Business Commons^™

External Adverse Neighborhood Factors Influence On Students' Grades 3-6 Schooling Success, Chloe Marie Janssen

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

As education evolves with the growth of technology, it is crucial to study the impacts of external challenges on student outcomes within the classroom. The goal of the present cross-sectional study is to investigate the relationship between a student’s environmental factors and student-peer relationships, academic performance, and engagement, specifically within urban, low-income schools that exist in underserved areas of the community. The following research question is posed: How do external adversities in one’s neighborhood impact a student’s relationship to their peers and success in school? To learn more about this question, we conducted research in partnership with Butler University, the …

Overcoming The Achievement Gap: Arkansas' Utilization Of Weighted Student Funding To Support Students Of Poverty, Michael G. Mcfetridge

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

With over 63% of its students living in poverty, the state of Arkansas has a challenge when it comes to equitable funding and opportunities for its students. One funding mechanism that has been in place in Arkansas for over 20 years now is a categorical funding allocation known as Enhanced Student Achievement Funds (ESA). School districts receive these funds based on their percentage of students in poverty. While this weighted student funding model of allocating more funds to identified characteristics has been in place in Arkansas for over two decades, little research exists to gauge whether these allocation mechanisms successfully …

Financial Literacy In College Today: Is It Needed?, Jasper Tatsuya Lem

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Californians are facing several financial crises, headlined by 4.5 million Californians falling below the poverty line, a 4.2% unemployment rate, and the fall of Silicon Valley Bank in early March 2023. In the face of these perilous circumstances, it is worth asking if California’s education system could be improved to accommodate more financial literacy classes. Currently, the Golden State does not mandate a financial literacy course in any level of education, kindergarten through senior year of college. Previous research indicates that financial literacy courses would be more effective if mandated in college courses rather than high school. However, there has …

Coaching And Mentoring Programs Ensuring Equal Opportunity To Higher Education For Laotian Students, Vilaya Sirivong

Honors Capstones

Laos is a developing country where quality education is in short supply. For the past years, teenagers and young adults have been applying for various scholarships to pursue their education somewhere else. According to Scholarshipads.com (2022), Lao students are generally eligible for more than 1000 different international scholarships every year, this does not include the number of awardees each scholarship offers. The education ranges from high school, course, associate, undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate degrees. Most of these scholarships and financial aid are partial to full-expense funding.

Even though students apply and desire to be selected, they do not meet the …

The Epidemic Of Opioid Usage In West Virginia, Kendra Lester, Carrington Hatfield

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The opioid epidemic in West Virginia is a complex interplay of factors, including poverty, low education, and high unemployment rates, which contribute to higher rates of substance use and opioid-related deaths. The number of people injecting drugs has risen from 36% in 2005 to 54% in 2015. WV recorded 871 overdose deaths from all drugs in 2019 with 76.8% involving at least one opioid. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate and analyze the circumstances that contributed to West Virginia's opioid epidemic to determine if sociocultural factors, such as lifestyle, education, and demographics, influenced the epidemic as …

Helping Small Businesses In Belize, Laura Hollingsworth

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper will discuss my summer internship project with Peacework in Belize. The study abroad Special Projects in Belize with Peacework was supposed to be the summer of 2019. The trip was going to be two months long and while there we were going to get paired with a community leader or a local development organization to work on a community project in Dangriga, Belize. Because of COVID-19, the trip was cancelled for the summer of 2019 and then for the summer of 2020 it was moved to virtual. The Belize team was still paired with people from the community …

Can Small-Scale Poultry Initiatives Alleviate Food Insecurity And Increase Empowerment For Women In Economically Disadvantaged Areas?, Patrick Daniels

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

In the summer of 2019, I, along with 8 other students from the University of Arkansas departed the United States for the Central American country of Belize. Despite our limited knowledge of what Belize held in store for us, we were enthusiastic about the coming months. While we had different projects, we all set out with the same universal question in mind. How can we use the knowledge we have gained through education to make a positive impact on the lives of people living in an impoverished town? Some of the members of our team worked alongside local businesses to …

Understanding The Role Of Art Programming In Mitigating Social Exclusion As Experienced By People Experiencing Poverty, Emmalee Harper

