Eye To Eye: Increasing Parent Involvement Through Collaboration And Adaptation, Kara Gearring, Lilliana Orozco

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on parental involvement in education and what can be done to improve the lack of involvement. This is an important issue for school systems because of the impact it has on a student’s academic achievement. Both teachers and parents were interviewed to obtain the perspectives of those who are able to see the effects of a lack of parental involvement on a student’s academic success, as well as the perspective of those who have trouble being involved and need accommodations. The results highlighted the challenges experienced by parents who can not afford to …

Escapando Las Trampas: Teacher Preparation For Mexicanas, Larissa Perez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Developing Maestras face and overcome linguistic, academic and cultural forms of gatekeeping while trying to navigate through our current education system. For this Capstone Project, the impact that gatekeeping has on developing Maestras and how it affects their academic and professional aspirations was investigated. This is an important issue for developing Maestras, the University of Gringolandia as well as for the education system of Nepantla county. The success of developing Maestras Mexicanas closes the racial gap and directly impacts the student success rate within Nepantla county. The literature and data results analysis indicate that the gatekeeping practices that keep Mexicanas …

No Habla Español: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Natalie Correa

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Capstone Project, the researchers investigated how monolingual teachers view the support and resources they received to teach English Language Learners (ELL) and what they thought could be done to improve their teaching effectiveness. An evidence based argument is offered that monolingual teachers were not being provided with effective support and resources. More specifically, three themes emerged from an analysis of the data obtained from interviews of monolingual teachers and administrators. Based on the emergent themes, an action was undertaken to help monolingual teachers better address the needs of ELLs. This is an important issue for monolingual teachers because …

No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Megan Ehrhardt

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Capstone Project, the researchers investigated how monolingual teachers view the support and resources they received to teach English Language Learners (ELL) and what they thought could be done to improve their teaching effectiveness. An evidence-based argument is offered that monolingual teachers were not being provided with effective support and resources. More specifically, three themes emerged from an analysis of the data obtained from interviews of monolingual teachers and administrators. Based on the emergent themes, an action was undertaken to help monolingual teachers better address the needs of ELLs. This is an important issue for monolingual teachers because the …

Finding Identity Through Literature, Darren Bartholomew

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on how upper-grade elementary students view children’s literature and its connection to self identity. The stakeholder perspectives that were obtained include students in upper and lower elementary grades and their teachers. According to the data analysis, younger elementary students desired to read more stories about anthropomorphized characters that are going through similar life situations. Older elementary students exhibited an overall desire to read books about fantastical stories and characters. However, when dealing with pressing issues both groups desired to read stories about characters who were similar to them in gender, age, ethnicity, or …

No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Selena Banuelos

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Capstone Project, the researchers investigated how monolingual teachers view the support and resources they received to teach English Language Learners (ELL) and what they thought could be done to improve their teaching effectiveness. An evidence based argument is offered that monolingual teachers were not being provided with effective support and resources. More specifically, three themes emerged from an analysis of the data obtained from interviews of monolingual teachers and administrators. Based on the emergent themes, an action was undertaken to help monolingual teachers better address the needs of ELLs. This is an important issue for monolingual teachers because …

Music From Trinidad And Tobago, Vanessa Tuttle

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This essay will explore the musical culture and customs that come from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Some of the traditions examined include the usage of the steel pan as a percussive instrument, the evolution of Carnival music in Trinidad, and the various types of poetic styles used in calypso songs. In an effort to understand the development and importance of musical practices in Trinidad and Tobago, it will be vital to take an anthropological and historical look at the two islands. This means learning about how the various cultures of people came to exist in Trinidad and …

Teaching College Foster Youth How To Use Mindfulness To Cope With Stress, Jiovana Xasel Vallejan Lugo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Research has found that all foster youth face some sort of trauma at least once in their life, leading them to experience mental stress, emotion dysregulation, and depression during the transition to adulthood (Valdez, Bailey, Santuzzi, & Lilly, 2014). Many of the youth are not aware of the effects of stress on mental and physical well-being and how to cope with the stress they are feeling. Also, many of them are not aware of their mental state or how to cope with the stress they are feeling. College youth are not only affected mentally by stress, but also physically. They …

