Its Effects On Child Performer Protections, Jayna J. Moskovitz

Honors College Theses

Following the criminal sentencing of Mormon family vlogger, Ruby Franke, of the 8Passengers YouTube channel, the state of Utah passed House Bill (H.B.) 322 in 2025 with the aim of protecting minors involved in social media content. This thesis investigates the connection between Mormonism and family vlogging to determine whether the Mormon influence in Utah’s state government impacted the effectiveness of H.B. 322’s provisions. My research asked: How does H.B. 322 protect children featured in social media content? (How) did the involvement of the Mormon Church in Utah politics and/or the high profile of the Ruby Franke case lead to …

The Use Of An Escape Room As A Learning Tool, Margaret Trnka

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The use of escape rooms as an active learning strategy in nursing education promotes student engagement, clinical reasoning, and teamwork. By integrating unfolding patient scenarios with time-sensitive problem-solving tasks, escape rooms align with the principles of game-based learning and the Clinical Judgment Measurement Model (CJMM). This approach encourages students to recognize cues, prioritize interventions, and apply evidence-based practice in a collaborative environment. Incorporating escape rooms into nursing curricula has been associated with increased student satisfaction, improved knowledge retention, and enhanced readiness for clinical practice and Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) expectations.

Service-Informed Pathways Proposal, Joshua Works

UNLV Transfer Student Seminar Poster (COE 303)

This project explores how food insecurity affects UNLV students’ nutrition and proposes practical ways to strengthen the UNLV Food Pantry. Through six hours of volunteer service and a review of research, I identified key barriers, including stigma, limited access to fresh food, and low awareness. The proposal recommends three actionable improvements: simple nutrition handouts, peer-led outreach to reduce stigma, and stronger partnerships to ensure consistent access to fresh produce. These steps aim to improve daily nutrition, increase pantry usage, and support better academic outcomes. This work combines hands-on service experience with research to offer realistic, low-cost solutions that can help …

Awe As Signpost: An Argument For The Consistency Of Lewis’S “Joy” And Psychological Awe, Audrey Hendricks

Senior Honors Theses

C.S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy details Lewis’s autobiographical apologetic for the existence of God through his experiences of “Joy,” a technical term invented by Lewis. Upon close study, his experiences of Joy contain many similarities to psychological awe. This investigation compares Lewis’s Joy with psychological awe using the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S) to determine consistency. Lewis’s Joy was found to be consistent with all six criteria of the AWE-S in addition to other recognized psychological characteristics of awe. In addition to qualitative consistency, this review also argues for the teleological consistency of the two concepts, contending for a Christian teleological …

Toward An Anthropology Of The Expressive Individual: Reformational Insights Into Emotions, The Heart, And Christian Formation, Isaac Kantola

Senior Honors Theses

Contemporary Western culture is increasingly defined by what theologians and sociologists call “expressive individualism,” driven by an “ethic of authenticity” in which one’s emotions and desires are seen as the primary arbiter of identity and meaning. Responding to this cultural movement, the Church has appropriated the language of desire, happiness, and the affective in its preaching, ministry, and apologetic endeavors. Figures such as John Piper, James K.A. Smith, and Timothy Keller have each, in their own way, sought to contextualize the faith so it may be better understood by a culture obsessed with their longings and therapeutic self-concern. While these …

Volume 17, Christian O’Neill, Kyara Greene, Savva Sidorov, Laura Bisaillon, Luke Clemmer, Hannah Gordon, Kitt Benson, Taylor Blount, Rachel Danzitz, Nicholas Duellman, Chase Gionis, Hima Fernando, Seth Franzyshen, Onyx Gonzalez, Bryan Lin, Samantha Start, Ysabel Wells, Maggie Duncan

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction Dr. Amorette Barber, Director, Office of Student Research

From the Editor Dr. Hannah Dudley-Shotwell

Cover Artist’s Statement Maggie Duncan

On Mentoring Dr. Yulia Uryadova

Ukrainian Resistance in the Face of Russification: Nestor Makhno and Anarchism

by Christian O’Neill

Life Vest by Kyara Greene

Isolation and 16S rRNA Identification of Bacteria from Fire Department Connection Pipe by Savva Sidorov

The Effectiveness of Planned Exercise in Reducing ADHD Symptoms in Children by Laura Bisaillon & Luke Clemmer

Linguistic Analysis on Confidence and Communication Strategies with Disparities Between Sign Fluency and Hearing Impairment by Hannah Gordon

Freedmen in Indian Territory by Kitt …

The Guardian The Month Of May 2026, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of February 2026. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since May of 1965.