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Inspired by her own work in the art programs in Denver’s own The Gathering Place, the author explores the role that art programs play in the lives of people experiencing poverty. This interdisciplinary thesis challenges our traditional notions of poverty-alleviation services that would construe art programming as a misappropriation of limited resources. The author explores social isolation and social exclusion in the lives of people experiencing poverty through the broad framework of intersectionality. Art programming is offered as one potential way we could navigate intersectional concerns of exclusion, and this programming is explored through the framework of Relational-Cultural Theory. Art …

Tourism And The Developing World: A Comparative Analysis On Socio-Economic Development Between The Dominican Republic And Haiti, Megan Elise Reissig

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

The tourism industry has been growing exponentially throughout the world, both in developed and underdeveloped countries. The industry is normally considered means of economic growth for a destination, however there is much controversy as to whether the social effects are positive or negative. The purpose of this study was to compare strategies of socio-economic development through tourism in select developing countries. In the cases of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, tourism has contributed greatly to economic development, and both countries should continue focussing efforts on tourism for means of economic development. However, they should focus on educating their citizens so …

Calidad De Vida Y Mejoramiento Integral De Los Barrios Ciudad De Bogotá (2012 – 2018), Juan David Florián Moreno, Wendy Daiana Fandiño Patiño

Economía

Este proyecto de investigación se realizó con el fin de analizar el mejoramiento integral de los barrios en Bogotá y su influencia en la calidad de vida de los hogares, que redunda en la disminución de la pobreza urbana de la ciudad, a partir de las diferentes políticas y planes de desarrollo de los últimos dos gobiernos de la ciudad. De esta manera, se toman en cuenta las políticas y los esfuerzos realizados con el fin de lograr una mejor calidad de vida para los habitantes de la capital relacionados con el cumplimiento de los requisitos mínimos en términos de …

Objetivos De Desarrollo Del Milenio: Éxito Y Desarrollo En El Departamento De Santander, 2000-2015, Juan Sebastián Hoyos García, Brayan Eduardo Mogollón Moncada

Negocios y Relaciones Internacionales

Los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio (ODM) son ocho específicos que los Estados Miembros de las Naciones Unidas se comprometieron a cumplir para el año 2015. El presente trabajo de investigación analiza de qué manera con los ODM, el departamento de Santander pudo posicionarse como un caso de éxito a nivel nacional en términos de ejecución y alcance en un período de tiempo entre el 2000-2015. Para ello se aplicó una metodología mixta que incluye el análisis de estadísticas oficiales y el análisis documental. Evidenciando los factores que le permitieron a este departamento posicionarse como sobresaliente en el cumplimiento de …

The Effects Of Food Security On Socioeconomic Mobility In The United States: A Case Study In Allendale County, South Carolina, Taylor St Clarke

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between food security – defined as accessibility to an affordable, nutritious, and sustainable source of food – and socioeconomic mobility in the continental United States. This thesis is primarily focused on the effects of food insecurity on both individuals and communities, examining the chronic long-term effects of such insecurity on areas known as “food deserts,” which are often given status as areas of persistent poverty. This research further examines the effects of a sustained poor diet, brought about by food insecurity, on the individual and overarching community in a food desert and how such a …

Financial Literacy In Appalachian Kentucky With A National Comparison, Tanya Noah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Financial literacy is a national problem; many studies confirmed that Americans have low levels of financial literacy. There is little to no research about financial literacy in Appalachia, and the level of financial literacy was unknown for Appalachian Kentucky. There is a problem deserving attention which can be seen by examination of the 3 key financial indicators. Many researchers found the Appalachian Kentucky region deficient regarding poverty rates, unemployment rates, and personal income rates. The purpose of this study was to develop a baseline level of financial literacy of Appalachian Kentuckians and to compare it to national levels. Becker's theory …

Does Globalization Improve Quality Of Life?, Laura E. Hirt

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Risks Management Application In Helping The Poor Through Microfinancing, Edmond Njombe Lyonga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Poverty alleviation in Buea, Cameroon, has been a problem of concern for decades. The study is vital because managers who control the funds given to the government of Cameroon to help reduce poverty are politicians and do not equitably distribute the funds to all on the pretext that the default rate is high. The purpose of this study was to find better ways to make additional capital available to the microbusiness owners of Buea to open or improve businesses. This qualitative case study design was consistent with the aim of understanding the importance of risk management within the microfinance industry …

