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The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Human Nature And The Integration Of Faith And Reason, Bradley Kime

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In his 1838 Divinity School address, Ralph Waldo Emerson said that "every man is an inlet into the deeps of Reason." Heavily influenced by Hindu Monism, Emerson believed human beings were one with the universal soul the immanent divinity of the natural universe. Because of humanity's divine nature, Emerson saw reason as an intuitive revelation springing from within every individual, while faith was simply a recognition of one's innate intuition. Faith and reason were two sides of the same coin. Emerson's Transcendentalism illustrates how conceptions of faith, reason, and their relationship often rest on underlying beliefs about human nature.

Reading Disasters: Science, Literary Devices, And The Culture Of Reassurance In Children's Nonfiction Literature On Natural Disasters, Emily Willis

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

September 21, 1938, dawned chilly but calm on the Northeast coast of the United States. Weather forecasts indicated the possibility for rain and high tides from a storm brewing somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, but nothing prepared Northeasterners for the nightmare that would be upon them that afternoon. By three o'clock p.m., the "Long Island Express," a category three hurricane, barreled across New York and other parts of the New England coast, causing nea rly $400 million in damages. "While forecasters attempted to stay one step ahead of the storm, they were caught off-guard," states Sean Potter in a vignette …

The Men Who Could Speak Japanese: The Navy Japanese Language School At Boulder, Colorado (1942-1946) And The Legacy Of World War Ii Japanese-Language Officers, Katherine White

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On their last day of class at the US Navy Japanese Language School (USNJLS or JLS), Captain Roger Pineau and his fellow classmates waited in a room on the second floor of the University of Colorado library. They had spent the last eleven months immersed in a rigorous study of the Japanese language, and today their teachers had promised a sample of what they would experience as Japanese-language officers in the Pacific War. The six students sat intently as their conversation sensei (teacher) entered the classroom, removed a Japanese newspaper from his briefcase, placed his pocket watch on the table, …

"Take Every Good": A Study Of The Hidden Trends In The Latter--Day Saint Indian Placement Program, Annie Penrod Walker

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The Latter-day Saint Indian Placement Program unofficially started in 1947 when a seventeen-year-old Navajo girl named Helen John was harvesting sugar beets with her family in Richfield, Utah. Helen had been attending school on the Navajo reservation in Arizona for years, but that summer her father told her that once they returned to the reservation she would have to stay home and work, allowing her younger siblings to have a turn at school. Upset and disappointed, Helen ran off in tears and was overheard by Amy Avery, the wife of the farmer Helen's family was working for. Helen revealed her …

An Enduring Force: The Photography Of Laura Gilpin Among The Twentieth-Century Navajo, Carlyle Schmollinger

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

While some artisits travel the world in search of inspiration, Laura

Gilpin found hers in the arid, desert landscape of the southwestern United States. Gilpin had an affinity for the Navajo. In 1968, eleven years before her death, she published the first edition of her seminal work, The Enduring Navajo. A feat in its own right, the collection of photographs and accompanying text was the product of many years spent among the peoples located in the Southwest region of the United States. In the epilogue to her book, Gilpin boldly proclaims her love of the Navajo when talking about the …

"The End Is Near": Pop Culture Adaptations Of Premillennial Themes, Kelsey Samuelsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

March 1997: Thirty-nine people poison themselves, committing suicide in order to board an alien space ship allegedly trailing the Hale-Bopp Comet. December 2009: A fa iled cure for cancer sparks a pandemic which immediately kills most of the population and leaves the rest ravaged and cannibalistic. January 2000: The turn of the century threatens to crash the world's computers, wreaking havoc on civilized society. These scenarios, a mixture of fabricated and factual, represent the variety of apocalyptic myths in American culture. The popularity of end-of-the-world themes has risen in recent years. Numerous depictions of such events in well-known books, films, …

"Damn The Tyrant's Cause!": Primary Source Analysis Of The Morris Family Letters From 1829 To 1846, Lark Plessinger

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

From 1829 to 1846, members of the Morris family wrote a series of letters to their brother Jonathan Morris, who remained in Chorley, England, regarding their experiences immigrating to America. This set of letters only includes the correspondence addressed to Jonathan, but it still provides valuable insights about this transitional, frontier period of American history as witnessed by the Morris family. By analyzing the different concerns voiced in these letters, the social, economic, and political world of those who immigrated to nineteenth-century Ohio comes to life.

