Digital Commons Network^™

Rethinking Ngo Sustainability: A Framework For Developing Support Structures Beyond Traditional Donations And Grants, Angie Holzer, Jackson Cooper

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

This thought paper examines the growing instability of traditional funding streams in the global nonprofit sector and argues for a fundamental shift in how sustainability is conceptualized. Moving beyond a narrow focus on financial capital, the paper introduces a practical framework of five interconnected resource types—financial, material, human, knowledge, and network resources—supported by a sixth foundational element, relational capital, or trust. Drawing on examples and applied models, the authors demonstrate how nonprofits can strengthen resilience and long-term impact by intentionally leveraging diverse and often underutilized forms of support. The paper also highlights the evolving role of board members, emphasizing the …

Nonprofit Leaders’ Perceived Top Struggles: A Qualitative Study With Descriptive Quantification Of Capacity, Funding, And Operational Barriers, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Nonprofit organizations are widely understood to operate under conditions of persistent constraint, yet less is known about how nonprofit leaders themselves perceive and prioritize their struggles. This study presents findings from a qualitative analysis with descriptive quantification of open-ended responses from 77 nonprofit leaders who were asked to identify their biggest challenges. Using thematic coding, frequency counts, and order-based sequencing analysis, the study distinguishes between perceived struggles, immediate needs, and capacity-focused structural blockers. While funding and financial sustainability were the most frequently cited perceived struggles, capacity-related challenges—including board governance, staffing and volunteers, compliance burden, operational systems, and leadership bandwidth—emerged as …

Framing Digital Donation: Innovation And Audience Engagement In Short Video Fundraising On Douyin, Qiuyi Chen

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Short video platforms are increasingly adopted by nonprofit organizations as tools for charitable communication and fundraising. However, limited research has examined how donation appeals are structured and interpreted within these environments. Existing studies focus on emotional appeal, influencer involvement, and algorithmic visibility, yet donation is often treated as a behavioral outcome rather than as a communicative process.

This study conceptualizes charitable donation as a social situation that must be framed and recognized by audiences in short video contexts. Drawing on Goffman’s frame analysis and employing the Visual–Verbal Video Analysis (VVVA) method, the study analyzes 32 publicly available videos from a …

A Case For Mtor Pathway Screening In Early Epilepsy Diagnosis, David Seamons

Student Works

Mutations in the mTOR pathway can give rise to epileptic seizures in patients. While a variety of antiepileptic drugs are available to treat epilepsy, a large proportion of patients will experience refractory seizures (Chen et al., 2018). Additionally, patients with mTOR-related epilepsy may experience reduced efficacy in traditional therapeutic options to treat seizures (French et al., 2016; Hadzsiev et al., 2023; Kato et al., 2022; Moloney et al., 2023). Mutations resulting in mTOR-related epilepsy are genetically inherited; however, some variability in family histories of epilepsy may be due to second-hit somatic mutations in focal areas of the brain (Dawson et …

Foreign Language Experience Effects On L2-Accented Speech Attitudes In College Students, Jordan L. Ellington

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to test whether knowledge of a second language in college students can affect perceptions and prejudices towards speakers with foreign accents. The testing was completed through both implicit and explicit attitudinal measures in regard to recorded audio stimuli. The explicit attitudinal testing was performed through participant self reporting of attitudes. Participants were presented with first (L1) or second (L2) language accented English samples and then rated that speaker in terms of various characteristics or traits that represented the speaker's solidarity and status. The implicit testing was performed in an Auditory Implicit Associations Test on …

Community-Based A1c Screening Initiative To Improve Diabetes Risk Identification Among People Experiencing Homelessness, Rebecca Drake, Deedee Long, Mariita Carter

Student Works

Abstract

Purpose: People experiencing homelessness (PEH) experience high rates of undiagnosed diabetes yet face significant barriers to preventive screening. This quality improvement project aimed to improve access to diabetes screening for PEH through on-site hemoglobin A1C (A1C) testing in a trusted community setting.