Implementing Homeless Youth Professional Development Workshops In Salinas, Mikayla Spooner

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The homeless population in Salinas has risen dramatically over the past few years, and child care workers consistently do not know how to serve homeless youth. My capstone project created a professional development workshop on homelessness in Salinas. This workshop was given at the Salinas YMCA for all child care staff. The point of this project was to inform child care professionals about how widespread homelessness is in Salinas. These professionals were able to identify how homelessness adversely affects the stages of development in children and families and how to better support them in child care settings. For child care …

Role Of Culture In Cultivating A Sense Of Self With Responsibility Towards The Community, Jonathan T. Reyes-Carranza

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Given the fact that education has not moved beyond the factory models of the 19th century, building strong relationships between the classroom and the home environment is necessary for melding "home" values with "school" practices so that students could see how school builds upon their home culture. This senior capstone research project examines the role of culture in cultivating a sense of self and responsibility towards the community using relevant literature, surveys with CSUMB teaching and learning community, a survey with educators, and interviews with specific religious individuals. Results reveal that culture indeed influences the sense of self-identity, the sense …

Teaching Early Prevention Of Substance Abuse, Maria G. Camacho

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There has been an increase in youth substance abuse in the US. Research shows that substance abuse leads to consequences such as lower education, lower opportunities to succeed, and overdoses (Freeman et al., 2018). Use of alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs can also lead to use of heavier drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methenamine that have higher addiction rates (Freeman et al., 2018). One solution is to create early prevention programs that target children before they are heavily exposed to alcohol and drugs. For my capstone project, I presented a workshop to parents in South Monterey County on how they …

#Queer: Community, Communication, And Identity In The Digital Age, Margaret Allen-Young

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The creation and facilitation of community among LGBTQ+ people has always been necessary as a means of support, protection, and affirmation in a discriminatory society. The common perception of this community imagines the migration of people from rural areas to urban meccas like San Francisco and New York in search of likeminded people. However, the advent of new technology has allowed for community building and organizing to occur more easily without face-to-face contact. In this paper I utilize existing literature, including a large study on queer rural populations, and real-world examples such as the platform Tumblr to explore the evolution …

Appmod: Helping Older Adults Manage Mobile Security With Online Social Help, Zhiyuan Wan, Lingfeng Bao, Debin Gao, Eran Toch, Xin Xia, Tamir Mendel, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The rapid adoption of Smartphone devices has caused increasing security and privacy risks and breaches. Catching up with ever-evolving contemporary smartphone technology challenges leads older adults (aged 50+) to reduce or to abandon their use of mobile technology. To tackle this problem, we present AppMoD, a community-based approach that allows delegation of security and privacy decisions a trusted social connection, such as a family member or a close friend. The trusted social connection can assist in the appropriate decision or make it on behalf of the user. We implement the approach as an Android app and describe the results of …

Imc Policy Platform, Yoselinne Gonzalez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Unit is an administrative branch of the Monterey County Health Department (MCHD). The strategic goals of the MCHD are to empower the community to improve health, enhance public health through prevention, ensure equitable and culturally competent access to services and engage employees to meet the county’s health needs. One way in which the MCHD is able to achieve its goals is by being a collaborative partner of Impact Monterey County (IMC). IMC is a collaborative network of nonprofits, businesses, public agencies and the community working together to create a healthy, safe, thriving Monterey County by …

A Child’S Perspective Of The Foster Care System, Cynthia Valdez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Family and Children’s Services of Monterey County Department of Social Services is an agency that serves families in the Monterey County who have an open case. In the Family Reunification Unit they work on reunifying families back together. Youth in the foster care system are uninformed about their dependency case. Unlike parents, they do not receive a class that teaches them all about their case. Some of the reasons for this is that social workers have very large caseloads, People/Youth have lack of knowledge of court systems and CASA has a long waiting list. The consequences of not informing youth …

Providing Resources For Probationers, Behavioral Health And Substance Abuse, Crystal Rangel