Contradictions Among The People: Mao Zedong And The Aims Of The Hundred Flowers Policy, Cameron C. Nielsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

As the year 1956 dawned, the People's Republic of China (PRC) was at a crossroads. After a mere six years in power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had successfully consolidated its control of mainland China, stabilized and reformed the economy, won the hearts of the peasants through land redistribution, fought the United States to a standstill in Korea, and silenced dissent through re-education campaigns. However, questions began to arise over where to go from there. To the surprise of many, at this moment of the Party's uncertainty, Mao Zedong began to push for greater openness to critical voices. Known as …

Masonic Motifs In Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, Bradley Kime

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In Roald Dahl's classic story, Charlie Bucket is one of five lucky children allowed to tour Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory. The tour is designed to test the character and integrity of each child. Ultimately only Charlie proves his virtue and commitment to keeping the secrets of the factory, while the tour itself reveals the character flaws of the other four children. Charlie's reward is to learn all of Wonka's "most precious candy-making secrets" and to eventually preserve and operate the factory as the candy-maker's heir.

Reed Smoot And The League Of Nations: Duty To Church And Party, Brandon Hellewell

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Senator Reed Smoot (R-UT) lived his life with two great devotions, the Republican Party and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1919, he held high positions in both. At that time, and in his seventeenth year as a senator, Smoot served as a member of the Senate Finance Committee. He also served as an Apostle of the LDS Church. These two parts of Smoot's life created tensions at several junctures, including 1919 when the Republican Party and LDS Church took opposing sides in the battle over United States membership in the League of Nations. The Church supported …

Changes In German Holocaust Memorials, Stephanie Bergeson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Since World War II, Holocaust memorials have been built in many countries for a variety of reasons. Many memorials have been erected as places to remember and mourn the loss of those who were its victims. Some are built mainly to raise difficu lt but important moral and ethical questions in a world of increasing globalization and relativism. Others have been built to distance a country's association with the Holocaust and the Nazi government. Still others, as was the case with early Holocaust memorials in West Germany, were built in an attempt to forget or bury the past.

Preface, Joseph Seeley

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The Ancient Chineases Philosopher Confucius once said, "I was not born to wisdom: I loved the past, and sought it earnestly there." Though many students of history would agree with this Eastern sage about the benefits of seeking wisdom in the past, in an era where information is often conveyed in thirty minute episodes and 140-charactcr tweets, the meticulous study of the past preferred by both Confucius and BYU history majors may seem as dated as the figures and events they research.

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Gpr-108 Revolutionizing Reflective Learning In Higher Education: An Llm-Based Analytical Approach, Bharath Y Yadla, Mourya Teja Kunuku

C-Day Computing Showcase

This project introduces a novel LLM-based system to automate The analysis of student reflections, enhancing reflective learning in higher education. Leveraging advanced ML and NLP technologies, the system provides personalized, in-depth feedback by identifying learning outcomes and challenges. Employing the OpenAI API and LangChain framework, it offers a nuanced understanding of student learning trajectories. The methodology involves collecting data via the Minute Paper technique, enabling targeted instructional adjustments. Preliminary results indicate a significant improvement in analyzing and addressing students' educational needs.

Uc-35 Ksu Ccse Crm, Alex Curran, Dj Mitchell, Christian Miller

C-Day Computing Showcase

Our task was to select, implement and customize a CRM solution for the College of Computing and Software Engineering to more effectively manage communication with industry partners and manage projects such as capstones, and C-Day. Our team selected SuiteCRM as our recommendation and have implemented an instance on a virtual machine provided by UITS. We have customized branding including using a KSU logo provided by the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, as well as customizations based on the official KSU color pallete. The process we used to select our CRM recommendation involved gathering requirements from our sponsor and comparing …

Gc-8 Informal Learning Artificial Intelligence Large Language Model Fine-Tuning On The Select Topic Of Entrepreneurship, Kristen Gabby, Melina Castellon, Jyothi Sampathirao

C-Day Computing Showcase

This project explored the usage and development of open-source Large Language Model (LLM) Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a chat feature, specifically to fine-tune on the topic of entrepreneurship. This project sought to showcase the adaptability of open-source LLMs and highlight challenges and solutions faced in leveraging those LLMs. The primary goal was to show proof of concept that training a LLM on the selected subject can create a specialized AI chat for informal learning.