Methods: On-site A1C screening was implemented at the Utah County Food and Care Coalition (F&CC) using a low-barrier, community-based approach. Screening was conducted during routine service hours and integrated into existing workflows. Process, outcome, and balancing measures were used to evaluate feasibility, reach, and unintended effects.

Results: The intervention primarily supported identification of diabetes risk and referral …

Recognizing Metaphorical References To Sexual Assault Resistance And Represented Rape Myths In Coraline (2009), Braden Slater

Theses and Dissertations

Is there any value in children’s horror literature and film? Literary theorists have shown that children’s horror is uniquely positioned to be not only captivating and accessible, but also educational and hopeful for some young audience members. Like most fictional monsters, those presented in children’s horror can be read as metaphors for the fears and experiences people face in real life. Scholars have argued that engaging with this type of frightening media may help people confront challenging ideas and feelings from a place of safety. Building on this theoretical foundation, I perform a close reading of the 2009 film Coraline, …

Gratitude And The Second Language Writer: The Effects Of Gratitude Journaling In The English Language Writing Classroom, Lauren Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Gratitude journaling interventions have repeatedly been shown to enhance wellbeing when conducted in participants’ first language (Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Sansone & Sansone, 2010), yet no studies to date have examined these practices in second language (L2) contexts. This mixed-methods quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of a six-week gratitude journaling intervention on adult L2 English writers enrolled in an intensive English program. Eleven writing classes (N = 183) were randomly assigned to either a gratitude journaling group or a neutral-events control group, with 123 participants completing all four stages of data collection. Trait gratitude and subjective wellbeing were measured pre-intervention, …

Exploring Subject-Verb Agreement Challenges Among Third-Grade Portuguese Dual Language Immersion Students: A Mixed-Methods Study, Marisa Tobias

Theses and Dissertations

Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs are commonly recognized for supporting the development of oral proficiency; however, persistent challenges with grammatical accuracy, particularly subject-verb agreement, remain common among elementary-aged learners. This mixed-methods study focuses on third-grade students in a Portuguese DLI program and examines how they use present-tense verb forms in different classroom contexts. Drawing on classroom observations, instructional materials, and students’ oral and written production, the study analyzes the nature of the input learners receive and the types of errors that persist during oral communication. Findings indicate that students demonstrate greater accuracy during structured tasks, while difficulties with subject-verb agreement …

Maximizing Uinta Basin Oil Well Yield Through Geochemical Fingerprinting Of Produced Water, Troy W. Day

Theses and Dissertations

The Uinta Basin is an unconventional oil play that has, since 2017, annually increased hydrocarbon extraction through modern drilling and fracing techniques with increased frac loading. The primary production target is the Uteland Butte Member of the Green River Formation, which consists of interbedded limestones, dolostones, and thick, organic-rich mudstones. Along with increased hydrocarbon production, volumes of produced water from the Uteland Butte Member have also risen. Water is co-produced with hydrocarbons and is an undesirable byproduct of hydrocarbon extraction. Large frac operations now consistently have highly variable percentages of recovered water volume relative to oil. This increase in water …

Improving Electrochemical Measurements And Informing Future Reprocessing Of Advanced Nuclear Fuels, J. Marvin Torrie

Theses and Dissertations

This research promotes the application of molten salts through developing analytical tools in electroanalytical studies and in the data analysis of vapor pressure data. The electrochemical community lacks standardized, stable, and repeatable reference electrode designs which threaten the reliability of measured thermophysical properties and repeatability of published studies. This work confirms the application of a saturated reference electrode design for molten chlorides systems that outperforms traditional Ag+/Ag reference electrodes. In the field of thermal physical property measurements, vapor pressure data for chloride salts are diffused throughout the literature, uncertainty quantification is absent or limited, and all previous studies rely on …

Stitched Together: Mourning And Memory In Latter-Day Saint Embroidery, Elizabeth Finlayson

