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Imaginative Immersion: Developing A Theatre Of The Mind Pedagogy For An Ever-Changing Educational Landscape, Cory Kennedy Barrow

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The suspension of disbelief is integral to the performing arts. We ask our actors to see couches made of three chairs, designers to create cities in empty spaces, and most of all; we ask audiences to believe the stories and relationships that are figurative and often abstract. This level of critical and creative engagement is assumed to develop in spaces of higher education. However, with an ever-changing world and increasing conversions and integrations of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in spaces of higher education, it has become even more apparent that students need to develop their creative and critical thinking skills earlier …

Cultivating Green Public Spaces And Backyard Gardens Amid Covid-19: An Anthropological Study Of Metro-Orlando Gardeners, Chelsea N. Daws

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This dissertation critically analyzes home and community gardens within Metro-Orlando by considering the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic impacts residents' garden participation and access to green public spaces. The study utilizes an ethnographic approach to produce informed understandings of participants' experiences within local gardens, alternative food networks, and community supported agriculture analyzed using Marxian theoretical frameworks. Findings are primarily grounded in qualitative information derived from interviews, participant observation, and photovoice. Data were collected both prior to the global COVID-19 outbreak and over subsequent months of lockdown and public health mitigation measures. Primarily focusing on local community garden organizers, community garden …

Students' Perceptions Of Hospitality And Tourism Internships On Career Pathways: Transformational Versus Transactional Internships, Jessica L. Wickey

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Internships provide a platform for students to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical setting and to gain hands-on experience (Simons et al., 2012). Moreover, internships can help students build networks and connections within their chosen industry, which can later prove valuable in their career development. This qualitative exploratory study investigated students' perceptions of their hospitality and tourism internships on how they perceive their career pathways after completing an internship in a four-year degree program. For this study, a group of Junior and Senior hospitality and tourism university students from a major university were interviewed. The researcher utilized a phenomenological approach …

Industrial Safety: How Complacency At Industrial Facilities Has Evolved As A Result Of Widespread Corporate Leadership Induced Reductions In Force Of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers, Christina Kniffin-Downs

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

With the renewal of interest in nuclear energy as a green energy source, battery plant manufacturing for electric vehicles, and semiconductor fabrication plant construction, it is necessary to address the evolution of complacency as it relates to industrial facility leadership and the widespread reduction in force of essential critical infrastructure workers. As a skilled craft person in the piping trades, with almost two decades of experience in mechanical construction, ten of those years as a nuclear worker, and as a traveling pipefitter working at chemical, refinery, and gasification plants, I am intimately aware of the behaviors, practices, and procedures inherent …

A Stress Perspective Of Leader-Follower Relationship Ambivalence, Ghada Baz

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Ambivalence is the experience of both positive and negative evaluations regarding an object such as a person or an event. Although interest in leadership ambivalence has been growing among researchers, there is still little understanding of what distinguishes it from poor leadership. The goal of this dissertation was to contribute to the leadership ambivalence literature by examining ambivalence in the leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship through the lens of occupational stress. Specifically, I used the job demands-resources model as a theoretical foundation and presented leadership ambivalence as a unique job demand that is associated with emotional exhaustion as a symptom of …

An Examination Of Frontline Service Workers' Empathy In A Cobot Team, Emily Anne Broker

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Service robots are an emerging technological advancement increasingly utilized in the hospitality industry. In return, service workers are required to use them during their interactions with customers. This study sought to examine how the service robot-worker team affects cognitive and affective empathy present in a service encounter. Using the empathy attribute part of the SERVQUAL model, this study aimed to examine and differentiate the server's empathy impact in the presence of a service robot. This study utilized semi-structured qualitative interviews to collect data from service workers employed in two restaurants characterized by distinct service environments. The interviews were qualitatively analyzed …

Inclusifying The Rehearsal Room: Creating Accessible And Accommodating Theatrical Spaces For Young People, Christian Anderson

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

In youth theatre spaces, it is up to the facilitators to discover and create new ways to include more students, especially those who previously didn't have a seat at the table. Making rehearsal spaces inclusive and accessible to all starts by establishing inclusion as an innate practice integrated into every step of the process. This thesis focuses on creating inclusive and accessible rehearsal spaces outside of the traditional classroom for young people ages 8-22, specifically in community theatre and collegiate spaces. The director's role is explored in two projects: Home of the Brave, a Theatre for Young Audiences production …

