Digital Commons Network^™

(Between The Streets) In Worcester : Redefining Professional Education In Community Development To Cultivate Empathy Through A Community Theatrical Framework, Chiu Yi Hannah Yukon

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research paper presents an alternative form of conducing Community Development Research. It highlights the gaps that currently exist in professional education with the community development and planning program at Clark University. The research paper employs a theatrical framework to encourage practitioners to ask more illuminating questions that informs the ‘human work’ that sometimes gets overlooked. In order to be authentic in the field of Community Development, practitioners need to be in touch with a less scientifically rational side of themselves, to truly embrace the complexities of the human condition. Drawing from my personal experiences, I wrote a play based …

Nuclear Power Plant Policy Comparison Between The U.S. And Republic Of Korea, Vara Ha

Sustainability and Social Justice

Five years after the Fukushima accident, people and countries still argue about the opportunity costs of denuclearization. While nuclear power generation has safety and waste issues, it is carbon free. Climate change has created more pressure for greenhouse gas reduction, so a few countries have decided to maintain or even increase nuclear power generation. The United States ranks first for using nuclear power produced by electricity generation, while the Republic of Korea, the closest country in proximity to Japan, ranks fourth in countries that use nuclear power. In fact, Korea even rapidly increased nuclear business after the Fukushima accident. Despite …

Infrastructure And Exclusion: Roadbuilding, Extractive Industries And Environmental Degradation In The Case Of Iirsa Sur Through Southern Peru, Kimberly S. Farias

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper considers the case of the Southern Interoceanic Highway, a major transportation corridor linking the Atlantic and pacific coasts through Southern Peru under the auspices of the Initiative for Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA). The highway has raised significant social and environmental issues, including concern around the lack of mitigation planning on the part of the Peruvian government as well as the exclusion of civil society from participating in a review of the project. Based on GIS mapping of this highway and secondary research this paper finds that unprecedented migration into the region has contributed to an increase …

Hydro-Raking As A Management Option For Aquatic Non-Native Invasive And Native Nuisance Plants In Freshwater Ponds And Lakes: Case Studies In Massachusetts, Danielle L. Desmarais

Sustainability and Social Justice

Hydro-raking is one management option to control non-native invasive and native nuisance plants in freshwater ponds and lakes in Massachusetts. The hydro-rake is a floating pontoon boat with paddlewheels and a long, giant rake that scoops plants from pond or lake bottoms. Analyzing eight case studies in Massachusetts where hydro-raking occurred, this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of when the process would be recommended or not. The results, displayed in a decision tree guide the reader through questions to test for suitability of the water body they manage. The water level needs to be between one and twelve feet, and …

Conservation Planning And Decision Support In A Nonprofit Organization: A Summer Internship With Natureserve, Samantha Coccia

Sustainability and Social Justice

This report is an account of my internship spent with NatureServe, a nonprofit Conservation organization that provides detailed scientific data used in conservation decisions made across the Americas. NatureServe works with a network for natural heritage programs and is made up of four regional offices with headquarters in Arlington, VA. I spent my summer in their Boulder, CO location in the Conservation Planning and Decision Support Department under the guidance of Dr. Patrick Crist. I was offered my choice of two projects to work on, and was also offered a continuation of my internship with additional responsibilities given. Throughout the …

The Influence Of Agriculture Policy: The Effects Of The Farm Bill On Farm Size, Crop Choice, And Trends In Agriculture, Emma Cotnoir

Sustainability and Social Justice

The agricultural sector in the United States is accounts for a large portion of the economy as well as environmental degradation, yet agricultural policy is often overlooked. This paper will look at one longstanding piece of legislation known as the Farm Bill, specifically the 2008 and 2014 versions, and the way the Commodity and Crop Insurance measures steer the industry. Secondary data was taken from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with peer reviewed journals and studies.

Trends would suggest that while other factors are involved, the Commodity subsidies encourage larger farms as well as a shift towards …

Land Change Modeler Application: Summer Internship With Clark Labs, Nan Ding, Siqi Cheng

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper is a description of our internship with Clark Labs in the summer of 2015. We worked as research assistants in the Land Change Modeler Application (App) project. This project aimed to display the land cover changes in the United States from 2001 to 2010, show the vulnerability in 48 states and predict changes from the yaer 2050. Our responsibility was to extract eight variables (slope, elevation, surface water, roads, high intensity land, protected areas, county subdivisions, and cultivated crops) in TerrSet, and use them in several models to test the accuracy of prediction.

