Digital Commons Network^™

Indigenous Perspectives: The Struggle For Land, Culture And Education In Rivas, Nicaragua, Jeremy Harrison-Smith

Capstone Collection

The domination of Western educational systems and the capitalist market over indigenous social economic structures has been detrimental to communities all over the world. The search for foreign investment and development opportunities, along with local government’s educational structuring has spread these systems to communities in Central America. This research explores first-hand accounts surrounding these influences through the perspectives of two Nahua indigenous communities in Rivas, Nicaragua. First, a history of indigenous struggles in Nicaragua along with U.S. economic influence on land rights, tourism and educational systems are explored. Then, the indigenous communities’ perspectives are presented to understand the effects of …

“The Warm Heart Of Africa” Program Proposal For S.T.E.P Into The World, Adam Goldberg

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper introduces “The Warm Heart of Africa”, an education abroad program proposal for pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers designed for the newly formed organization, S.T.E.P (Supporting.Teachers.Educational.Progression) Into The World. “The Warm Heart of Africa” will offer a month-long intensive program in the African nation of Malawi during the summer of 2012 with the purpose of providing participants with training in intercultural communication alongside an unforgettable cultural immersion experience. With a base of experiential learning, “The Warm Heart of Africa” design focuses on providing participants with a strong foundation in cross-cultural competency and sensitivity as it combines service-learning projects, …

Intercultural Competency Training For Semester At Sea, Leah Charbonneau

Capstone Collection

Semester At Sea, a comparative education study abroad program, is a unique experience that provides participants an opportunity to challenge their worldview. Semester At Sea cultivates opportunities beyond the classroom to explore issues of culture and identity. However, little training is provided to give participants the tools to navigate in intercultural contexts.

The proposed Semester At Sea (SAS) Intercultural Competency Training (ICT) program will offer a semester-long intensive training program with the purpose of providing participants with a foundation in intercultural competency and sensitivity. The purpose of the SAS ICT design is to incorporate experiential educational practices and classroom learning …

An Analysis Of Women’S Participation In Peace Negotiations; 1992 - 2010, Tuohy Ahern

Capstone Collection

This paper will present an analysis of several women’s peacebuilding movements and describe their efforts to participate in formal peace negotiations. This analysis includes the design, development and implementation of the female and community-based initiatives as well as the strategies, tactics and approaches used by these women throughout the peace negotiation process. It is important to consider the central role women’s organizations have played in ensuring women’s involvement when examining peace negotiations. Despite a lack of formal invitations to participate in negotiations, many female community-based initiatives have gained entry through efforts outside the political realm.

To provide a framework on …

Experiences With Peace Corps’ Third Goal: Perspectives Of Peace Corps Mali Volunteers, Elizabeth N. Gardiner

Capstone Collection

When asked what the best part of their service was, the large majority of Peace Corps Volunteers will light up as they describe a cross-cultural experience or relationship. Peace Corps Volunteers want to share these sentiments with Americans. I conducted a qualitative case study by interviewing three fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and evaluating 35 survey responses, in order to explore Peace Corps Volunteers’ perceptions of Peace Corps’ Third Goal- to share a host country culture with Americans. The interviews were transcribed and then compared and contrasted. From the interviews and survey findings, it has been found that the Peace Corps …

Sustainable Development Projects For Refugees Case Study: Measuring The Scope Of Sustainability Of Sustainable Development Projects And Microcredit In Eritrean Refugee Camps In Eastern Sudan, Khalid Alssardiyah

Capstone Collection

Sustainable development projects are a vital modern method in fighting poverty and in reducing unemployment; they provide the main motivation for communities to become involved in the decision-making process of building their lives in their society. International institutions focus on establishing sustainable development projects for many communities, but this concern has yet to reach those in the greatest need, such as the refugees in eastern Sudan.

This capstone paper identifies sustainability of sustainable development projects and microcredit, as well as the challenges facing these efforts. A case study was conducted on Eritrean refugees in Shagarab camp in eastern Sudan where …

Girls Club: The Gender Imbalance Of Youth Programs, A Case Study, Shayne Bell

Capstone Collection

Youth around the world have proven that when they come together and put their energies toward a cause, impactful change can happen. While youth in the US have been involved in social issues for decades, there is a noticeable imbalance in the gender makeup of these groups: In civic engagement programs, social change organizations, and volunteer programs around the country, young women make up the large majority of those involved, creating a gender gap that cannot be ignored. It begs the question- why are so many more females involved in these programs than young men? What is causing this?

