Digital Commons Network^™

Let Me Be Myself, Brandon Stettenbenz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Let Me Be Myself is a collection of short stories, essays, oral history, and poems that deals with generational trauma, history, traveling, family, war, oppression, and healing. This project serves to inform, evoke understanding, lend perspective, and inspire others. It aims to help others understand the trauma of being born from a Holocaust surviving family, and its impact on somebody in modern day society. It explores the story of a first, second, and third generation Holocaust refugee. It connects a timeline of eighty years of trauma through violence and oppression, and a pursuit to find healing from Nazi Germany.

Integrating Mindfulness Into School Classrooms, Crystal Chesshire

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This senior capstone research project examines how mindfulness could be integrated into the school classrooms through the use of literature review, interviews with elementary school teachers in the Monterey Bay area and surveys with several students along with one subject participant at the California State University Monterey Bay. As a result, the findings reveal that most students and teachers thought that mindfulness proved to be successful and useful when integrating it with the younger population to deal with their emotions.

Preparing Youth With Job Readiness Skills, Jennifer Islas

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Rancho Cielo Youth Campus is a vocational training school where youth ages 16-24 can still acquire their High School Diploma and gain work experience. The main social issue within this organization is system impacted youth. System impacted youth is defined as a “juvenile” which is a youth who has not attained his/her eighteenth birthday and violated the law committing a crime which could have been done by an adult. Contributing factors to this social issue include truancy, peer pressure from fellow classmates, and impulsive behavior. Consequences include incarceration of the youth, a criminal record affecting the youth’s stability, and inability …

Increasing Parents' Knowledge Of A Healthy Lifestyle For Children With Down Syndrome, Celeste Villagrana

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Maintaining a healthy diet is a struggle for the general US population, and it is a particular problem for the special needs population. Children with Down Syndrome have higher rates of obesity than the general population. One reason for this is that their metabolic rate tends to be slower than that of the general population (Magge et al., 2008). Also, they have a genetic predisposition for leptin resistance. Therefore, it is important that these children eat healthy meals and be physically active on a daily basis. For my capstone project, I presented a workshop to parents of children with Down …

"Just Kidding" What Bullies Say, Christina Marie Gumbin

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on how present and past staff members of MM Middle School have addressed bullying in their classrooms and what they think could be done to prevent further bullying. This is an important issue for teachers of any grade because bullying affects children at any age. An argument is made that during middle school, bullies tend to say that they are just kidding without knowing why they are bullying. Consideration of the issue, required obtaining the perspectives of the principal and both current and former teachers. Three themes emerged from an analysis of the …

Aggregation Services And Songwriter Independence, Saxon John Paul Ahern

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Digital download aggregation services are the modern songwriter’s greatest ally and independent record labels’ newest competition. Digital download aggregators like CDBaby, Distrokid, Tunecore, and Awal have made releasing an album for online distribution far easier than before. Many aggregators are affordable and also provide many services to the songwriter that historically involved employing additional middlemen.

Like distribution, the mastering stage of production has evolved. Mastering music can now be done through online services independently and on a very tight budget. Automated mastering services like LANDR and iZotope will be briefly discussed in section three, as well as additional options for …

No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Rosa I. Castillo-Rocha

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 …

Go, Go, Go, How About Hello?: Building Teacher-Student Relationships Within Departmentalized Elementary Schools, Jael Ramirez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on building teacher-student relationships within departmentalized elementary schools. Departmentalization, beginning at the fourth and fifth grade levels, is an issue because it gives teachers drastically less face to face time with their students than a traditional self-contained schedule. According to the scholarly literature, young students need strong, positive relationships with their teachers to do well academically. Departmentalization reduces the time to form these relationships. An argument is made that if teachers and schools meet certain criteria, these relationships can still be established, even with less time than what self-contained schedules provide. Upon interviewing …

Escapando Las Trampas: Teacher Preparation For Mexicanas, Monica Medrano

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 …

Eye To Eye: Increasing Parent Involvement Through Collaboration And Adaptation, Liliana Orozco-Lemus, Kara Gearring

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 …

No Habla Espanol: Are Monolingual Teachers Getting The Support They Need?, Cristina Benavides