The internship is a great …

An Integrated Strategy For Strengthening Worcester's Regional Food System: Key Roles For Education And Information, Joel Simonson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Food security and access to healthy food are public health issues that continue to persist in the United States and are ones that are strongly influenced by social and environmental factors. In Worcester, Massachusetts there are many organizations that contribute to alleviating the resulting effects, but do not always have the capacity to reach full potential and expand upon current initiatives. Students can provide existing human resources and knowledge that would benefit all parties. This would allow for organizational capacity development, ultimately impacting local residents, and for students to gain deeper connections to the greater Worcester community while learning vital …

Childhood Trauma, A Cycle Of Violence: Worcester, Ma, Samantha Arsenault

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research examines the relationship between childhood trauma, indicated by early police contact, and the probability of later negative life experiences, including involvement in and perpetration of violence, criminal activity and gang involvement for men age 0-27 in Worcester, MA. This research was conducted using probit and tobit regression analysis using the Worcester Police Dataset. This study shows a positive and highly statistically significant correlation between childhood trauma and gang involvement as well as involvement in violence, perpetration of violence, and the number of incidents of violence. This suggests that a crisis intervention for childhood trauma, including witness-based childhood trauma, …

Adopting New Banana Varieties In Uganda: The Role Of Gender And Head Of Household Status, Emily Albertson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Recognizing the gender gap that exists in the adoption rates of improved agricultural technology is crucial in increasing agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. A gender-disaggregated framework is used to examine key variables that guide the adoption decision of improved agricultural technologies by gender and household headship. Drawing on household data collected in two districts in Uganda and constructing a probability model, key variables will be analyzed as to their significance in the adoption decision for improved banana cultivars. The analysis shows that gender alone is insufficient in fully understanding adoption decisions, as other significant factors exist. Using the literature and …

Textron Systems, Geospatial Solutions Technical Writing Internship, Casia L. Terenzoni Ms.

Sustainability and Social Justice

ABSTRACT TEXTRON SYSTEMS, GEOSPATIAL SOLUTIONS TECHNICAL WRITING INTERNSHIP CASIA TERENZONI

My internship at Textron Systems, Geospatial Solutions took place from June 1 to July 31, 2015 where I worked under the supervision of Denise Harrington. My time at Textron Systems in the Geospatial Solutions department was divided into one large project and several smaller projects. I was required to spend time getting to know the GIS software in order to complete these projects. The large project consisted of writing and developing a Quick Reference Guide for a solution called GeoCatalog Discover. The smaller projects I completed consisted of writing several …

The Hartford Food System: A Review Of Assets, Challenges, And Opportunities, Zachary A. Fromson

Sustainability and Social Justice

Abstract

Healthy food systems hold potential to improve a city’s social, health, and economic well-being. Currently, there is a worldwide trend in refocusing food systems to invest in the local community rather than relying on hyper-industrial food value chains that erect barriers for local residents in a city’s food sector. It is the purpose of this report to assess how Hartford’s food sector currently is working so that the city may move in a more innovative direction with its food sector, improving the social, health, and economic conditions for the city and its residents. Thus, this report examines Hartford’s food …

When Reality Crashes The Imagination: Experiences Of Young Qurbojoog (Foreign Raised) Somalis In Somaliland, Amina Musa

Sustainability and Social Justice

As the Somalis territories are re-building there is heightened migration of people returning. They are heavily involved –formally or informally in development in the region. In the case of Somaliland, it is a semi-autonomous state championed by the diaspora. This assignment centers the experiences of young diaspora Somalis raised abroad in Somaliland. This demographic has grown up in the shadows of the civil war is the first generation to not grow up in the Somali territories. To capture their experiences, I carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Hargeisa, Somaliland over the summer of 2015. For this study I argue that young …

Somewhere “I Can Live”: Youths’ Conceptualizations Of Nature And The Outdoors In Worcester, Ma, Sarah Bertrand

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper describes the methodology, findings, and implications of research project attempting to understand youths’ conceptualizations of nature and the outdoors. Drawing on and responding to literature that calls for the prioritization of youths’ voices and describes nature as a constructed concept, I interviewed five youth residents of Worcester, Massachusetts, a mid-size city in New England. Using discourse analysis, I also attempt to understand what influences these youths’ conceptualizations of nature and the outdoors. The youth expressed nuanced and complex ideas about nature and the outdoors, situating these ideas within broader conceptualizations of the environment. They also suggested that these …

Social Entrepreneurship As A Response To The Energy Crisis, Climate Change And Women’S Inequality In Developing Countries: Women Managed Solar Cooker Production Business In Rural Haiti, Lelani S. Williams

Sustainability and Social Justice

In developing countries such as Haiti, households heavily rely on charcoal and wood to satisfy their energy needs. The unsustainable use of these fuels accompanies adverse health and women's inequality impacts. As well as have severely altered Haiti’s environmental landscape. Solar cooking is one clean energy alternative to these issues. Despite its multiple benefits; solar cookers have had little traction in developing countries. Most research is focused only on technical improvements of solar cookers. This paper looks at how the utilization of solar cookers can positively impact the problems facing Haiti due to traditional cooking methods (1) environmental, (2) energy …

