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Allocating Interventions Based On Counterfactual Predictions: A Case Study On Homelessness Services, Amanda R. Kube

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Modern statistical and machine learning methods are increasingly capable of modeling individual or personalized treatment effects by predicting counterfactual outcomes. These counterfactual predictions could be used to allocate different interventions across populations based on individual characteristics. In many domains, like social services, the availability of possible interventions can be severely resource limited. This thesis considers possible improvements to the allocation of such services in the context of homelessness service provision in a major metropolitan area. Using data from the homeless system, I show potential for substantial predicted benefits in terms of reducing the number of families who experience repeat episodes …

The Narration Of Conflicting Accountabilities In The Era Of High-Stakes Teacher Evaluation, James Christopher Head

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The U.S. Government’s Race to the Top program inspired a wave of education reforms across the nation aimed at holding teachers individually accountable for their students’ “growth” on test scores. These individualized programs implemented new forms of audit technologies aimed at orienting teachers’ priorities toward the calculations produced by students, rather than towards students’ holistic growth and well-being. In so doing, these programs signify an ideological rupture for teachers in that their long-shared sense of interpersonal accountability is institutionally re-directed – and reinforced with consequences – toward calculative accountability. In this dissertation, I investigated teachers’ experiential navigation of the introduction …

Speaking Sober: Program Language As A Mechanism For Community Creation In Alcoholics Anonymous, Talya Wolf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) is a fellowship of more than two million members in 180 countries worldwide who are joined by their common desire to achieve and maintain sobriety. A.A. is comprised of small, self-sustaining groups of individuals who meet, typically weekly or biweekly, to share their successes and struggles and to provide support to their fellow alcoholics. There are no dues or requirements for membership other than the wish to stop drinking. The organization is not evangelical; it does not recruit, but rather welcomes those who wish to participate. The open nature of this program attracts individuals of all ages, …

Family–School Partnerships And The Missing Voice Of Parents, Laura R. Stein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Educators, researchers, advocates, and others agree that effective family-school partnership is an important component in best supporting the academic outcomes and future success of students. However, schools and educators struggle in forming constructive partnerships with racially and economically marginalized and oppressed parents and families, particularly low-income Black parents and families. This compromises support for low-income Black students that are already served in underfunded and under-resourced schools compared to their White middleclass counterparts. Further, this phenomenon exacerbates a widely understood academic achievement gap between low-income Black students and White middleclass students. In seeking to unearth and better understand effective strategies and …

The Structurally Adjusted School: School Restructuring And Youth Political Incorporation In Suburban America, Erin Michaels

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation argues that key 21st century education reforms intended to improve education for Latinx and Black students are actually new mechanisms of educational inequality. I examine this trend in the suburbs where Latinx and Black populations are growing due to new immigration and gentrification. I show how state-mandated education reforms use conditional financing and coercive restructuring policies to undermine the school’s local control by tying major reforms to vital school aid and threatening it with closure. I relate this model to the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) the IMF and World Bank use globally in order to coerce countries to …

The Reality Of The Refugee Crisis In Italy: A Look Into The Lives Of Illegitimate Refugees And The Unofficial Organizations That Support Them, Cole Mcquirk

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The words written on the United States of America’s famous Statue of Liberty, written by poet Emma Lazarus over a century ago:

Give me your tired, your poor,

your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. . . .

America and Europe alike have forgotten the sacred words that gave hope to so many 100 years ago. Many use phrases like “floods of people” or “swarms” to describe those who leave their countries for a life in the Western world. Which of the refugees welcomed into the most powerful country in the world were …

Benefits Of Educational Services For Students With Disabilities, Miguel Zazueta-Ruiz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone research project examines the benefits of educational services that schools offer to students with disabilities for a smooth transition from elementary school level to middle school and high school level. Federal and state laws, e.g. the Re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) of 2004, ensure that students with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) specifically designed to provide services to meet the needs of individual student with disabilities through the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Through the use of relevant literature review and surveys …

Career Exploration For At-Risk Youth, Diana A. Tinajero Pacheco

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone project is on career exploration for At-Risk youth. This topic is important because too often disadvantage students do not receive career development. These students are simply encouraged to complete high school with little to no direction regarding what to do after high school and their futures. While implementing prevention programs to decrease dropout rates is important, it is also essential to educate students about vocational and careers that will prepare them for life after high school. To accomplish this, a 3-day lesson was delivered to a credit recovery class at Greenfield High School in Greenfield, …