This …

Brain Drain Out Of Hungary And Its Inhibitors, Eliza Plous

Capstone Collection

In many Central and Eastern European countries, a poor economic climate at home forces young people to make their careers in the West. Hungary is no exception. After spending time both studying and working in Hungary, the author chose to investigate the phenomenon known as “brain drain”: the large-scale emigration of young, educated individuals from Hungary as they seek higher salaries and more promising career prospects in neighboring Western European countries. This paper offers a comprehensive report on the economics of the brain drain problem, and on the opinions of young Hungarians who are currently seeking employment abroad; it also …

Is Mine Risk Education (Mre) Having A Significant Effect And Long-Lasting Impact On Attitudes Towards Uxos At The Community Level?, Phounsy Phasavaeng

Capstone Collection

For over 30 years, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has affected the ability of the population to maintain suitable livelihoods in a number of provinces. This constraint is a significant challenge to community development as well affecting National Social Economic Development. UXOs are the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often children and farmers who are involve in agricultural activities and scrap metal collection.

UXO-LAOS is the key UXO clearance agency in Laos. Other UXO clearance agencies have also tried to address the problem by providing the clearance work as well as Mine Risk Education (MRE) …

Forgotten Foods: The Impact Of Western Development On Eating Habits Among Women In Dehradun, India, Stephanie L. Leite

Capstone Collection

This paper investigates the impact that Western development has had on eating habits among women living in the greater Dehradun area of India over the last century. Research was undertaken while working at Bija Vidyapeeth, an organic farm and educational center operated by the Indian-based Non-Governmental Organization, Navdanya. Primary data was collected by interviewing twelve women from four families, spanning three generations and ranging in age from 106 to 20. Two of the four families live in the urban center of Dehradun, while the other two families practice farming outside the city limits. Interviews revealed a generational change in eating …

Building A Global Village: Intercultural Communication For The International House At The College Of New Jersey, Stephanie Holleran

Capstone Collection

The International House (I-House) at The College of New Jersey plays an integral part in welcoming international exchange students to New Jersey and the United States. It is a venue for international students to live and interact with TCNJ students on a daily basis. However, in previous years, the programming for the International House residents has been sparse. A living-learning community must successfully marry living with learning to ensure that students gain the full benefits of living with students from around the world.

Building a Global Village is an intercultural communication supplement to the International House experience that begins to …

Fighting Fire With Flame: Visual Storytelling As The Antidote To Negative Media Imagery, Léna Sulpovar

Capstone Collection

This paper is an examination of the power of art in building bridges between groups of people in conflict. Through two complementary case studies where theater and film are utilized as catalyst for dialogue, the paper highlights the impact of visual storytelling on the hearts and minds of participants entering the experience with certain prejudices towards and fear of the “other” group. In particular, it shows that complex visual stories and empathetic characters have the ability to increase understanding of other perspectives, transform perceptions, and even instill narratives that are contrary to the ones dominant within the given culture. Interviews …

Digital Storytelling: Enriching Reflection And Reentry For Princeton In Africa Fellowship Participants, Stephanie C. Hooper

Capstone Collection

Princeton in Africa’s digital storytelling reentry project was designed to fill gaps in reentry programming by encouraging returned fellowship participants to reflect on their experiences living and working in Africa and by helping them identify areas of personal growth and transformation. This project also aims to strengthen the connection Fellows feel to the Princeton in Africa community and their cohort of Fellows. The digital storytelling project will assist the organization with marketing, recruitment, attracting attention from potential partner organizations, engaging donors and other program needs. A pilot digital storytelling project took place at the end of the 2010-11 fellowship year …

The Role Of Youth In Post-Conflict Reconstruction (The Case Of Liberia), Marit Woods

Capstone Collection

African youth today no longer want to view themselves as future leaders; instead they want to be viewed as leaders of today who have the ability to shape their own future. Despite the limited opportunities available to youth in the developing world, they strive to become contributors to their communities. Once the world realizes the importance of empowering youth, young Africans will have more opportunities to excel. The purpose of this inquiry is to answer “What opportunities are available for Liberian youth (15-35 years old), and how can these opportunities enhance youth participation in the National Reconstruction Process?” Utilizing qualitative …

Narrating Women's Interfaith Agency: Stories Of Faith, Transformation, And Vision, Audra Teague

Capstone Collection

Today in the United States and in the larger world, there is a burgeoning interfaith movement that is bringing people together across religious lines to build relationships and achieve common goals. Despite women's great contributions to this movement, little research has been done to understand their perspectives on interfaith work: why interfaith work is valuable to them, how they connect personal faith to interfaith work, how they have been impacted by the work they have done, and the larger social changes they hope their work contributes to.