Collaborating With Catastrophe | A User's Guide To Post-Apocalyptic Farming, Patricia Cafferky

Architecture Senior Theses

“Collaborating with Catastrophe” contends that architecture has the capacity to visually manifest unseen forces through design’s reaction to them, allowing people to more fully comprehend and engage the intangible. Climate change, arguably the largest threat to modern day humanity, is not visible, existing only as a collection of data and patterns in a statistical construct. Taking stock of the present day failings of society in the face of crisis, this thesis then extrapolates a potential future dystopia precipitated by man-made pollutants in order to engage the problem at its most severe. Architecture is then able to make the toxic visible …

Connections, 05/2016, College Of Health And Human Services

College of Health and Human Services Newsletter

• Grant funded project to improve care and training in nursing facilities
• Grant funds study of food selectivity in children
• Alumna receives Faculty Mentor of the Year Award at NIU
• New OT grad cert in low vision rehabilitation to launch fall 2016
• Congratulations to 2015-16 CHHS retirees
• Sammons Center grants support OT advancement through technology
• Clinics now accepting applications for fall

Land Change Modeling: Summer 2015 Internship With Clark Labs, Xiaoyang Kong

Sustainability and Social Justice

My internship with Clark Labs was completed during the summer of 2015, where I worked under the direction of Dr. Ronald Eastman. As a research assistant, the responsibilities of my internship was to process data for a project that intended to develop a web application for land change modeling. I learned a lot of knowledge about land change science and GIS applications from this internship. The experience I gained will definitely increase my competitiveness in my future career. I am fully satisfied with this internship and I would recommend this internship to anybody interested in GIS and land change science. …

Analyzing The Recent, Rapid Tourism Development In Panama's Bocas Del Toro Archipelago: Is Socioenvironmental Justice Attainable?, Olivia R. Bourque

Sustainability and Social Justice

The Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama has seen a rapid growth in its tourism industry since the 1990s. From a neoliberal perspective, tourism development is beneficial for all. Alternatively, I analyze the recent, rapid tourism development in Bocas from a critical development theoretical perspective, identifying its positive and negative implications, as well as who they accrue to. While there are economic benefits to tourism in Bocas, only foreign investors, the Panamanian government and English-speaking residents appear to earn them. The Bocas residents, and indigenous Ngöbe residents in particular, suffer from a range of economic, sociocultural, environmental and land access …

Shareholder Advocacy In Corporate Elections: Case Studies In Proxy Voting Websites For Retail Investors, Robin Miller

Sustainability and Social Justice

One of the key rights shareholders retain is the right to vote on issues affecting the companies in which they invest. This voting right is seen as one of the primary means of exercising diligent corporate governance (Cole 2003, Fairfax 2009). Only 28 percent of individual investors vote in corporate elections compared with 91 percent of institutional investors. Informed voting decisions at corporate elections can be very information intensive, and theories of rational apathy and the free rider problem may explain a lack of participation from individual investors.

Many shareholders cannot attend annual corporate meetings, so they …

Gis And Spatial Analysis: Summer Internship With The Center For Health And Global Environment At The Harvard T.H. Chan School Of Public Health, Wensi Hu

Sustainability and Social Justice

The objective of the report is to introduce and discuss my internship at the Center for Health and Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in Boston, MA. The internship lasted four months from the middle of May to the middle of September, with 15 hours each week. My tasks included geocoding, developing GIS-calculated variables, data visualization/mapping and documentation. Creation of variables was vital as it included air quality data, land use map, greenness (NDVI), roads data as well as parks data.

I am happy that I have a chance to work under a professional environmental …

Gis And Coastal Basemap Research Summer Internship With Clark Labs, Zhuoyue Zhou, Po Hu

Sustainability and Social Justice

Our summer internship with Clark Labs will last for one and half of years, from October 2014 till the end of August 2016, while we’ve worked under the director of Dr. Ronald Eastman. The main duty for this project is to create a basemap for coastal line in three counties in the Southeast Asia, while during this summer, our duties were to wrap up the remaining tasks, such as adjusting the classification images based on the accuracy assessment results, combining all the images, making a final map, and calculating the area for each categories in each province of the three …

Healthcare Facility Location: A Breast Cancer Alliance Case Study, Alexandra Knopf