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 Silent Struggle: Mexicana Mothers Balancing Education And Being A Madre, Yisel Chavarin

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone project analyzing how Mexicana students balance obtaining an education and being a madre. Mexicanas madres face a clash of the two competing “cultures” of school and home. Being a Mexicana student often means one must observe a set of “cultural” academic expectations; namely, school comes first, and the importance of deadlines and grades. Being a Mexicana madre often means one must observe a competing set of cultural expectations. These include familia first, attend to the children, and cook and clean. The evidence based argument suggests that Mexicana student madres must learn to “navigate” these two …

Challenges Faced By Female Mexican Pre-Service Teachers In Balancing Their Career And Motherhood, Guadalupe Tapia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Female Mexican pre-service teachers make up the largest percentage of the overall number of student-parents that are currently enrolled in community college and university. In particular, the Mexican student-mothers face many challenges, ranging from finding and scheduling childcare, and unwelcoming school climate, to limited institutional support programs and services, as well as cultural expectations. This senior capstone research project examines the challenges faced by six female Mexican pre-service student-mothers while balancing their career and motherhood at a university on the central coast of California. The result findings indicate that their challenges include the lack of resources within the university, inflexible …

Promoting Awareness Of Postpartum Mood Disorders, Alexandra Beleche

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There is now increasing media attention to the potential struggles of mothers in the postpartum period, including postpartum mood disorders. Kleiman and Raskin (2013) report that about 1 in 7 postpartum women suffer from a major depressive disorder. Women who experience postpartum mood disorders often worry they will be judged, misunderstood, or labeled crazy. Therefore, it is crucial that women know about available resources and support for the postpartum period. For my capstone project, I present a workshop on postpartum mental health at the Monterey Birth and Wellness Center. The recipients were women who were pregnant or who recently had …

An Untold History: Intergenerational Trauma & The Armenian Genocide, Erik Anderson

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The plan for my project is to do a video documentary in which I interview trauma victims and survivors and discuss their instances and some of the practices that allowed them to overcome this difficult time. More specifically I am going to focus on the theme of inter-generational trauma and the effects that genocides and mass killings can have on people and their offspring. Being. That I am the great-grandson and 4th Generation descendant of an Armenian genocide survivor I hope to interview my grandmother and talk with her about the experiences of what it was like being the daughter …

Codings Of Blackness In Mexican Cinema: An Analysis Of La Negrada, Ebony Marie Bailey

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

In a country whose national identity revolves around the idea of mestizaje, Blackness has been omitted from official discourses surrounding mexicanidad. As a result, Afro populations in Mexico have been subjected to codings that render them invisible, otherized and inferior. This paper analyzes the codings of Blackness in Mexico as reflected in the space of art and cinema, specifically the film La Negrada, the first feature fiction film to introduce an all Afro-Mexican cast. On one hand, there is an attempt to reclaim and make visible Mexico's African roots. On the other, the film also walks the …

Full Issue, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

So What If She Can't Dance And Sing: A Testimony From The Afrohabanera, Dawn Duke

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

From the early 1990s, a new film gained momentum in which there were no actors, i.e. contracted, paid, and famous, rather ordinary people, residing at the fringes of society, who momentarily were on camera, guided by a director determined to film realistic images. Cidade de Deus (Brazil), Pixote: a lei do mais fraco (Brazil), La vendedora de rosas (Colombia), Rodrigo D (Colombia), and Ratas y ratones (Ecuador) are examples. There is little footage about Cubans during the Special Period (1989-1995). Further, until then no production had directly and realistically focused on Afro-Cuban women. Rolando Díaz's 1998 production, Si me comprendieras …

Marca Peru: Representations And Exclusions Of The Afro-Descendant Population From The Official Narrative Of The Peruvian Government, Ana Lucía Mosquera Rosado

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The article will examine the representations of Afro-Peruvians in the video "Peru Nebraska," a documentary produced as part of the launching of the advertising campaign of Marca Peru, a national branding project elaborated by the Peruvian government in 2010. By examining the participation of the Afro-descendant population in this audiovisual piece, the document will relate these representations to the discourses of diversity, race, and citizenship in Peru. The article will also explore the nature of the discourses of ethnic and racial diversity in Peru in the new construction of the national and will evaluate the construction of the social …