Examining Poverty, Entrepreneurship, And Multinational Corporation Participation In South Africa, Stephanie Furlough-Morris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Economic development is seen as the best means of accomplishing the goal of eradicating extreme poverty, and at the heart of this development are for-profit companies, especially multinational corporations. The specific problem examined in this study was whether levels of poverty in South Africa had been significantly impacted by the activities of multinational corporations and the level of entrepreneurship in its 9 provinces. To build upon empirical research on the sources of poverty alleviation and the impact of large global enterprises, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of entrepreneurship and multinational corporation presence on the change …

Path To Higher Education, Rebecca L. Francis

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study focuses on the career aspirations of middle and high school students living in an impoverished area of Cape Town, South Africa. It was discovered that students in this area tended to have high expectations of themselves pertaining to success after graduating high school, as well as their classmates. They believed they would be accepted into prestigious universities and achieve their career goals, despite being unaware of several key pieces of information, such as how to apply to university and how to get financial aid. The ultimate conclusion of the study was that these students required more extensive career …

Individualized Consideration: Poverty Countermeasure, Lawrence Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite more than $1 trillion spent annually on poverty remediation, impoverishment in the United States persists unabated. With a U.S. poverty rate greater than 10% for more than 4 decades, economics are neither poverty's cause nor cure. As such, non-economic poverty remedies require exploration and expansion. Linking greater leadership and poverty theories, this non-experimental, cross sectional, quantitative, survey-based research effort correlated individualized consideration's (IC) practice with collegiate athlete graduation rates in order to identify and isolate possible leadership based social poverty remediation measures. Leveraging a two-stage random sample, this research effort correlated student athlete Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (form 5X) responses …

State Level Earned Income Tax Credit’S Effects On Race And Age: An Effective Poverty Reduction Policy, Anthony J. Barone

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, I analyze the effectiveness of state level Earned Income Tax Credit programs on improving of poverty levels. I conducted this analysis for the years 1991 through 2011 using a panel data model with fixed effects. The main independent variables of interest were the state and federal EITC rates, minimum wage, gross state product, population, and unemployment all by state. I determined increases to the state EITC rates provided only a slight decrease to both the overall white below-poverty population and the corresponding white childhood population under 18, while both the overall and the under-18 black population for …

Sustainability Of Mfis Through Governance Mechanisms: A Cross-Country Analysis Of Regulation On Outreach And Operational Self Sufficiency, Daniel Muwamba

Honors Thesis Program in the College of Management

Poverty is an age long problem that has been part of mankind ever since civilization and the fight against poverty is as old. There are many efforts to fight poverty of which microfinance is one. One theory to explain prevalence of poverty especially in the age of capitalism is that poor enterprising people cannot lift themselves out of poverty because they lack capital to develop their enterprises. Start up businesses and enterprises commonly start operations with credit support from financial institutions but there are prerequisites to attaining this credit and numerous poor individuals do not possess these prerequisites. Such individuals …

A Sustainable Business Proposition For Selling Irrigation Pumps In Ndola, Zambia, Robert Hosbach

Biomedical Engineering

Robert Hosbach is proposing a sustainable business plan to bring a small‐scale irrigation pump to rural Ndola, Zambia. With hundreds of thousands of citizens living in poverty and semi‐annual starvation, Ndola is in need of a means to grow crops effectively in the rainy season. Their current agricultural practices rely solely on the inconsistent rainfall during this time. My pump will be constructed from locally‐available aluminum cans, epoxy, glue, and fasteners (refer to Appendix B for technical drawings of the pump). The business will employ only a small number of Zambians, but will bring a means of food and income …

Striving For Sustainability: The Place Of Values And Beliefs In Delivering Sustainable Aid, Alan Pieratt

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

In spite of decades of western developmental aid and billions of dollars in resource transfers, the number of poor in the world remains at astonishingly high levels. This paper argues that in many cases poverty remains stubbornly rooted because of the moral values and spiritual beliefs of the poor. A review of developmental literature confirms that Western aid systematically ignores these causes of poverty and is often fragmentary and elitist in its delivery. The result is developmental activity that is ineffective. This paper argues that aid is more likely to be sustainable if local values and beliefs are taken into …