Sustainability and Social Justice

Community health is impacted by the location of a health advocacy agency. This commissioned report for the Breast Cancer Alliance of Greenwich, CT, consists of a location analysis to review potential cities in which they might locate expansion efforts. Such cities include Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, Greenwich, CT, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Washington, D.C. This report will look at five ways (4 mathematical and one spatial) of conducting a location analysis that require specialized knowledge for interpretation. For this study, a Spatial Geographic Information System methodology is preferred because of the visualization component, which can ensure that …

Assessment Of The Environmental Sector And Climate Change In Malawi: Relationships Between Environmental Policy, Scientific Literature, And Development Projects, Esther A. Baumann

Sustainability and Social Justice

As funding increases for climate change related issues in Sub-Saharan Africa there should also be an increase in research to understand how scientific literature in the environmental sector can assist in developing policy and implementing development projects. Using secondary research, this paper centers on Malawi to develop an understanding of what is occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole in regards to climate change and environmental policy, science and development projects. It sought to determine if scientific thematic areas of research and recommended courses of action were being incorporated into actual government policies and on the ground development projects. This …

Redefining The Impact Of Public-Access Media In Worcester, Ma, Anthony Ortiz

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research presents findings from a study of how Worcester’s current public-access media center can serve as an anchor institution for two-way communication between the producers and the audience. More generally, it addresses two questions: 1) How to ensure maximum participation and 2) How can active communication be preserved (or maintained) between the producers and the audience. Drawing on case studies done around the U.S. this paper offers a model of community based media that can be essential for empowering people to serve as active receivers of information. The concept for community based media should allow as a grassroots oriented …

Gis And Coastal Basemap Research Summer Internship With Clark Labs, Po Hu, Zhuoyue Zhou

Sustainability and Social Justice

Our summer internship with Clark Labs will last for one and half of years, from October 2014 till the end of August 2016, while we’ve worked under the director of Dr. Ronald Eastman. The main duty for this project is to create a basemap for coastal line in three counties in the Southeast Asia, while during this summer, our duties were to wrap up the remaining tasks, such as adjusting the classification images based on the accuracy assessment results, combining all the images, making a final map, and calculating the area for each categories in each province of the three …

Evaluation Of Alternative Strategies To Prevent Leopard Predation On Livestock Around Yala National Park, Sri Lanka, Sanjiv Fernando

Sustainability and Social Justice

In recent years, many livestock herders living near Yala National Park, Sri Lanka have reported livestock losses due to predation by leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya). Despite herders’ attempts to safeguard their cattle, livestock depredation remains an issue, sometimes causing herders to kill leopards in retaliation. In an effort to mitigate the human-leopard conflict, protective cattle enclosures made from steel pipes and mesh wire were introduced to prevent leopard attacks on cattle. This study aims to assess the severity of leopard predation on livestock, understand the methods used in retaliatory killings, examine the effectiveness of existing livestock protection methods, …

The Gendered Politics Of Natural Resource Management: Gender Mainstreaming In Un-Redd+ Programs In Latin America, Hannah Yore

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper uses a feminist political ecology framework to critically examine rural women’s relationship with UN-REDD programs throughout Latin America. It looks at the ways in which UN-REDD has attempted to integrate women into the larger REDD+ development paradigms vis-à-vis gender- mainstreaming. I pay particular attention to how gender dynamics operate in the context of REDD+ with respect to cultural sovereignty, access to land, and benefit sharing and draw on Ecuador’s National REDD+ Socio Bosque program to illuminate how National REDD+ programs can adversely affect rural women’s livelihoods despite UN-REDD’s discourse of “gender equality”. In light of these considerations, I …

Environmental Conservation As An Instrument Of National Political Economy: Culture, Livelihoods, And Territorial Rights Of The Emberá Of Panama, Sara M. Taylor

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper argues that areas of environmental conservation in the Panama Canal Watershed Zone were originally designed to fit an economic utility rather than to protect habitat. As a result there was an exclusion of forest-based communities in policy design and implementation, creating lasting impacts on indigenous Emberá territorial rights, livelihood opportunities, and traditional cultural practices. Based on recent fieldwork and a review of relevant secondary literature, this paper discusses how Emberá communities in in Chagres National Park have adapted their culture and livelihoods to accommodate environmental regulation and explores what prospects the Emberá see for future generations if they …

Summer 2015 Gis Analyst Internship At The Connecticut Department Of Energy & Environmental Protection, Old Lyme, Connecticut, Stuart R. Deland

Sustainability and Social Justice

I worked as the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Internee for the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) from May 18, 2015 through August 14th of the same year. I was stationed at the Old Lyme Field office and worked under the direct supervision of Deb Pacileo, my boss and GIS analyst for CT DEEP. My function in the agency was similar to my supervisor's as I had no single project that dominated my time, but was given a multitude of projects to create, edit, oversee, and produce. Some of these project included editing python scripts of former …