Theses and Dissertations

As the Church entered into a period of mourning, confusion, and uncertainty following the 1844 imprisonment of religious leaders Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail in Illinois, artists turned to their canvases to grapple with and depict these events. Ashlee Whitaker calls attention to this shift in Mormon art, noting how Latter-day Saint artists painted portraits, landscapes, and commemorative scenes to promote Church authorities and “covenant kinship” as the organization experienced both a leadership crisis and abrupt relocation. Whitaker’s analysis, however, focuses almost completely on paintings done on canvas by men in America such as Danquart Weggeland, C.C.A. Christensen, …

Crafting The Narrative: A Look At Long-Form Storytelling Through The Art Of Quilling, Jaycee R. Lundell

Student Works

This thesis explores the journeys of four contemporary quilling artists and their works. It dives into the creative process of conducting the interviews, capturing the footage, and making the documentary. The documentary also explores the history of quilling including its resurgence in the 1980s and the complicated process of navigating the declining numbers of the International Quilling Guild while the craft spreads across the internet, potentially losing its rich history and standards of excellence. Since quilling is a lesser known art, this thesis is also an attempt to spread the knowledge of the craft since there are very few scholarly …

Robust And Interpretable Cross-Domain Arabic Readability Prediction Using Hybrid Modeling: Evidence On The Limitations Of Transformer-Based Classifiers, Sarah Alzu'bi

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic readability assessment aims to predict how difficult a text is for readers to understand. The concept of readability has been widely studied across languages due to its significant impact on reading comprehension, leading to the development of various methods and approaches. In this study, I addressed two key challenges in readability assessment. First, I examine the performance of statistical classifiers and transformer-based models, including CAMeLBERT(Inoue et al, 2021.) with a focus on their ability to generalize under domain, genre, and stylistic shifts. Second, I investigate the interpretability of transformer performance in readability task, which are often criticized for their …

Crafting The Narrative: A Look At Long-Form Storytelling Through The Art Of Quilling, Jaycee R. Lundell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores the journeys of four contemporary quilling artists and their works. It dives into the creative process of conducting the interviews, capturing the footage, and making the documentary. The documentary also explores the history of quilling including its resurgence in the 1980s and the complicated process of navigating the declining numbers of the International Quilling Guild while the craft spreads across the internet, potentially losing its rich history and standards of excellence. Since quilling is a lesser known art, this thesis is also an attempt to spread the knowledge of the craft since there are very few scholarly …

“Music Is The Instrument To Bring The Heart Of A Community Together”: Frederic Balazs And The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, 1952-66, Jackie Bodily Biggs

Theses and Dissertations

The audience for classical music is declining, according to data from the National Endowment for the Arts. In the face of such challenges, aspiring music professionals may find inspiration in the musicological illumination of pertinent historical case studies. This paper offers one such example via a foundational exploration of the musical career of Hungarian American violinist, conductor, and composer Frederic Balazs. Though lacking any dedicated scholarly literature to speak of, Balazs’s legacy as the first full-time conductor of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (TSO) from 1952 to 1966 included establishing arts organizations and nourishing the classical tradition at its very grass …

The Relational Good Life: Entrepreneurship Education And Grounded Sumak Kawsay In Otavalo, Ecuador, Vanessa I. Lozano Hardman

Theses and Dissertations

Indigenous Kichwa communities in Ecuador’s Otavalo region have long participated in local and transnational markets, historically as mindalaes, specialized traders of the northern Andes. Yet in recent years, international development-oriented NGOs have framed entrepreneurship education as newly necessary for economic development. These approaches emphasize individualized narratives of vision, self-reliance, and growth, often characterizing Indigenous peoples as lacking entrepreneurial skills or the appropriate mindset. Drawing on ethnographic research with youth, mothers, and teachers at Saminay–El Legado, an agro- technical, intercultural bilingual secondary school (UECIB) in the parish of San José de Quichinche, this article examines how entrepreneurship education intersects with grounded …