Through in-depth interviews with four women who are interfaith leaders in Central Ohio, …

The Water Project: A Short-Term Study Abroad Program Design For Alfred University, Caitlin Paul

Capstone Collection

The Water Project is a short term, faculty-led program, which will address the global water crisis by using the strengths of Alfred University (AU). The Water Project will include students from five different disciplines -Engineering, Art, Business, Language, and Anthropology- and have them work in collaboration with each other and the faculty of AU to create low-cost, ceramic water filters for a community in need of a clean water source in a rural area of Burkina Faso. The Water Project is not intended to be an imposing force on the community, but a welcomed collaborator that works to create a …

Immigrant Women Organize For Justice: A Listening Project, Sandra Catalina Nieto

Capstone Collection

Over nineteen million immigrant women live in the United States. Each one of those nineteen million women carries with her a powerful history. Immigrant Women Organize for Justice: A Listening Project is an attempt to capture a breath of those histories, in particular the histories of four mujeres luchadoras: immigrant women who are organizing communities surrounding them and devoting much of their life and their work to the lucha (struggle or fight) for a more just and equal society. Immigrant Women Organize for Justice: A Listening Project is a two-part project. The first section is devoted entirely to remembering the …

Three Sisters Exchange: Building Alliances And Promoting Justice From The United States To Ecuador, Ariel Climer

Capstone Collection

This paper presents a proposal for a social justice and action-based study abroad program with foundations in the short-term reality tours of the education and human rights-based NGO, Global Exchange, a far-reaching non-profit with friendships built on solidarity against the spread of elite globalization. The program is called the Three Sisters Exchange to honor the sustainable design of indigenous crop planting prevalent around the world. The design comes at a time when international educators offer few programs with foci in social justice. The international education field needs more sustainable programs that take into account global systems. A propagation of such …

The Insecurity Of “Secure Communities”: A Case Study Of An Advocacy Campaign To Protect Immigrant Rights In Santa Barbara, Ca, Tina Pia Peirano

Capstone Collection

This case study describes and analyzes the work of advocacy work of PUEBLO, a human and immigrant rights organization in Santa Barbara, California. The paper focuses on the ongoing campaigns of PUEBLO and its allies, including national and state-level organizations and coalitions, to influence one of the most recent federal immigration policies, titled Secure Communities. It also addresses PUEBLO’s advocacy to change local law enforcement policies or practices which have targeted Hispanic residents, including undocumented immigrants, for traffic citations and car impoundments. Based on knowledge acquired through my six month, full-time internship with PUEBLO and through various forms of primary …

Positive Discomfort: Structured Student Reflection In International Service-Based Programs: A Social Justice Curriculum, Stephanie K. Kraemer

Capstone Collection

In the fall of 2009, Princeton University launched the Princeton Bridge Year Program—a service-based, international, pre-freshman “bridge” or “gap” year for 20 accepted students sent to four different countries. Princeton chose the international social enterprise ProWorld Service Corps as its partner organization to run the Bridge Year Program in Urubamba, Peru. Princeton University and ProWorld Peru both state a very clear intention in running this program: to transform participants. Their explicit goal is to turn out students who have a global perspective and are compassionate, humble, aware, innovative and inspired.

But how should program-providers, out in the field, actually accomplish …

Policy Analysis In Practice: Lessons From Researching And Writing A “Statenote” For Education Commission Of The States, Dinah J. Frey

Capstone Collection

This capstone will shed light on the various aspects of policy analysis, policy papers and policy change. The focus of this capstone paper is a five-page policy brief, or StateNote, which analyzes one element of Kentucky’s major educational policy reform of 1990. The paper will follow the guidelines of the Policy Advocacy course-linked capstones that focus on a personal contribution to some aspect of policy change. Renowned policy specialists such as Eugene Bardach and Carl V. Patton’s work provide steps to follow to write a policy paper and the pieces to include within the paper.

The action of policy analysis …

Discovering The Potential Of Service Learning In Perugia, Italy: An Evaluation Of The Umbra Institute’S La Famiglia Italiana Project, Julie Falk

Capstone Collection

Today, American study abroad programs are increasingly shifting their focus to students’ community engagement efforts, one approach of which is service learning (Stone, 2008). Service learning principles and approach, however, are not always quickly and easily transported into other cultures. As an American pedagogical export, service learning in the study abroad context has the potential to overlook essential factors such as reciprocity, sustainability, and evaluation of student, faculty, and community partner experiences. This type of learning remains unexplored territory in many countries including Italy (Tosi, 2000). As the only American study abroad program of its kind in Perugia, Italy, The …

A Framework For Monitoring Local And Regional Food Systems, Heather Victoria Davis

Capstone Collection

The US food system has been experiencing gradual, yet significant, changes in recent years - with many people recognizing that conventional approaches are not only unsustainable, but also detrimental. As an alternative paradigm, the development of local food systems has been flourishing because of the benefits they bring to us: more local control over our food; supporting the local economy and entrepreneurs; healthier food options; fewer “food miles” and the related benefits of lowered use of petroleum; stronger community bonds; job creation for our rural communities; more gentle on the environment; and a more secure food system overall. Monitoring the …