Uc-75 Mineticket Discord Ticket Management Bot, Dean Rice, Arturo Martinez, Grace Shell, Solomon Thao, Palmer Brown

C-Day Computing Showcase

We made use of the discord.py python library to manage the framework of the bot, since discord relies on a RESTful API for all of its bots. This layer of abstraction allowed us to focus on the important things, such as sanitizing inputs for SQL queries and building out a large, fully customizable feature set so future adjustments are made simple and easy as changing entries within a configuration file. Our goal was to make the bot as easy to update as possible, with the hope that, should requirements change in the future, the sponsor can quickly modify existing code …

Gc-67 Automatic Daily Financing Headlines Collection, Storage, Analysis And Presentation, Sahithi Atimamula, Jasminn O Evans, Julian Reyes, Victoria Castro, Krista G Settle

C-Day Computing Showcase

The "Automatic Daily Financing Headlines Collection, Storage, Analysis, and Presentation" project aims to streamline the process of gathering financial headlines from financial news sources, storing them systematically, performing analysis, and presenting the insights in a user-friendly format. This automation project is designed to provide timely and relevant financial information to users interested in staying informed about market trends, economic news, and financial events. By automating the entire workflow, users can stay informed, make data-driven decisions, and navigate the dynamic landscape of financial news with ease. The project embodies the fusion of automation, data analytics, and user-centric design to create a …

Uc-33 Big Munchin', Tabitha Reynolds, Steven M Amerson, David J Buck, Jacques P Gatipon, Aaliyah Mcelrath, Nick S Watson

C-Day Computing Showcase

Big Munchin' is a video game designed to help teach portioning skills and promote healthy eating habits. The overall metabolic health of individuals in America is comparatively low to other countries. Metabolic health is bolstered by several factors including exercise and a proper diet consisting of essential vitamins, proteins, and other important biomolecules.The increased cost of healthy nutrient-rich foods and a lack of proper nutritional education have hindered the overall metabolic health of modern Americans. Engaging individuals in learning more about nutritional health can be a difficult task made easier by an engaging experience that stays in the user’s minds. …

Uc-40 Asynchronous, Ryan A Whisenhunt, Peyton T Lee, Kenneth Wardlaw, Benjamin T Haaf, Carter L Good, Cory A Ridley

C-Day Computing Showcase

Cultural assimilation is the topic on the mind of the protagonist of our game, Asynchronous. Maxwell, a diplomat from a real-time world, must adapt in a foreign land where the people live turn-based lives. We explore this topic through the lens of traditional JRPG gameplay where the player must decide when to adapt to this new culture and when to act on their own accord. By representing this idea ludically, we hope to better convey the mindset and emotional state of being an outsider to the player.

Uc-73 Spacewalkers: Tilt 5, Charles D Mossor, Jacob Hundley, Ifran Ambahun, Joshua Whorton

C-Day Computing Showcase

Our project (and presentation as a whole) is to create an immersive and fun casual game experience using the Tilt 5 system. We made a tower defense game that uses the player’s input with the Tilt 5 in order to defend against enemies. By delivering a variety of enemies, levels, and towers in our game, we further enhanced the experience.

Gc-104 Edai – Ai Enabled Teaching Robot For Informal Learning, Jennifer Bower, Shane Williams, Justice Fuller

C-Day Computing Showcase

We began our project by researching various popular, open-source AI tools that are available today. After we chose to focus on ChatGPT as our AI tool, we decided on cybersecurity as our subject matter. Next, we researched traditional cybersecurity training methods used by companies to train their employees on cybersecurity issues. Our project focused on determining whether or not open-source AI tools such as ChatGPT could replace traditional cybersecurity training tools and methods for companies.