Addressing Socioeconomic Factors Related To Health Disparities In Predominantly Hispanic Texas Communities, Gabriela M. Gomez

Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study examined the socioeconomic factors that influenced health outcomes in predominantly Hispanic Texas communities in San Antonio, Texas. Few studies have been conducted that address how socioeconomic conditions have shaped the lives of the Hispanic population in Texas, indicating a significant gap in the research. The research question guiding this study asked: How do Hispanic individuals between the ages of 26 and 64 who live in predominantly Hispanic communities describe health disparities in San Antonio, Texas? To address the research question, a qualitative inquiry was conducted using semi-structured in-person interviews with participants who met the inclusion criteria. A …

Exploring The Transformative Effects Of Executive Coaching On Leaders: A Qualitative Study, Dwayne Norman

Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation examines the transformative effects of executive coaching on leaders’ development, personal growth, decision-making, and overall effectiveness across varied organizational contexts. Grounded in authentic leadership theory and employing a generic qualitative inquiry design, the study investigated how leaders who completed executive coaching describe changes in their behavior and mindset. Eleven experienced leaders participated in semi-structured interviews selected through purposive sampling. Thematic analysis, guided by the cyclical and inductive coding methods of Saldana (2021), generated 187 initial codes, which were distilled into 72 final codes. These final codes were then further refined into twelve categories and four overarching themes: …

Processing Conditions In Narrative Interpretation: A Structural Account Of Cf/Ef Divergence In "The Clerk's Tale”, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper applies the framework established in Paper 19, "Cognition Is Not Content: A Structural Account of Processing Conditions," to re-describe Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales.

The same narrative produces two incompatible interpretations: a record of domestic violence, and a story of genuine love. This divergence does not arise from differences in ethical judgment or emotional response. It arises from structural differences in the conditions under which information is reconstructed.

This paper does three things. First, it analyzes the characters Walter and Griselda in terms of CF (Core-foregrounded) and EF (Modulation-foregrounded) processing conditions. Second, it describes …

Partners In Crime: Unraveling Accomplice Involvement In Jury Verdicts, Daphne A. Murray

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The present study is only the second investigation to examine the effects of accomplice witness testimony on jury decision making. For this study, participants read a trial transcript of an assault case in which the defendant was accused of starting a physical altercation. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions where we varied the level of involvement of the accomplice. The three conditions included Accomplice-Altercation where the accomplice was directly involved in the altercation and threw a few punches, Accomplice-Lookout where the accomplice served as a lookout for police arrival, and a No Accomplice condition. The results of …

From Viewer To Participant: Building Emotional Stakes And Audience Advocacy Through Original Film Marketing In The Internet Age, Andy Joshua Pal

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Film marketing has always been a vital part of engaging audiences with motion pictures, particularly for original intellectual property (IP) projects striving to build a passionate fanbase. In the 1950s and 1960s, filmmaking pioneers Alfred Hitchcock and William Castle revolutionized original movie campaigns, laying the foundation for audience engagement through two main, opposite strategies: secrecy for horror and horror-adjacent releases and transparency for non-horror releases. The Blair Witch Project (Sánchez and Myrick, 1999)’s marketing became the defining film campaign of the internet age, drawing upon Hitchcock and Castle’s secretive approaches by pioneering alternate reality games (ARGs). This strategy, which lets …

Analyzing Media Conversations Around Sports Gambling Within The Context Of Vulnerable Audiencestrevor Fox, Trevor Fox

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study examines how newspaper coverage of sports betting (2023–2024) shapes public discourse around gambling. Through mixed-methods content analysis of 105 randomly sampled articles, guided by agenda-setting, framing, and cultivation theories, findings reveal that coverage prioritizes regulation and scandals over vulnerable populations, frames betting positively at the macro level but negatively at the individual level, and largely omits the academic evidence base on gambling harms.