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

San Benito County Probation Department is daily targeted by defendants having an issue with drugs, violations, domestic violence, battery, drug court, Post Release Community Supervision. The main issue is that the defendants relapse into drugs, which can sometimes lead themselves to committing a violation of probation. Due to a certain level of stress, depression and bad influence defendants sometimes make a bad decision and drug relapse or commit a violation. Which them leads them to incarceration, loss of family support and sometimes death because of a drug overdose. A Referral Resource Handout was created from different resources available in the …

Collection Of Analyzed Data From Health And Human Services Professionals: Stressors And Self-Care Practices, Yesenia Alcala

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Alliance on Aging is a nonprofit agency in Salinas, California. It was established in 1970, and they help serve the needs of the senior citizen community by offering multiple services. Working professionals experience high levels of stress in the workplace. Although there are many contributing factors for high stress in the workplace, the main factors at play are the lack of self-care and lack of support Zastrow (pg. 332, 2015). Because working professionally in the human services field experience high stress the consequences they may face are burnout, high turnover rates, and poor overall health. The capstone project will assess …

Youth Empowerment Summit (Yes), Laura Wright

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Community Solutions is a non-profit agency that serves ages 0-100 in Santa Clara and San Benito Counties. The Solutions to Violence Program operates out of Morgan Hill and houses the CSEC and Human Trafficking Division where the capstone project was developed.The “Chill Room” was created at Community Solutions as a part of the Youth Empowerment Summit (YES) Conference in response to the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) within Santa Clara County. The YES Conference was created to enhance collaboration among community based, county, & non-profit organizations to provide a safe space for CSEC youth to process trauma. The conference …

Increasing The Accessibility Of Bim Training Within The Aec Industry, Xavier Caldera

Construction Management

At the turn of the 21^st century, the rise of new technology has helped modernize the AEC industry. Architects, engineers, general contractors, and foremen can build, collaborate, and communicate more efficiently using BIM to help facilitate the building process. The benefits of BIM have been proven through increased coordination, risk mitigation, and cost optimization. However, with the increasing use of BIM, there is a growing education gap between construction workers and BIM technology. Currently, there are three main avenues to learn BIM: in-house company training, attending college, or paying to learn independently online. The foundation for a BIM learning …

Interdisciplinary Studio Pavilion [Isp] 2019, Alex Beaubien

Construction Management

The Interdisciplinary Studio Pavilion 2019 was designed for students within architecture, architectural engineering, and construction management to be placed into eight interdisciplinary teams and design a pavilion that reflected the narrative for the Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo (the “WHP). Its curricula emphasized aesthetics; fabrication methods and techniques; ease of assembly, reassembly and transportability; and function. Deliverables for each team's structure focused on these curricula that required numerous design refinements and construction feasibility studies. This required each team member to contribute their respective knowledge about architecture, structural engineering, and construction to create a pavilion that fulfilled WHP’s goals. …

Condom Dispenser Program, Madilynn Turner

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Health and Wellness Services (HWS) at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB) takes an integrative health approach to support the CSUMB campus community. There six entities that make up HWS, however, the Condom Dispenser Program (CDP) was implemented under Health Promotion and Education (HPE). The mission of HPE is to ensure that CSUMB community members are reaching holistic wellness through the adoption of healthy behaviors. This goal is met through programming, outreach, and education that is provided.

The need that was discovered through analysis of the National Collegiate Health Assessment (NCHA) was that students are not using condoms to prevent …

Implementing Mindfulness To Promote Mental Health In Elementary School Students, Kathleen Dunlap-Demarco

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The practice of mindfulness has been around for thousands of years, however; the practice has just become more common in the Western world, and especially in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to discover how implementing mindfulness promotes mental health in elementary school students. In order to find out just how mindfulness promotes mental health in the elementary classroom, the research that was done involved an extensive literature review on the topic of mindfulness, surveys and interviews with local teachers in the Tri-County area, and also reached out to teachers to be interviewed more in depth. The results …