Children's Mental Health: Reimagining Teacher Preparation, Karolina Camacho

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Current research sheds light on the importance of the mental health of school-age children and researcher’s efforts continuously point out that there is need for more to be done to support children with mental health needs, in the context of the classroom, in the United States. Particularly focusing on children with internalizing behavior under Emotional Disturbance, this paper will provide reasoning as to why these children have a need for prevention and intervention services, the reality of the lack of general knowledge teachers have on children’s mental health, and the need for elementary school teachers to have children’s mental health …

Teaching Disability Awareness To School-Aged Children, Victoria Polanco Ramirez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Often, people are intimidated by the unknown. Exposure to information on people with different disabilities is often limited in schools; therefore, when children see people who are different than them, they may not be very accepting. It is important to provide people who have disabilities with a safe and accepting environment in both schools and the community by starting to build awareness. In order to address this need for them, I have decided to present a lesson to elementary aged children targeting disability awareness. I have created a lesson curriculum for first grade students which will: teach the students about …

Developing Life Skills To Eliminate Negative Behaviors Among Foster Youth, Karen Swezey

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Due to their placement in the foster care system, foster children face a higher likelihood of future negative outcomes. Typically, foster youth behave more aggressively, lack social-adaptive skills, and struggle with emotion regulation (Deutsch, Lynch, Zlotnik, Matone, Kreider, & Noonan, 2015). To help resolve these behavioral difficulties, foster youth must learn life skills and social skills. At Chamberlain’s Children Center, I will engage the children in a series of activities, focusing on the life skills associated with meal time. For the last activity, the children will invite staff members and peers to a final dinner, providing them an opportunity to …

Oak Avenue Elementary: Attendance Awareness Project, Liliana Uribe

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Oak Avenue Elementary school is in Greenfield, California and serves students from grades kindergarten to sixth grade. The broader social problem within Greenfield is too few students graduating from high school. The agency problem is there are too many elementary school children absent from school. This was an educational intervention implemented at the school where information was provided to parents and students about the importance of school attendance. Posters were created to promote good attendance habits within the school and presentations were provided for parents and students. The presentations helped parents and students develop a better understanding of the importance …

Knowledge And Attitudes Toward Persons With Schizophrenia Among Hispanic University Students Enrolled In Mental Health And Non-Mental Health Disciplines, Manisha Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

The present study was designed to examine university students’ knowledge regarding schizophrenia and factors that can influence university students’ attitudes toward persons with schizophrenia. An attribution questionnaire ([AQ-27], Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan, & Kubiak, 2003), the Error Choice Test ([ECT], Michaels & Corrigan, 2013), and the Social Desirability Scale ([SDS-13], Reynolds, 1982) were utilized to collect data from undergraduate students attending The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), the largest U.S. Hispanic serving university located on the Texas-Mexico border. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the survey data. Results indicated a non-significant relationship between students’ knowledge regarding …

A Toolkit For Expanding Financial Capability At Tax Time, Genevieve Davison, Merideth Covington, Olga Kondratjeva, Stephen P. Roll, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Center for Social Development Research

This work expands upon The Volunteer Income Tax Preparer’s Toolkit: Showing Clients Why Tax Time is the Right Time to Save, a 2015 Toolkit by the Center for Social Development. This new offering presents the current evidence underpinning various tax-time efforts to expand financial capability among low- and moderate-income households. It includes sections on creating a VITA program and on several financial-capability products and services that organizations can offer alongside free tax-preparation services. The evidence comes from a variety of sources, but we highlight findings from research conducted by CSD, particularly that conducted as part of the Refund to Savings …

Young Seasonal Employees : How Work Conditions And Burnout Contribute To Turnover Intentions, Marlee Wanamaker

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

To date there has been little research conducted on young seasonal workers, leaving a dearth in the literature regarding such things as how they react to their work environment and the outcomes of those reactions. This study focuses on burnout in young seasonal workers in the amusement park industry, using the job demands-resource model to make predictions. Surveys from 155 young seasonal workers at six amusement parks on the eastern coast of the US responded to surveys at two points in time measuring job demands, job resources, burnout, and intention to turnover. Hypotheses were tested using moderated regression to investigate …