Mind The Conflict: Mindfulness And The (Israeli-Jewish) Conflict Mindset. Dis-Covering Psychological Barriers To Peace, Shiri Barr

Capstone Collection

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is regarded as an intractable conflict – a lengthy, violent and seemingly insolvable conflict. Social-psychologists assert that individuals and societies entrenched in intractable conflicts develop a problematic psychological infrastructure, which is here termed the Conflict Mindset. Made up of certain attitudes, beliefs, and emotional inclinations, the Conflict Mindset serves as a double-sword: on the one hand it helps the society endure the difficulties of the ongoing conflict; on the other hand it feeds an ever escalating cycle of violence, by promoting narrow and rigid perspectives that block possibilities for change. The Conflict Mindset is only part of …

Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program: Toward A Critical Framework Of Community Peacebuilding; Individual And Community Transformation Through Service And Discourse, Benjamin Valentine Leiker

Capstone Collection

In the form of a case study of the training and implementation of the Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) by the Magdalene Carney Bahá’í Institute (MCBI), this study contributes to the development of critical youth empowerment which emphasizes community building and sociopolitical transformation rooted in a worldview that recognizes the oneness of humanity. The underlying philosophy upon which the JYSEP organizes its structure, action, reflection, and materials is the idea that our view of reality, human nature, human relationships, and purpose of life shape mold individuals’ and humanity’s state of being. This study, therefore, sought to explore: 1) how …

Funding The Fundamentals: A Peace First Teacher’S Recommendations For Increased Quality Sixth Grade Curriculum To Effectively Engage And Educate An Increasing Quantity Of Students., Pamela Gonzales

Capstone Collection

In the United States, the top 20% of the population owns 85% of the wealth. This leaves only 15% of the wealth for the rest of the population. This clear disparity of wealth, in combination with the common practice of racial segregation (created by 300 years of inequality) has direct correlations to violence in United States cities. Boston is one of these cities. Impoverished minority neighborhoods are struggling because they exist in a society that is essentially ignoring them. There are fewer opportunities in poor minority neighborhoods, particularly for young people. As a result, a cycle of violence has continued …

Paradise Lost, Found Or Created? Expectations Between Teachers And Vulnerable Children: Case Study On Peace House Secondary School, Northern Tanzania, Kelli Bee

Capstone Collection

The orphans and vulnerable children of northern Tanzania are offered a unique opportunity of education if selected to attend Peace House Secondary School. The school selects the most needy of this ostracized demographic and offers high quality education by focusing on student-centered techniques.

This study investigates the expectations between students and teachers using ethnographic methods carried out in 2010 and 2011, including student-wide survey, classroom observations and interviews with both teachers and students. Student perspective was intentionally of particular focus in data collection.

The study found that expectations which were shared by all participants revolve around passing exams. Students are …

Experiences In Coexistence And Anti-Normalization Phenomenological Case Study: Arab Alumni Of The Arava, Lauren Rauch

Capstone Collection

Many Arabs are confronted with the accusation that they are “normalizing with the Zionist enemy” when they participate in people-to-people programs with Israeli Jews. This paper explores the phenomenon of Arab participation in the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies, an academic coexistence program in Israel, and how the participants relate their experiences to the anti-normalization discourse. At the Arava Institute, Palestinian and Jordanians study and live alongside Israelis; Arab participants are often labeled “normalizers” within their society, a term associated with being a traitor or collaborator. From an anti-normalization perspective, people-to-people programs promote a positive public image of Israel and …

Safe Power Vermont: A Look Into The Campaign To Retire The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station., Dylan M. Kreis

Capstone Collection

This case study provides an in-depth look into the campaign to retire an aging nuclear power plant located in the southeast corner of Vermont. The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VY) began commercial operations in 1972 under a forty year operating license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Opposition to the plant’s existence has been unwavering and has increased in intensity since the sale of the plant in 2002. The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation (VYNPC), a consortium of local and regional utilities, sold VY to an out-of-state corporation owner known as Entergy. The company was quick to apply …

Reciprocity And Reflection: Creating An Evaluation Plan For Proworld Belize, Kelly Kocher

Capstone Collection

The evaluation plan for ProWorld Belize is intended to focus on the primary principles of service-learning, which include reciprocity between the community served and the service providers, as well as reflection on the interaction between the program participants and the community served. This plan aims to facilitate ProWorld’s mission to empower communities, promote social and economic development, conserve the environment, and cultivate educated compassionate global citizens, by addressing the needs for mutual relationships and intentional self-reflection in service-learning. This plan offers assessment tools for including community partners in the evaluation process of ProWorld Belize’s programs and for evaluating the cross-cultural …