Cultural Heritage And Citizenship: Curating The First Afrolatino Film Festival In The U.S., Amilcar Maceo Priestley

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The Liberación Film Festival which launched in 2017 is the first large scale curation of a film festival in the US which centers the experiences of 150-200 million Afrolatinamericans and Afrolatinxs. In this paper, we discuss the sociological and political framework of the Festival's existence and share the Festival's film selection process which aims to reflect and connect cultural and artistic expression with important aspects of Afrolatinamerican and Afrolatinx historical and contemporary social movement building. The working principle behind the Festival's curation process, "culture as politics", is based on the idea that we can best utilize cultural heritage to contest …

Sister Ursula De Jesús' Equal Economy Of Salvation, Valérie Benoist

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The article examines the diary of Peruvian sister Ursula de Jesús, the first known spiritual journal produced by a black woman in colonial Spanish America. The account, written in first person and consisting of fifty-seven folios, mainly describes sister Ursula's visions and her life inside the Lima convent where she came to be highly revered as a mystic during the seventeenth century. The recognition that this black woman gained was particularly high considering that she lived at a time when most people in the Ibero-transatlantic world associated Afro descendants with the Devil. This fact along with the richness of sister …

Afro-Asian Connections In Latin America And The Caribbean Edited By Luisa Marcela Ossa And Debbie Lee-Distefano, Christina H. Lee

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Contributor Biographies, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Book Announcements, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Call For Alara Conference, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Similarities And Differences Between Two Vital Roles In Medicine: Physicians And Physician Assistants, Veronika Dubov

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Research has been done analyzing nurse practitioners (NP) versus physician assistants (PA) and medical doctors (MDs) versus doctor of osteopathic medicine (DOs), but there is a lack of research on PAs versus MD/DOs. This thesis aims to outline the similarities and differences between the physician profession and the physician assistant profession. Interviews were conducted with physicians and physician assistants from the Nebraska Medicine Emergency Department to get insight from professionals currently in the field and to gain multiple perspectives. Along with interviews, research was conducted utilizing scholarly articles and other online reliable resources. These findings are significant for any undergraduate …

Mandela Splash Pad Pre-Construction Plan, Levi Sandbulte

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

In the construction industry, it is the responsibility of the general contractor to take the architect’s ideas and turn it into a real building. Many times this requires ample communication and several drafts. This efficient execution of this process is vital to the completion of a successful project. In this project, I practice this communication process. The challenge presented by the owner is to build an affordable splash pad, and without impacting the construction schedule of the Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) that is being built on the same property at the same time. This proposal gives the owner a …

Economic And Strategic Analysis Of America's Wastewater, Jorden Hansen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Whether it be tap water from a home or bottled water from a grocery store, clean water is generally accessible in the United States. Unfortunately, this convenience deters people from learning about the complex processes that make this luxury possible.

Awareness of the natural water cycle is widespread, as the simplest version is taught in grade school. It illustrates the flow of water as it changes state (liquid, to solid, to gas) in the environment. Not so commonly known is the urban water cycle which manifests residential daily use with the revolution of water. The urban water cycle is a …

An Analysis Of The Economic Barriers To Oral Healthcare Access In Omaha, Nebraska, Elias Witte

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Existing research regarding the analysis of the distribution of oral healthcare practitioners has been conducted across large metropolitan areas within the United States in order to determine the magnitude of healthcare resource deficits. Such research has demonstrated significant deficits in access to oral healthcare predominantly in lower-income urban areas. Consequently, patients in these socioeconomically disadvantaged areas have less access to routine oral care, which impacts their overall health and well-being. While there is an abundance of studies examining this issue in other localities across the country, there is a lack of information regarding the distribution of oral healthcare practitioners in …

Socio-Dramatic Work Systems For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jorey Prange

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project assessed the integration of socio-dramatic work systems for two children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in an inclusive preschool classroom. It provides details about Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment tool and Structured Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related handicapped Children (TEACCH) Work Systems. My experience working with two children with ASD shows that creating and implementing dramatic play work systems helped these two students improve their dramatic play skill progression as rated with the Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment tool.