Independent English Teaching In Brazil: A Case Study, Jade G. Gunca

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study investigates the experiences and practices of successful independent English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Brazil who operate outside traditional schools and private language institutes. Rather than providing a broad descriptive profile, this study offers an in-depth examination of a small group of teachers. These educators frequently use social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to showcase communicative, personalized, and flexible instruction in response to growing learner demand. Although English is widely taught in Brazilian schools, persistent structural constraints often limit students’ development of communicative proficiency, prompting some learners to seek instruction from independent …

From Collection To Documentary: An Eventful Journey Of Developing And Managing The Wan-Go H.C. Weng Film Collection, Jim Cheng

Journal of East Asian Libraries

Experience, challenge, lesson, reward, and inspiration of developing and managing a special collection: Wan-go Weng Film Collection in a major research library.

A Masked-Perturbation Model For Destabilization Security Games In Feedback Systems, Gabriel Michael Perry

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we present a mathematical formulation for increasing cyberphysical system security. This model allows a system administrator to use assumptions about exposed signals to derive defense strategies meant to mitigate the system's vulnerability to feedback perturbation attacks. We begin with a survey of game theory with the goal of building the concepts of resource and security games. We then introduce our model, which is a security game; targets in this game are exposed signals in the model map of the system, and resources are perturbed or introduced dynamical relationships between these signals. This formulation, called the masked-perturbation model, …

Principal Coaching Impact: Elementary Principals' Perspectives On Their Coaching Experience, Kyle L. Hoopes

Theses and Dissertations

School principals face increasing complexity as they navigate instructional leadership, organizational change, and the emotional demands of supporting staff and students. Traditional professional development--often episodic and compliance-driven--has proven insufficient for helping principals translate knowledge into practice. This qualitative phenomenological study examined how 20 elementary principals in a large intermountain district experienced a dual-coach, team-based leadership coaching model and how coaching influenced their leadership practices and well-being. Semi-structured interviews and iterative thematic analysis revealed that coaching shaped three core areas of leadership practice: gaining clarity and direction, prioritizing instructional and organizational goals, and strengthening collaboration within school leadership teams. Principals also …

Self-Concept Clarity And Relationship Satisfaction: The Mediating Role Of Approach And Avoidance Motives For Sacrifice Among Heterosexual Couples, Hannah F. Hatch

Theses and Dissertations

While individuals often engage in relational sacrifice to promote positive outcomes like connection (approach motives), they may also sacrifice for a partner to avoid negative outcomes like conflict (avoidance motives). These distinct motives for sacrifice have been repeatedly linked with divergent couple outcomes, yet little is known about the personal and relational factors which shape them. The current study addressed this gap using dyadic data from 289 mixed-gender couples to examine how self-concept clarity (SCC) predicted changes in relationship satisfaction via approach and avoidance motives for sacrifice. Participants represented diverse ethnic and sociodemographic backgrounds across all demographic regions of the …

Answers “Go By Water”: Felt Knowledge As An Alternative Epistemology In Othello, Annalisa Gulbrandsen

Theses and Dissertations

William Shakespeare's Othello is fundamentally a play about epistemology--how does one know what he/she knows amidst the sea of words, evidence, and misdirection? Traditionally, the problem of knowledge in Othello has been treated as an intellectual problem of the mind. However, this thesis argues that the play purposefully draws attention to the limits of what the mind can know by way of the eye (what is seen) and ear (what is spoken or heard), instead offering an alternative epistemology that is felt through embodiment. When Desdemona's words no longer have the power to affect what Othello believes, Desdemona's answers to …

The Artificial Maintenance Of Relationship Satisfaction: Romantic Ai Companion Usage Sustains Emerging Adults' Human Romantic Relationship Satisfaction While Eroding Relationship Stability, Rebekah M. Hakala

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated, romantic AI companions--AI systems designed to simulate romantic, emotional, or sexual relationships--have emerged as a novel relational phenomenon. Nearly one in four emerging adults now engage with romantic AI companions, yet little is known about how this usage affects their romantic human relationships. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and the Investment Model of Commitment, and employing structural equation modeling, this thesis uses data from 2,431 emerging adults in romantic relationships to examine whether romantic AI companion usage influences relationship satisfaction and relationship stability among emerging adults in the United States (ages 18-30), and whether …