Gc-17 Crm For Ccse Department Of Ksu, Venkatesh Alla, Keerthi Nannapaneni, Vinay Kumar Rapolu

C-Day Computing Showcase

This project outlines the development of a bespoke Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system specifically designed for the College of Computer and Software Engineering (CCSE). The initiative aims to centralize customer information into a unified repository, thereby enhancing the confidentiality, management, and optimization of data and communication processes within the college. The CRM system will integrate features for detailed profiles, communication optimization, complex workflow management, document repository, and data migration to ensure efficiency and data integrity. It will also facilitate seamless interaction with Microsoft 365 and Outlook, supporting the college's operational needs and maintaining its commitment to excellence in education and …

Gc-22 Fabric Moderation Ticketing Mod For Minecraft, John Lambert, Kathy Nguyen, Hayden B Scarbrough, Dasiane Taplin

C-Day Computing Showcase

This project targets enhancing the KSU Esports program’s Minecraft server by implementing an in-game ticketing system. The system will enable players to report any instances of in-game incidents/issues seamlessly within the game environment. The integration with the KSU Minecraft Discord server will facilitate efficient communication between players and administrators. With a user-friendly interface and optimized resource usage, the system aims to streamline moderation processes.

Gc-84 Owl Cyber Defense Systems, Randolph S Gilstrap, Christopher Dunbar, Stephanie Aguirre, Ryan M Leblanc, Justin Place

C-Day Computing Showcase

Owl Cyber Defense Systems is a fictitious (for now?) start-up offering comprehensive cybersecurity solutions for small and medium businesses. Our premier flagship product is an AI Chatbot that answers security related questions and provides vetted code and security settings to secure and harden a variety of systems. Starting with the initial concept, we methodically progressed through the business planning process, carefully considering technology usage and design. This comprehensive approach ultimately enabled us to develop a robust set of client offerings. We used a hybrid approach combining Agile Scrum and traditional Waterfall methodologies to complete the project. We utilized Jira Project …

Gmr-107 An Integrated Architecture For Maintaining Security In Cloud Computing Using Blockchain, Namratha Tavva, Ashrith Kumar Devara, Gar H Lock

C-Day Computing Showcase

Cloud services are vulnerable to assaults because of their widespread availability. Since cloud computing is still a relatively new service, there is a real risk that sensitive information might be altered while in transit. Because of this, bad actors may gain an edge by manipulating data. Clients using the cloud for a wide range of use cases want to know that their data is reliable and secure. Blockchain, on the other hand, is an immutable digital ledger that may be used with cloud computing to provide an immutable cloudbased data storage and processing system. In this work, we present a …

Gmr-29 Identification Of Ai-Generated Images, Chris Foster, Joshua Brock, Harini Kottala, Srilatha Korrapati

C-Day Computing Showcase

With the quick rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI models have greatly increased the volume and velocity of data creation. Among that data, AI-generated images have become a highly discussed topic, especially when discussing the potential dangers of these AI models. Due to these dangers, being able to distinguish AI-generated art from human-made art is becoming a necessity. Additionally, as these AI-models improve, it is becoming increasingly difficult for humans to determine whether art is AI-generated or human-made. This paper proposes the further exploration of the effectiveness of a current state of the art AI-image identification model.

Gmr-59 Customer Segmentation For Marketing Campaigns Using K-Means Clustering, Jaswanthi Vellanki, Hrithik Singh Chandel, Vyghni Sudha Kommineni, Priyanka A Bagal, Rutvikkumar K Ramani

C-Day Computing Showcase

The objective of this project is to use K-means clustering an unsupervised machine learning algorithm to categorize customers based on characteristics such as demograp hics, purchasing history and interaction behavior. The purpose is to discover different client segments that can be targeted with specialized marketing techniques that improve marketing campaign efficiency and increase consumer satisfaction and engagement.

Gmr-72 Ai-Based Discourse Analysis System (Adas) For Improved Stem Education, Varun Gottam

C-Day Computing Showcase

In the rapidly evolving fields of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, significant opportunities have emerged to transform educational practices. Discourse analysis, particularly in science education, plays a critical role in fostering scientific thinking among students. However, the manual application of tools like the Classroom Discourse Analysis Tool is resource-intensive and impractical on a large scale. This abstract proposes the development of an AI-based Discourse Analysis System tailored for educational settings, designed to automate and enrich the analysis of classroom discourse. Leveraging the latest in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing, this web-based application will provide teachers nationwide with the …