Assessment Of Caretaker Resources And Motivation In The Wean-To-Market Phase Of Swine Production, Joshua W. Holtkamp

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study is a novel application of I/O Psychology principles to the U.S. swine industry. The Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) recently identified caretaker motivation related to compliance with biosecurity behaviors as a priority needing to be better understood. This exploratory study seeks to identify if there is indeed a worker motivation issue within the industry that is impacting compliance with biosecurity, and if so, establish both a baseline of motivation and a better understanding of the primary influencing factors. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Job Demands/Resources Model of Burnout as a framework, an online survey was …

Understanding Health-Seeking Decision-Making Process And Behavior Among Haitian Immigrants: A Grounded Theory Approach, Shelleta Ladonice

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Black people in the U.S. die at younger ages, have significantly higher rates of death from treatable medical conditions, are more likely to have late-stage breast and colon cancer diagnoses and more likely to die from these cancers, and are at higher risk for chronic illnesses compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Accessing healthcare is crucial to health and well-being; however, U.S. immigrants' use of healthcare services is far less than native-born Americans. Haitian immigrants experience health disparities at the highest rate compared to other Black immigrants in the U.S. Given their unique history, culture, and immigration experience, it …

Advancing Policy Insights: Opinion Data Analysis And Discourse Structuring Using Llms, Aaditya Bhatia

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The growing volume of opinion data presents a significant challenge for policymakers striving to distill public sentiment into actionable decisions. This study aims to explore the capability of large language models (LLMs) to synthesize public opinion data into coherent policy recommendations. We specifically leverage Mistral 7B and Mixtral 8x7B models for text generation and have developed an architecture to process vast amounts of unstructured information, integrate diverse viewpoints, and extract actionable insights aligned with public opinion. Using a retrospective data analysis of the Polis platform debates published by the Computational Democracy Project, this study examines multiple datasets that span local …

Self-Transformation And Spirituality In Marketing, Mrudul Nilangekar

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Self-transformation and spirituality have not been extensively investigated in marketing research. However, these concepts are deeply impactful in an individual's life and are advocated by religious and spiritual traditions across the world. In Essay 1, I extend research on compassion, distance between self and other, and power by examining the effect of self-compassion on prosocial behavior. I test the effect of self-compassion on prosocial behavior mediated by the distance felt between self and other and moderated by felt power. Across five studies, I find that individuals in the self-compassionate and equal power mindset display higher prosocial behavior and lower empathy …

The Use Of Graphic Organizers On The Reading Comprehension Of High School Students, Beckylee Ramos Lorenzo

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study seeks to identify correlation in the use of graphic organizers in reading comprehension of twelfth grade English language arts students. Specifically, this study seeks to determine if the use of graphic organizers in the teaching of reading has impacts on the reading comprehension of 12th grade English language arts students. The study intends to contribute to closing an information gap surrounding the effects of using instructional strategies such as graphic organizers in reading comprehension in a twelfth-grade English class. The research questions helped to guide this study in identifying descriptive statistics within PSAT reading comprehension scores during the …

Best Practices For English Learners With Disabilities In Us Schools – A Systematic Review, Samiratu Bashiru, Jennifer E. Smith

Journal of English Learner Education

This systematic review investigated best practices for enhancing academic achievement among English Learners with Disabilities (ELDs) in US schools. By examining 17 peer-reviewed articles and comparing them to the CEC 2014 Quality Indicators, the study identifies significant practices, including culturally responsive methods, technology integration, evidence-based strategies, addressing service delivery challenges, and improving assessment tools. This review has limitations related to inconsistent terminology and highlights the need for standardized language and continued research. It recommends integrating culturally responsive practices, leveraging technology, and refining inclusive assessment tools. This review provides educators, policymakers, and researchers insights, emphasizing ongoing teacher development and policy alignment …

"Our Students Vs. Their Students:" Perceptions Of Teachers In English Language Learning, Leah Day