The Effectiveness Of The Three-Module Job Training Intervention On Job Search Knowledge, Job Search Attitude Knowledge, And Job Survival/Maintenance Knowledge, Tris Middleton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Three-Module Job Training Intervention on increasing job search knowledge, job search attitude knowledge, and job survival/maintenance knowledge. The Three-Module Job Training Intervention consists of Module I-Job Search Training (JST); Module II-Job Search Attitude Training (JSAT); and Module III-Job Survival and Maintenance Training (JSMT).

In this study, the researcher used three instruments to measure pre-training and post-training levels of job search knowledge, job search attitude knowledge, and job survival/maintenance knowledge. The Job Search Knowledge Scale (JSKS) measured the level of job search knowledge; the Job Search Attitude Inventory (JSAI) …

Strengths And Resiliencies Of Black Msm In New York City Who Maintain Hiv-Seronegativity, Jagadisa-Devasri Dacus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) carry the greatest burden of the HIV epidemic in the United States. Because Black MSM’s identities lie at the intersection of race and sexual orientation, they are more likely to experience negative social determinants of health, which have been associated with greater HIV acquisition. However, the majority of Black MSM maintain seronegativity, but few public health studies have identified what contributes to their seronegativity maintenance. In order to address this gap in knowledge, I explored maintained HIV-seronegativity among a cohort of Black MSM in New York City (NYC). …

A Critical Assessment Of The Internship At The Ngo Committee On The Status Of Women, New York, Ching-Kang Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone research project is the critical assessment of my internship paper at the The NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York (NGO CSW/NY), which documents my experience of working from September, 2017 to December 2017. Part one focuses on the analysis and observation on LGBTQ human rights work at the United Nations. Part two records my work and experiences at the NGO CSW/NY, including the UNGA Gender Mapping Project and UN meetings. Part three is my observations and reflections upon the half-year internship experience, which serve as reference for people who intend to do NGO advocacy work …

Mothers' Perceptions Of Educational Access And Engagement In A Context Of Urban Austerity, Amy Krings, Hillary Thomas, Shawna J. Lee, Aayat Ali, Ladonna Miller

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study sheds light upon mothers' perceptions of educational justice in a context of austerity-based educational reforms. Focus group participants (n = 64) described local schools as lacking resources, a shortcoming that contributed to overcrowded classrooms, inadequate transportation, and safety concerns. They were skeptical of elected and appointed state and district officials, who were viewed as misrepresenting the degree of financial strain in the district in order to prioritize financial profit above education services for children. Additionally, respondents struggled to identify opportunities for parent involvement in educational policy making at a state, district, or school level. The shortage of …

The #Metoo Movement: An Invitation For Feminist Critique Of Rape Crisis Framing, Jamie R. Abrams

University of Richmond Law Review

This article invites feminists to leverage the #MeToo Movement as a critical analytical tool to explore the longevity of the enduring rape crisis framing of victim services. Long before the #MeToo Movement, victim services in communities nationwide were framed around a crisis model. For nearly half a century, victims have visited rape crisis centers, called rape crisis hotlines, and mobilized rape crisis response teams to provide services and support. This enduring political and social framing around rape as a crisis is opaque, has prompted a political backlash, and risks distorting hard-fought feminist legal, social, and political battles. It has yielded …

A New Approach To Mindfulness With Teachers, Melanie Flaxer

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This thesis explores the topic of implementing mindfulness programs with teachers in school settings. It begins by exploring the history of how mindfulness has been implemented with students as well as with teachers, revealing the problematic nature of the “mindfulness fad” that has entered into public schools across the country in the past ten years. It also analyzes more recent programs that have begun implementing mindfulness in schools in more productive and responsible ways. The paper then gives a narrative account of a non-traditional mindfulness group that offers an alternative method for training teachers in mindfulness. The group facilitator conducted …

The Rider (2018-04-30), Jesus Sanchez

The Rider Archives

Vol.3 No.28

Expressive Arts Group Therapy With Children And Adolescents Who Have Experienced Trauma, Shade Alfred