Central Coast Vna Palliative Care Volunteer Program, Jacquelyn Taueetia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Central Coast VNA Visiting Nurse Association provides the highest quality health care to patients through physicians, hospice medical directors, nurses, medical social workers, spiritual care counselors, and volunteers. VNA currently does not have a volunteer program specifically for palliative care patients for their Palliative Care Team. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and family by addressing physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs (VNA, 2019). 94.9% of patients are referred to VNA because they need support for the patient and family …

Youth Education Program, Venessa Villa-Martin

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Young adults in Monterey County are at risk of being in an abusive relationship and becoming a victim of domestic violence. Being in an abusive relationship has lasting effects, including low self-esteem, and negative effects to both mental and physical health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019), nearly 1 in 11 female, and 1 in 15 male, high school students report having experienced physical dating violence within the past year. About 26% of females and 15% of males will have experienced some type of intimate partner violence (sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking) before the age …

Serving Youth In Santa Cruz County, Lorena Torres-Alvarez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Community Action Board (CAB) of Santa Cruz County is an agency that serves low-income under-resourced community members in the county. Through their Youth Homeless Response Team (YHRT) Program, they serve youth ages 15-24 who are currently at-risk or facing homelessness. Too many unaccompanied youths in Santa Cruz County are suffering from homelessness and are in need to accessing services. The lack of motivational and support system, along with the unemployment increasing at alarming rates. Illustrating a dark and unsafe future. Some of the consequences include pushing youth to live on the street or inside cars and being in a …

The Impact Zero-Tolerance Policies Have On High School Students, Elsa Guillen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The capstone project created for RJ in the Schools, a program under Restorative Justice Partners, Inc. was an implementation model for building school site relationships as RJ in the Schools enters a school prior to providing specified on-site support. The implementation model was developed and piloted for purposes of addressing functionality at Monterey Peninsula Unified School District’s alternative education school, Central Coast High and later introduced to RJ in the Schools staff for approval of best internal practices. The implementation model highlights steps to strengthen relationships with school sites before commencing restorative justice (RJ) services, and can easily be adaptable …

Incompetency To Stand Trial: An Informational Guide, Natalie Baur

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

At Monterey County Behavioral Health, we serve people with a variety of mental illnesses. They range from moderate to severe- whether it be schizophrenia or depression, we provide services that will help them deal with their symptoms. We strive to cultivate positive relationships in the community with our clients and contracted facilities. In this essay, I am going to talk about a certain population of who we serve: those who are found incompetent to stand trial and the toll it takes on them and their families. Moreover, I will be talking about the challenges and uncertainties that clients and their …

Ymca Diabetes Prevention Program, Jennifer Aparicio-Sandoval

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Central Coast YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is established to promote and encourage the reduction of pre-diabetes to the community members. Every Spanish cohort receives a free gym membership. Unfortunately it is being used less than expected. Numerous reasons the members aren't properly utilizing the gym membership are time management, distance, and work schedules. The lack of gym membership use is a health risk to the members because it can lead to diabetes. To interpret these specific barriers in the lack of usage of the gym a survey was conducted to all Spanish participants in each class. The survey …

Food Waste At La Isla Pacifica Shelter, Yesenia Perez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Community Solutions is a non-profit organization that serves the community of South Santa Clara and San Benito Counties. At La Isla, Community Solutions’ safe house, a new program was implemented, which focused on reducing waste. Food waste is an issue at La Isla, because a lot of food expires before it is used. The program focused on three key factors to reduce waste, including: creating and implementing a new inventory system, educational cooking classes and the creation of a recipe book in English and Spanish. The classes provided life skills such as cooking, nutritional information and awareness of the amount …

Participants Of The Diabetes Prevention Program Not Completing The Program, Armando Politron

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and its follow-up, the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Project, is a short-term basic survey conducted in recruited cohorts from the Salinas and Watsonville area to determine the causes of participants not completing the program. This project examines the social determinants of health in Monterey county contributing to poor health problems in minority populations. The Diabetes Prevention Program classes offered through the Central Coast YMCA are showing low levels of participants and a high number of participants withdrawing from the program. When low levels of education combined with poor health issues and lack of transportation, it …