Snitch Switch: Does Gender Affect The Credibility Of Jailhouse Informants?, Claire Katherine Yontz

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The testimony of jailhouse informants (JIs)—individuals who claim to have gained knowledge about a crime while incarcerated with a defendant—is considered a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The present study examined how the gender of the JI affects participants’ rating of the informant’s credibility by adapting a trial summary from Wetmore et al., 2014. In the trial summary, a male defendant, whose wife recently filed for divorce, returns home fro the bar one night to find the dead bodies of his wife and her alleged new romantic partner. Included in the trial summary, is the testimony of the defendant, numerous …

A Thesaurus Of The Greek Language: Cataloging Dimitrakos's Historical Lexicon, Harikleia Georgiou Sirmans

Georgia Library Quarterly

Library catalogers often work with challenging materials, particularly foreign language. This article documents a cataloger’s research of the journey to publication of the Great Lexicon of the Entire Greek Language. It tells the history of the dictionary’s entries from Ancient to Koine to Byzantine to Demotic and to Katharevousa Greek. The article also includes a biographical sketch of its creator, Dimitrios V. Dimitrakos, a self-made publisher. It describes his sociopolitical struggles to produce this work and his commitment to education. The dictionary is a massive 15-volume scholarly work, covering over 200,000 entries in 8,056 pages. Awarded by the Academy of …

Spring 2026 (Volume 63, Issue 2) Complete Issue, Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Tiktok Usage And Cyberbullying: A Systematic Review Of Existing Studies To Identify Correlations., Emma Willett

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

TikTok has rapidly become a pivotal part of adolescents' lives, and arguably one of the most influential social media platforms by creating unique patterns of communication and interaction. This short-video format platform has a uniquely designed, algorithm-driven “For You Page”, as well as a distinct environment for interaction and comment culture.

With the rise of popularity around TikTok, cyberbullying has also emerged as a significant concern (Guimetti, 2022). This thesis aims to conduct a systematic literature review of existing studies on TikTok usage and cyberbullying to determine whether or not there is a significant positive correlation between the two.

This …

Substance Use And Childhood Environment In Adolescent Head Injury: Examining The Effects Of Race, Jessica A. Phelps

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Adolescents participating in sports are at an increased risk of concussion, which is particularly important given the difficulties with cognitive function, emotion regulation, and impulsivity that may occur as a result of this brain injury. These symptoms can predispose adolescents to subsequent concussions, leading to further damage during a critical time in neurodevelopment which can result in mental health disorder development in adulthood. It is crucial to understand what factors may predispose youth to increased rates of concussion for these reasons. As such, this paper explored whether race/ethnicity, gender, grade in school, childhood environment, and risk-taking behaviors were associated with …

Examining The Differences Between The Experience Of Audiobooks Vs. Reading, Mia K. Floriani

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

There are a variety of opinions regarding whether listening to audiobooks counts as real reading, but very limited research examining the topic in depth. The current study investigates the differences between audiobooks and reading, specifically examining how the two modes of story experiences effect mind-wandering, enjoyment, absorption, and comprehension. We predicted that listening to the story would lead to increased mind-wandering and decreased comprehension and raised the research question of how the modes would affect enjoyment and transportation. Undergraduate students (n = 76) were divided into a reading or a listening condition, where they experienced a short story. During …

Exploring Power, Sses, And Attribution, Mckinley A. Almeida

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

People tend to take credit when they feel powerful (Lammers & Burgmer, 2019). However, subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) may shift how individuals perceive who gets credit. To test this idea, I examined whether a memory recall of power or powerlessness changed internal attributions and if this effect is dependent on SSES. After individuals self-reported their SSES, participants were randomly assigned to recall a specific high or low-influence episode in their life. They indicated “who contributed more” and “who had more influence” on the outcome of the situation. Results showed a main effect of power such that recalling high-power situations led …

