Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Adapting To American Life: A Look At The United States’ Refugee Population, Bethany Schlosser

Honors Projects

This study examines refugees' process of adaptation to life in the United States. It focuses primarily on English learning, self-sustaining employment, and mental/emotional health. It then goes on to identify some ways in which Americans can ease refugees' process of adaptation. It is largely based on eight interviews conducted by the researcher, as well as significant secondary research.

The Corporate Occupation Of The Final Frontier; Emerging Market Analysis Of Spacex And The Privatized Race To Space., Nicholas Herbert

Honors Projects

This project is important to allow a full understanding of the current environment of the emerging market of space transport and travel. As we continue to move into a more technologically advanced society, we will no doubt have more contact with companies looking to profit from the race to deliver the promise of satellite space to companies all over the world in a more cost effective and powerful manner. To this end, Google and Facebook have already begun cooperation with private companies to propagate the space around our planet, and in addition, the investment and return basis of this work …

Synthesizing The Small Town: Why Conservatism?, Jeffrey W. Lueders

Honors Projects

The small town has often been a romanticized topic for the public at large. Often it is discussed in terms of quaintness and nostalgia for an older time; meanwhile, the effects of the small town in the here-and-now are glossed over and not given sufficient attention to fill in the finer details (Bellah et al. 1985). Prominent sociologists cite the small town and rural society as a source of conservative ideology (Wuthnow, 2014; Smith & Krannich 2000), however, they fail to show how conservative ideology is supposedly created in the small town. Instead, sociologists and the public at large blindly …

One Peninsula, Many Spains: An Inquiry On Memory, Historiography, And The Legacy Of The Spanish Civil War From 1930 To The Present, Adrian Rios

Honors Projects

In this essay, I analyze the events of the Spanish Civil War and their ramifications through the lens of cultural memory and historiography. I argue that ideas of memory are crucial to how societies and individuals understand history and that the Spanish Civil War had a tremendous impact on the Spanish people and significantly affected the memory not only of witnesses of the conflict, but to their descendants. This essay utilizes primary and secondary sources to understand the function of memory and varied responses to the Spanish Civil War. The essay begins with a brief historical overview of the conflict …

The Impact Of The Seidman College Of Business Outreach Centers On The Grand Rapids Business Community, Benjamin M. Thoenes

Honors Projects

The purpose of this research was to explore the advisory role of selected Outreach Centers of the Seidman College of Business as led by their executive directors, and to examine the effects of their relationships with the Grand Rapids business community. For the basis of comparison the interviews included the director of one organization outside the Seidman College of Business. A qualitative approach in the form of a researcher-designed interview was used for the purpose of collecting data (Creswell, 2005). The interviews, conducted at each of the Outreach Center Offices, were designed to elicit important information regarding the Centers and …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 4 Spring 2018, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

The Mass Mobility Of America: A Multimodal Guide, Christian Carroll

Honors Projects

America has a problem-and its root is mobility. With the world everchanging at the hands of technology and social media, other forms of once well-revered technology, such as the combustible engine and coal-powered locomotives, are now at a crossroads. The automobile still dominates the transportation landscape-this is seen through city layouts that have promoted sedentary lifestyles, an increase in infrastructure costs, and a rise in carbon dioxide emissions. All three of these issues are part of a bigger problem in modern society- a lack of affordable and reliable healthcare, a crumbling American transportation infrastructure, and a world facing issues of …

Student Perceptions Of Vocabualry Gain During Study Abroad, Yuan Sui

Masters Theses

It is well acknowledged that study abroad is an ideal context to achieve high language proficiency. Previous studies show a relatively complex picture of the relationship of social interactions and language gains. On the one hand, students who study abroad experience language gains such as oral proficiency but on the other hand, researchers argue that study abroad does not guarantee language gains. Vocabulary as foundational knowledge of language learning has not received much attention in the context of study abroad, especially vocabulary learning strategies. The present study investigates the change of students’ perceived vocabulary gain via routine social activities with …

Linguistic Features Of Medical English For Curricular And Instructional Purposes, Yi Shi

Masters Theses

In China, medical English as a specific target language use domain has been of high need to Chinese doctors and college medical students. It is mainly used for publishing research articles in international medical journals and presenting at international medical conferences. For this reason, the study of linguistic characteristics of medical English will benefit Chinese doctors and medical students in their efforts to learn English in the field of medicine. Nevertheless, “medical English” is recognized as a concentration of study as part of the English major at some universities in China while in other colleges, medical students just learn generic …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Use Of Counseling Services And Emotional Resiliency Development, Chelse M. Hawkins

Masters Theses

Mental health services remain underutilized and stigmatized within the culture of higher education despite the important role that they play in the development of one’s emotional resiliency competence (ERC). Data suggest that mental health disorders account for nearly 50% of the total burden of disease for young adults in the United States. Students who struggle with mental health concerns in college tend to have lower grade point averages and are at greater risk for dropout than those students who do not struggle with these concerns. Counseling services are able to alleviate the symptoms of mental health concerns through the development …

The Breast Kind Of Tattoos: A Study Of Tattoos On Mastectomy Scars, Kaitlin Sarah Reed

Masters Theses

Mastectomy surgeries often leave surgical scarring in the place of the effected breast tissue. The purpose of this study is to investigate cisgender women who underwent a single or double mastectomy in the United States to learn how they came to their decision to cover their mastectomy scars with tattoos. Additionally, the research seeks to uncover the impact of mastectomy tattoos on mental and emotional well-being. The research used a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of the participants. Fourteen participants were contacted through breast cancer groups on social media and participated in semi-structured interviews via webcam. The …

Editorial, Teri Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Aligning Evaluation And Strategy With The Mission Of A Community-Focused Foundation, Claudio Balestri

The Foundation Review

Foundations are commonly recognized as having a comparative advantage in supporting forward-looking projects and programs. In this sense, the long term represents the natural horizon in which the foundations are called to fulfill their mission to plan and develop philanthropic activities and, therefore, the time reference for assessing results.