The 12-Week Silence: A Scrollytelling Investigation Into Early Pregnancy Loss And The Case For Continuous Progesterone Monitoring, Audrey Gold

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

Opens with the scale of the problem (up to 1M miscarriages annually, all in the most data-poor window of pregnancy), describes the methodology (2 original surveys, 4 clinical interviews, peer-reviewed literature), walks through what the piece does visually (the distribution curve, the blind-spot timeline, the 5-phase progesterone chart, the intervention pathway), and closes with the central argument — that the silence is a gap in technology, not an inevitability.

Feedback Menus: Expanding Student Choice In Response To Writing, Andrew Testa

Journal of Response to Writing

This Teaching Tip introduces the Feedback Menu, a flexible protocol designed to promote student agency and feedback literacy in writing instruction. By allowing students to select the focus and mode of feedback they receive, the Menu helps tailor response to individual learning needs and supports meaningful revision at any stage of the composition process. The protocol is adaptable for use in first-year composition, professional writing, multilingual, and upper-division courses, in both face-to-face and online formats. Concrete implementation steps, sample menu items, and considerations for different teaching contexts are provided.

More Than Treating Errors: Bridging The Gaps And Expanding The Agenda For Scholarship On Teacher Written Feedback For L2 Writers, Lynn Goldstein, Robert Kohls

Journal of Response to Writing

Teacher written feedback is a central area of L2 scholarship and writing teacher education yet considerable research has focused on written corrective feedback (WCF) with considerably less attention paid to discourse-level (DLF) teacher written feedback. Our article identifies the gaps in the current teacher written feedback scholarship, explains why these gaps are problematic, and provides detailed recommendations for an agenda that examines teacher DLF and students’ use of this feedback. Our goal is to encourage scholars to explore new avenues of research that better take into account what writing “is” and “does” as well as take into account the linguistically …

Composing In Relation: Rethinking Multimodal Feedback As Rhetorical Design, Angela Laflen

Journal of Response to Writing

This qualitative study investigates how writing instructors compose feedback in multimodal digital environments, focusing on the rhetorical and relational dimensions of their design choices. Drawing on social semiotics and multimodal composition theory, the study analyzes feedback artifacts, instructor interviews, and student surveys from six first-year writing courses. Findings reveal that instructors engage in complex feedback design work across communication modes, often without formal training or shared frameworks. Instructors tended to default to text-based habits shaped by genre memory but adapted their strategies in response to communicative breakdowns and student needs. The study identifies three core themes: reliance on print-era conventions, …

Examining Automated Writing Evaluation Error Coverage In Relation To Uptake And Retention, Mohaddeseh Mehrzad, Mohammad Rahimi, Stephanie Link

Journal of Response to Writing

Despite the current widespread use of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) feedback, many issues regarding its efficacy still remain unresolved. Recent studies mainly focus on correctly detected errors with a lack of attention on the comprehensiveness of error detection, or error coverage. Error coverage is interesting because little is known about the capacity of AWE systems to fully detect common second language (L2) errors. It is also important to investigate the potential effect of such capacity on student uptake and retention, which are important constructs in fostering L2 writing development. To this end, the present study compared teacher feedback and AWE …

Navigating Feedback In Collaborative Writing: The Impact Of Student Backgrounds And Expectations On Transitions To New Academic And Social Spaces, Lindsey Gruber, María Fernández–Agüero

Journal of Response to Writing

This article examines how international students navigate feedback from a supervisor while working on a group writing project in a diverse English medium of instruction (EMI) bachelor’s program at a public university in Denmark, where no formalized writing or language support resources are offered in the students’ first year of instruction. Data were collected in qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 11 students who were identified through a survey of a first-year bachelor of arts cohort. Results from the survey showed that despite using a supervision model of education, few students perceived changes in feedback compared to their secondary school experiences, and …