Navigating The Nicu Without Words: A Case Study Of A Spanish-Speaking Mother’S Healthcare Experience, Emma Norris

Poster Presentations

Research on NICU experiences largely focuses on majority-language families; non-English-speaking families are understudied (Cleveland, 2008). The Family Integrated Care model promotes parent-infant connection and shared decision-making to improve outcomes (Wreesmann et al., 2020). Language barriers impede parent-provider communication, increasing miscommunication and parental anxiety (Kynoe et al., 2020; Ardal et al., 2011). The purpose of this research is to explore communication experiences and barriers between English-speaking and bilingual NICU nurses and a Spanish-speaking NICU mother.

Fear Of Crime, Intolerance Of Uncertainty, And Trait Worry: A Mediation Model Of Perceived Risk And Victimization Concerns, Nicholai N. Chasseau

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined psychological vulnerability and fear of crime in 538 adults from Trinidad and Tobago. Perceived risk was the strongest predictor of fear, while prospective intolerance of uncertainty predicted fear directly. Mediation was supported among Afro-Trinidadians but not Indo-Trinidadians, suggesting sociocultural differences in cognitive pathways linking vulnerability to fear.

Exploring The Impact Of Poverty On Financial Literacy: The Role Of Parental Education In College Student Financial Behavior, Zoe Williams

Honors Theses

Many college students experience financial stress, yet financial hardship is often explained as a simple lack of financial knowledge. Recent research suggests that how students are socialized around money may matter just as much as what they know. In this study, I examined whether parental education, specifically first-generation college status, changes the relationship between household income and financial health among undergraduate students at a regional public university in the southeastern United States. Participants included 204 undergraduates recruited through the university research pool. Students reported household income (categorized as < $50,000 or >$50,000), first-generation status, and financial behaviors. Financial literacy was measured using an …

Improving Outreach To Residents Through Semi-Structured Interviews, Emmett Booth, Mlis, Ahip, Gary Kaplan, Mlis, Ahip, Abby Adamczyk, Mlis, Ahip, John Caruso, Md

Academic Commons and Scott Memorial Library Staff Papers and Presentations

Objectives

Our academic medical center has a large number of residents and fellows across programs based out of multiple hospitals, five of which receive direct support from the libraries. Two librarians supporting the scholarly activities of residents and fellows were hired by the university in the last six years. As these positions evolve, we seek to understand if outreach is working, whether support is effective, and whether scholarly support needs are changing. Building on survey results from last year,1 the team is conducting interviews with residents and program directors to better understand their perceptions of library support and services.

Avoiding Pathogens Or Avoiding People? Pathogen Avoidance, Pathogen-Specific Stereotypes, And Intergroup Bias Toward South Asians, Aashvi Dahiya

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

People are motivated to avoid pathogens because infection poses serious risks (e.g., illness, death). Pathogen avoidance often relies on indirect cues and stereotypes—like appearance or group membership—to identify potential pathogen threats. A large body of literature has linked pathogen avoidance to intergroup bias, but recent work suggests that this link may vary across social groups. In particular, pathogen avoidance may be more strongly associated with intergroup bias toward groups specifically linked to pathogen-specific stereotypes. The present study examined whether pathogen-specific stereotype endorsement moderates the relationship between pathogen avoidance and intergroup bias toward South Asians. A sample of 684 participants completed …

Grace Under Pressure: An Analysis Of School Administrator Personal And Professional Stress And Self-Efficacy, Andrew Mcdaniel

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Indiana public school administrators are one of the most important factors for a school’s academic success. If those administrators are effective, they can help maintain an excellent school’s academic success or perhaps even turnaround a failing school. Without a doubt, their performance is critical for a school’s success. If they have confidence in their ability to help create positive outcomes, their school can achieve great things. Unfortunately, assistant principals and principals are facing significant challenges, not only from schools, but also at home. How do these personal and professional stressors affect their sense of self-efficacy? The purpose of this study …