Journal of English Learner Education

The purpose of the study was to understand the perceptions of teachers on English Language Learners and how this shapes the educational paths of students. Data was collected in the form of interviews with the participants. The interviews were guided by a set of questions that were designed to interrogate perceptions and experiences with regard to language learning in the context of one student. Interviews were recorded and transcribed and the data was coded inductively. This study does not seek to generalize beyond this context but can provide insight into similar experiences and perceptions of the English Language Learning process. …

Camp Boggy Creek Service Impact, Madeleine E. Hoffman, Elle M. Bouffard

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Our service learning project focused on working with children who have special needs. Our volunteer work was completed at Camp Boggy Creek, a non-profit camp devoted to providing a “typical” camp experience for children with medical issues or disabilities. We completed 35 hours of service while supporting children and their families as they came to camp and stayed for a weekend of fun activities and relaxation. This experience has allowed us to realize the impact that special needs can have on a child and their families. The difficulties these families may face (whether it be emotionally, physically, or monetarily) can …

Brookshire, Kirsten Tyra H. Ayson

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Throughout the semester, I have been helping to facilitate classroom operations at Brookshire elementary school. Although this includes tasks such as cleaning up and organizing papers, much of my work is done in regards to forming relationships with each of the students and getting to know them each individually.

Donation Sorting Within Central Florida, Brayden S. Anthony

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

have taken the last semester with Second Harvest Food Bank to participate in Donation Sorting for over 25 hours of volunteering, which gave back food to the Central Florida area. Second Harvest Food Bank’s purpose is to meet the basic need of food that impoverished and malnourished people cannot meet themselves. This poster will display how I used this activity to work on my leadership skills, show what I had to do to become a better leader and how I used this activity to help my community. I will also be discussing important traits that I have developed from working …

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?, Alissa Johnson

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The purpose of my project is to explain my point-of-view of how 4310 Service-Learning: Marine Conservation & Restoration has changed my outlook of this career field and how its influenced me to want to continue in this major. I discuss how three amazing women teach me about oysters (Katherine Harris, Tara Blanchard, and Kelsey Mack) and how they found their voice in a male heavy career field. I also touch on the opportunities I took like mangrove gardening, trail camera footage of Cape Canaveral, and a beach clean-up, just to name a few and how the community plays a huge …

Nemours Children's Health Child Life Volunteering, Cooper R. Foxman

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Nemours Childrens Health is one of the nation’s largest pediatric hospital systems. Their goal is to enrich children‘s lives and get them effective treatment. The Child Life department is one of Nemours’ many volunteer departments, and it specifically focuses on helping child patients heal through play, education, and expression. I‘ve had the pleasure of serving the hospital as a volunteer within the Child Life Department. The volunteers in this department work as bodies to help alleviate the stress that comes with being in the hospital environment that the patients and their families are feeling. This department of the hospital plays …

Addressing Community Engagement In Combatting Hunger, Hannah Mason

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida gifted me a great opportunity to volunteer for the less fortunate people of Orlando who are suffering from hunger and longing for a meal. At Second Harvest Food Bank I was given the task of loading boxes with nutritional foods and packaging them in a warehouse in safe containers, in order to be distributed around Central Florida to those affected by homelessness and hunger. My topic for this project is combatting hunger in the United States and worldwide. Hunger and starvation are worldwide pandemics that often can go unnoticed in the United …

Proposition To Christ Fellowship Church, Connor Sands

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Mental Health Amongst The Lgbtq+ Community, Adrian Perotin

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, it has become known with more studies and research that many in the community have suffered through traumatic experiences regarding sexual assault and/or violence. This has caused a big impact on the mental health of the victims, but because there is not enough resources to the LGBTQ+ community that are open to them, those victims have a hard time recovering or feeling seen. Amongst the community are of course the youth coming in from the next generations that may unfortunately deal with these issues in safety and mental health, so they deserve to …

Supercharging Learning With Schoolhouse, Jackson Huff

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

When the COVID-19 virus struck the world in early 2020, it immediately disrupted education. Classes which occurred in-person now had to transition to an online regimen. Unfortunately, for students, this change resulted in significantly lessened academic performance as well as increased rates of mental health disorders.

