Gnome Waste Warriors: Waste Reduction Through Sustainability, Hayley E.R. Frost Rubino

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project was on how waste and waste reduction could positively impact a community. Waste reduction is an important issue because the negative impacts of waste affect the whole planet. By educating Monterey Gnome School (MGS) about waste, changes in daily habits are intended to result in lasting change. An evidence-based argument is offered that waste is a global issue that negatively impacts the earth's landmasses, oceans, and human health. Both MGS staff and students were interviewed and surveyed, as their perspectives provide unique aspects of thinking about waste issues. The themes that emerged from an …

Reading Rainbow: Give Hope To Struggling Readers, Celia Higer

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

For this Senior Capstone Project, the researcher investigated what stakeholders had to say about reading difficulties, the Irlen Method, and how to increase awareness and access to the Irlen Method in schools. Based on analysis of the data and the relevant research literature, the researcher used what she learned to formulate an action that responded to the focus issue. This is important to students and other stakeholders that have reading difficulties.

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 …

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 …

Increasing Awareness Of Homework Assistance Resources Among Elementary School Aged Children, Leslie Castillo

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Schools have the expectation that parents are to provide homework assistance at home in order for their children to be academically successful (Green, Walker, Hoover-Demsey & Sandler, 2017). However, not all parents are able to do this. For example, some parents may be immigrant families who work very long hours for minimum wage, as is the case for my of the parents at Mary Chapa Academy, an elementary school in the town of Greenfield, California. Also, many of these immigrant parents do not speak English, making it difficult for them to help their children with homework. Therefore, I conducted a …

Event Reconstruction In The Advanced Particle-Astrophysics Telescope, Emily Ramey

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The Advanced Particle-Astrophysics Telescope (APT) is a concept for a gamma-ray space telescope operating in the keV to MeV energy range. Due to the nature of the telescope and the physics of detection, reconstructing initial photon trajectories can be very computationally complex. This is a barrier to the real-time detection of astrophysical transient phenomena such as Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), and a faster reconstruction algorithm is needed in order to effectively study them. In this project, we develop such an algorithm based on Boggs & Jean (2000) and discuss the effects of certain algorithmic parameters on computational performance. For testing, …

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 …

Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing, Esmeralda Contreras-Heredia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Monterey County Tobacco Control Program is working to pass smoke-free multi-unit housing (MUH) ordinances in the cities of Monterey, Salinas, and Seaside, to prevent exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke. Exposure to the toxins in smoke, including cannabis and electronic cigarettes, causes health risks to non-smoking residents. A sustainable program was developed to educate and increase tenant awareness of health risks associated with second and thirdhand smoke exposure and ways to create healthy home environments. The program consisted of training and building knowledge for Community Health Workers (CHWs) to effectively disperse information to MUH residents. Once the ordinances pass …

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 …

Day Worker Center: Employer And Client Engagement, Anayeli Avalos

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Day Worker Center of Santa Cruz County is a component of the Community Action Board (CAB), a non-profit organization that has been providing services to eliminate poverty. CAB offers the program, administrative, and fiscal oversight to the Day Worker Center. The County of Santa Cruz is facing a high rate of unemployment, which is affecting the community. What contributes to the problem is low awareness of community knowledge about employment services. Also, the undocumented community that finds it hard to trust services because they think they can get deported. In addition, the issue can cause consequences such as health …

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 …

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 …

Parent Involvement In Elementary Schools, Maria Miramontes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The current Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium results prove that the Greenfield Union School District is academically low in English and Mathematics. This is a problem that the school district is facing because students are not engaged with their education. Poverty and low parental involvement puts students at risk to not be engaged in their education, since the socioeconomic status of parents can prohibit parents with the level of engagement in their children’s education. The majority of the students at Greenfield Union School District are English learners, this is another risk factor because at times parents cannot help their children in …

It's Game Night At The Shelter, Margarita Gonzalez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The problem is that too many children and families are homeless. The contributing factors of homelessness are high levels of poverty, unemployment and mental illness. The consequences of it are that children have a risk for poor educational outcomes, risk for health problems and distress in children and families. Game Night at the shelter was focused on alleviating the distress in children. Six different games were available for the children to use. The children were surveyed to assess the outcomes of them having fun and for other possible Game Nights. The volunteers were also surveyed to see what went well, …