When a mission is focused more on improving the quality of life in a specific community than on addressing a specific social problem, evaluation of outcomes becomes more challenging. While available methods can provide valuable support to measuring the impact of a foundation’s specific program, they are unlikely to provide an …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

In A Good Way: Advancing Funder Collaborations To Promote Health In Indian Country, Linda M. Bosma, Jaime Martínez, Nicole Toves Villaluz, Christine A. Tholkes, Laraye Anderson, Sarah Brokenleg, Christine M. Matter

The Foundation Review

Funders continue to be challenged by how to best promote work in American Indian communities that builds health equity, addresses community context, and reduces the disproportionate impact of commercial tobacco.

In particular, public health programs that address substance abuse and tobacco control promote the use of evidence-based practices that tend to emphasize a one-size-fits-all approach and that are rarely researched among American Indian populations. These practices, therefore, lack cultural validity in those communities.

This article examines how three organizations collaborated on work to control commercial tobacco use in Minnesota’s Indian Country, and shares lessons learned on how they came to …

Crisis Philanthropy: Two Responses To The Pulse Tragedy In Orlando, Cindy T. Rizzo

The Foundation Review

This article examines two philanthropic responses to the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016, a tragedy that particularly impacted the region’s growing Latinx LGBT community.

The Central Florida Foundation’s Better Together Fund and the Our Fund Foundation’s Contigo Fund, while organized and operating in different ways, looked to best practices in crisis philanthropy and, in the wake of the massacre, provided the region with resources to address both short- and longer-term needs.

Better Together practiced strategic philanthropy focused on addressing systemic issues. Contigo lifted up new and diverse leadership from the grassroots. Each …

Family Foundation Development In China: Two Case Studies, Shuang Lu, Chien-Chung Huang

The Foundation Review

Amid the accumulation of private wealth in China, family foundations have begun to emerge in recent decades. Little research, however, has explored this nascent phenomenon. This article examines the development of two Chinese family foundations — the Lao Niu Foundation and the Lu Jiaxiang Foundation — using document analyses and semi-structured interviews with foundation leaders.

While detailed data on program effectiveness and efficiency is lacking because of underdeveloped methods of evaluation, it is evident that both foundations have generated positive impacts on social development despite an overall lack of support for the foundation sector from Chinese government policy.

The case …

Pci: A Reflective Evaluation Framework For Systems Change, Beverly A. Parsons, Huilan Krenn

The Foundation Review

Systemic change involves deep shifts in social norms, beliefs, power, and privilege — and seldom, if ever, follows a straightforward, predictable path. Such change also requires incremental, long-term action and evaluation. To better support systemic change, how might a foundation reframe its approach to evaluation?

This article explores the interconnected dimensions of the PCI Reflective Evaluation Framework, an approach now in prototype form which is grounded in practical thinking about working within complex social systems. This article focuses on its use in advancing racial equity, describing possible applications to integrate a racial equity lens in unpacking and addressing the complexity …

Becoming Strategic: Finding Leverage Over The Social And Economic Determinants Of Health, Douglas Easterling, Laura Mcduffee

The Foundation Review

While a number of observers have offered advice to foundations on how to be more effective with the implementation, evaluation, and adaptation of their strategies, there is little guidance on how foundations should go about designing their strategies.

This study fills that gap by analyzing the strategic thinking of health conversion foundations when they determined how they would address various social determinants of health. Based on interviews conducted with the leaders of 33 foundations across the U.S., we identified four strategic pathways: expanding and improving relevant services, creating more effective systems, changing policy, and encouraging more equitable power structures.

In …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Foundation Transparency: Opacity — It’S Complicated, Robert J. Reid

The Foundation Review

The perception that private foundations lack accountability has led to calls for greater transparency. The literature, however, suggests that transparency is neither a panacea nor achieved without cost, and that its positive influence on the conduct of philanthropy may be less than straightforward.

This article seeks to examine transparent and opaque practice in private philanthropy, studying the literature as well as findings from interviews with foundation staff, trustees, and grantees that sought answers to two relevant questions: Does opacity exist in private philanthropy? Have foundations and grantees developed strategies for overcoming challenges related to opacity?

U.S. tax law affords private …

Review -- Design Thinking For The Greater Good: Innovation In The Social Sector, Brenda Sipe

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Lanthorn, Vol. 52, No. 53, March 29, 2018, Grand Valley State University

Volume 52, July 10, 2017 - April 23, 2018

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 52, No. 52, March 26, 2018, Grand Valley State University

Volume 52, July 10, 2017 - April 23, 2018

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 042, Number 15, March 26, 2018, Grand Valley State University

2017-2018, Volume 42

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 52, No. 51, March 22, 2018, Grand Valley State University

Volume 52, July 10, 2017 - April 23, 2018

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 52, No. 50, March 19, 2018, Grand Valley State University

Volume 52, July 10, 2017 - April 23, 2018

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 52, No. 49, March 15, 2018, Grand Valley State University

Volume 52, July 10, 2017 - April 23, 2018

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.