Observing this drastic change, Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, a website which hosts free educational video series, founded a new project called Schoolhouse to help alleviate students' struggles during the change to online education. Schoolhouse would provide free online tutoring in STEM subjects to anyone who desired it. Today, Schoolhouse hosts hundreds of …

Caring For Ucp, Jailimar Montanez, Jordan Teitelbaum, Samantha Jorgesen, Sydney Stillman, Adriana Chaparro, Jeremy Colon

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The purpose of our project was to assist and foster connections with students and faculty at Unlocking Children's Potential (UCP) Charter Schools. The main focus of our group's service was to assist with day to day classroom activities at UCP. Our goal was to provide a helping hand and watchful eye for the faculty teaching students at UCP. Fostering connections with students at UCP was also an important goal for our service. Each of us individually served in different places at UCP, but every member of the group had extensive contact with at least 13 students in a classroom setting, …

Providing Access To Healthcare For The Uninsured Via Shepherd's Hope, Azeem Hakim

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2021, the population of uninsured individuals from the ages of zero to sixty-four in Orange County had a slight upward trend when compared to the two prior years, with roughly 182,054 uninsured patients living within Orange County in 2021. If so many of Orlando’s citizens in Orange County don’t have health insurance, and thus, are barred from being able to access quality healthcare, how could sustaining the vibrancy of our local community be possible, especially when many of these uninsured patients help keep the Orlando area functioning day to day? This is where …

Memory And Community Through Brain Wellness, Jack T. Gilbride, Joshua Borenstein, Eryn Proano, Ariah Todriff, Christopher Maraj

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

For our project we worked with a group called brain wellness in Oviedo. Their purpose is to provide fun brain enriching activities to older individuals suffering from dementia. We assisted in activities such as word matching games, rearranging popsicle sticks in order to make certain patterns that were displayed on a screen, and even card games like go fish. Some key things that we learned was how to address some issues that surround dementia such as trying to convince someone that they shouldn’t be driving at their age and not make that person feel upset. We also learned some more …

Inspiring The Next Generation: A Classroom Visit Exploring Marine Ecosystem Invaders, Declan Ridgeway, Madeline Cox, Lauren Mettke, Brittany Shirley, Morgan Vasser

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

We visited Geneva Elementary School and met with a class of fifteen fifth-grade students to teach them about marine invasive species in Florida. Our goal was to introduce them to a marine environmental issue that would inspire an interest in them for marine conservation. Our team created a presentation and activities for the class to better their understanding of the concept of invasive species. We created an outdoor game for the class, the point being to display how invasive species can outcompete native species using lionfish as an example. Two students were sharks, three students were lionfish, and the rest …

Low-Dose Prednisone Or Methylprednisolone In Treating Patients With​ Newly Diagnosed Acute Gvhd​, Dillon C. Hill, Melanie Obsina, Juan Sanchez, Jordan Genco, Vihan Yalamanchili

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

Graft Versus Host Disease affects less than 20,000 cases per year and our project aims to give those who experience this terrible disease a better outcome and more manageable pain. The clinical trial that this data is collected from analyzes low-dose prednisone versus the standard dose and how that affects both morbidity and progression of the disease to Stage III-IV. This clinical trial has many clinical implications as it shows that reducing the dosage of commonly used treatment methods can sometimes have positive effects even though it is the standard to use a certain dose. This clinical trial found that …

Empowering Futures: Matthew's Knights Of Distinction Leadership E-Portfolio In Academic Excellence, Matthew A. Hernandez

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

My presentation centers on my E-Portfolio, seamlessly incorporating three key milestones from the Knights of Distinction program into significant events. Beginning with a brief personal introduction, I shared why I became a physics major, and explored the roots of my passion for space. Utilizing a visual aid, my poster board, I elucidated each focus area and its relevance to my aspirations and societal contributions. The first focus area was Citizenship and how I attended an “Industry BBQ” with the hopes of gaining valuable information to share it with other engineers. The second focus area was about leadership and my role …

7 Cups Therapy, Allie Mccutcheon, Jasmine Awad

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The purpose of this project is to showcase our service learning experiences from volunteering with 7 cups. 7 Cups is a therapy website that provides free emotional support and talk therapy to those who really need that help. Jasmine and I created a 7 cups listener account where we would log onto the 7 cups portal and find a member who needs help. This whole website is all anonymous in order to protect the listeners and the members identities. Jasmine and I would chat with members and figure out what seems to be troubling them and how to combat that …