Understanding Barriers To Attending Food Distributions, Janell Jimenez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Second Harvest Food Bank provides food access to all of the population through Santa Cruz County. Too many people in the community are suffering from food insecurity due to lack of healthy meals, financial instability, and other living expenses not allowing them to purchase healthy meals. This lack of healthy meals which is leading to people at risk of serious health issues, development, and poor academics amongst children. Distribution sites and nutrition programs are provided on a daily basis at different locations and times of the day at no cost to the community However the number of participants has …

End Of Life Care, Ana Mederos

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Central Coast Visiting Nurses Association is a non-profit agency that provides home health care as well as hospice care for individuals in the counties of Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara. In this region, the Latino/ Hispanic communities are underutilizing the services for end of life care. According to statistics provided by VNA 2019, only around 20% of the populations they serve are Latino/ Hispanics. Education on end of life care services is necessary for an individual to have a better understanding and quality of life during the end stage or confronted with a life limiting illness. In …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Cultural Competency Trainings Within The Monterey County Behavioral Health Department, Maritza Gutierrez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Monterey County Behavioral Health Department (MCBH) provides a cultural competency training for their employees; this training includes a foundation in culture, diversity, humility and equity. There was a pre-post survey that was sent out in the beginning and at the end of the training. Participants rated themselves on their skills, knowledge, commitment and awareness. The survey also consists of open-ended questions, and demographic information such as age, gender, ethnicity and their job description. The surveys were entered into a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and the data was analyzed. The goal for this project was to examine people’s self …

Reconciling Hyphenated Identities: Muslim American Youth Reflect On College Life In The Midst Of Islamophobia, Diba Ataie

Doctoral Dissertations

Muslims make up more than 1.8 billion people of the world population and have been displaced globally in waves due to the political tension in their homeland. The tragedy of 9/11 forever changed the landscape of this nation for Muslim Americans and created hostility and fear. Islamophobia has been on the rise after the post 9/11 era, but due to the 2016 election cycle Muslim Americans have been placed under direct scrutiny. Muslim Americans were targeted and threatened with a Muslim registry and implemented a Muslim Ban to further ostracise them. The post 9/11 generation of Muslim American youth were …

A Survey And Critique Of The “Seller In Possession” Statutory Regimes Of Common Law Canada: An Abc Prequel, Clayton Bangsund

Dalhousie Law Journal

The article examines the various provincial and territorial statutory regimes that apply to resolve title disputes emanating from a “seller in possession” scenario in which an initial buyer leaves bought goods in the possession of a seller who then transfers them to a subsequent bona de purchaser. Presently there are four distinct statutory models in force across common law Canada. Some provinces and territories incorporate modernized electronic personal property registry infrastructure into their statutory priority regimes, while others do not. The author undertakes a comparative assessment of the four models, highlights their strengths and weaknesses, and asserts that Model 2—representative …

Disrupting Business As Usual: Considering Teaching Methods In Business Law Classrooms, Jeffery Hewitt, Shanthi E. Senthe

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)’s Calls to Action propose signimcant changes to legal education. No law school classroom is exempt, including business law courses. We are two of a growing number ofscholars in the legal academy actively incorporating Indigenous laws, critical race theory and socio-economic perspectives into business law courses as part of our responses to the TRC. This paper explores a field school we developed at Windsor Law as a response to the Calls to Action. In a temporary fusion of two courses, Secured Transactions along with Indigenous Peoples, Art & Human Rights, a synergy emerges …

Manufacturing Consent To Climate Inaction: A Case Study Of The Globe And Mail ’S Pipeline Coverage, Jason Maclean

Dalhousie Law Journal

Canada has long been a climate change policy laggard. Canada is among the world’s poorest-performing countries in terms of climate action—not only is Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions-reduction target under the Paris Agreement insufficiently ambitious, Canada is not even remotely on track to meet it. Canada’s enduring inaction on climate change is legitimized and sustained by its mainstream corporate news media, which contribute to the oil and gas industry’s capture of Canadian climate and energy policy. In this article, I examine how Canada’s leading national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, editorially framed the completion of the controversial expansion of the Trans …

Third-Party Liability Of Directors And Officers: Reconciling Corporate Personality And Personal Responsibility In Tort, Michael Marin

Dalhousie Law Journal

When is a director or of�� cer personally liable in tort to a party who is not the corporation he or she serves? In Canada, there is no clear answer. The law is marked by division both within and between appellate courts, resulting in judgments that are hard to reconcile and verge on arbitrary. This is likely attributable to the mistaken belief that there is a tension between personal liability and corporate personality, as well as the disputed relationship between common law and statutory obligations. To address these challenges, most Canadian courts have followed a threshold corporate law analysis, which …