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Experiencing traumatic situations is an inevitable part of life that many have struggled to understand and have difficulty working through its effects. This results in persons seeking therapy to better cope and heal from the impact of the traumatic experience. Children and adolescents who are considered vulnerable require more assistance to help them when they have encountered a traumatic experience. Research has highlighted that Expressive Arts Therapies is a favorable treatment option used with traumatized children and adolescents. Hence, this paper reflects research that has been conducted on group expressive arts therapy with children and adolescents who have experienced trauma. …

Covered International: A Proposal For Growth, Sarah Shumaker

Honors Projects

The following proposal examines the operation of Covered International, a nonprofit organization committed to helping women who have been victims of domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and trafficking, Contemporary ideas and suggested changes are detailed that will foster the growth of the organization through education and awareness, funding, and expansion.

The Free Press Vol. 49, Issue No. 22, 04-30-2018, Julie Pike

Free Press, The

Funding for Master Plan remains unknown -- Bus transportation changes hit USM next fall -- Dormitory upgrades coming to the Gorham campus -- Removal of six-meal plan upsets busy students -- Student Senate: what to expect next year -- Redesign of communication and media studies -- Developments in the food studies program -- Maine summer events to look forward to -- Maine music and arts festivals expand culture -- Department of Theatre updates curriculum -- Psychology Institute honors Dr. William Gayton

Corporate Brand Management Of Sk, Jinyong Lee

Asia Marketing Journal

SK group has been a pioneer in overall brand management and, more recently, in CSR-imbedded brand management. SK vision of “improving itself to give greater happiness to all of its customers” and the symbol mark of “Wings of Happiness” are some good examples of integrating distinct brand identities of various member companies. After impressive growth and expansions into diverse business areas, SK group is ranked as the third largest company based on asset amounts according to the Fair Trade Commission of Korea, only after Samsung and Hyundai Motor groups.
SK brand management can be analyzed, using the framework of 4 …

A Workable Balance: Maternity Leave And Female Success In The Workplace In Finland And The United States, Karey J. Murphy

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

The Family and Medical Leave Act was signed into law in 1993. FMLA, allowing for a few exceptions and criteria, provides unpaid leave for certain health conditions or for the birth or adoption of a child. While the United States offers a gender-neutral policy unlike most other nations, the leave is not required to be paid. This can have enormous impacts on not only a female’s decision to return to work after the birth of a child but her continued decision to pursue leadership roles within the workforce. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between female …

Addressing Culturally Specific Mental Health Care Needs In The Us: The Asian American Population, Moira Lewerk

Honors Scholar Theses

As the fastest growing minority group in the US, Asian American health needs and disparities are becoming critical areas to address, particularly in the mental health domain (Leong, Park, & Kalibatseva, 2013). Currently, the culturally specific needs of this group are not being adequately met. This includes appropriately serving low English proficiency (LEP) patients who experience different healthcare quality and outcomes than other individuals. Additionally, recognizing culturally unique perspectives, emotional burdens, and immigrant experiences is crucial in developing culturally tailored mental health interventions and shifting mental health toward individualized care. This work aims to examine current policies surrounding culturally competent …

Set Adrift: A Study Of Characteristics, Sustainability, And The Lifelines Tethering Connecticut Forensic Social Workers In The Criminal And Juvenile Justice Systems, Jennie Jerome Albert

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite its roots as a leader in juvenile justice, prison advocacy and reform, appreciation and professional support for forensic social work (FSW) has waxed and waned over the last one hundred and twenty years. It has gone from leadership in the field of criminal justice to becoming nearly invisible to the profession of social work itself. Over the last decade, FSW began experiencing a resurgence thanks to a shift in policy and practice toward treatment and diversion for justice-involved individuals. Despite FSW’s historical roots and relevance to today’s justice systems, there is a dearth of materials about who is practicing …

Community Partner Survey Report: Conducted By The Center For Community Engagement And Service Learning, April 30, 2018, Center For Civic Engagement

Reports and White Papers - Center for Civic Engagement

The Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CESL) conducted a 37 question online survey in fall 2017. The purpose of the survey was to ascertain the relationships and experiences community organizations, primarily in Bloomington-Normal, have with Illinois State University.