Student Honors Theses
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Item Our Alphabet Book: Promoting Personal Relationships Between Children with Disabilities and their Nondisabled Peers(1990-04-18) DeAngelo, Maria A.; Sutton, Cynthia; Morgan, Theodore; Howard, Benjamin'Our Alphabet Book' was created because negative attitudes do not allow interaction between children with disabilities and their peers to occur naturally, and so it must be planned. This book provides one opportunity for natural interaction between students to occur in the classroom.Item Technological Advances of Imaging As Applied to Library Archives(1995-05-08) Youells, Bernadette D.; Meehan, Laurie Lounsberry; Olshan, Toni; O'Connor, RimaIn this report I discuss the advantages of using digital imaging, its applications, and how much it costs. I also review the necessary hardware and software needed to implement a digital imaging program. The advantages of using digital imaging as a means of storage and retrieval are conservation, preservation, and the increased accessibility of rare and disintegrating items.Item The History of the Student Senate of Alfred University and its correlation with national issues(2000-05) Pellicciotti, MichaelThe Student Senate has been the student government of Alfred University since 1906. This thesis shows, through a historical record of Student Senate, how national issues correlate with Senate's structure and its issues. The Senate has changed much over the last century, but so has society. Different eras of the past Century have affected the Student Senate and the culture of the student body. It reviews the impact of the World Wars on Alfred and on Senate's leadership. The thesis also examines the Civil Rights movements on campus and the protests during the 1960s and 1970s. It specifically assesses administrative and faculty power through Senate's history and the impact this had in shaping Senate issues.Item Are the Pines There Now? An Historical Study of Pine Hill, Alfred University, Alfred, NY(2000-05) Sloane, Kristin E.Pine Hill is a tract of land that is used often by Alfred University students and faculty, but its history has not been well recorded. The forest has been mentioned fondly in diaries and memoirs of students and faculty, and the history of its development goes back to 1824. Records show that this acreage has changed in composition from dense forest, to farmland and grazing fields, to a reforested recreational area for the University. Past and present University leaders have shown their dedication to the environment and campus beautification through vast planting and reforesting projects on Pine Hill. Yet, the developmental history of this valued tract has not been reviewed in depth and an accurate map of the current Pine Hill has not been created. Due to the importance of this land to the University, an in-depth historical study of the management of Pine Hill would be an important tool to be used by current students and faculty. The new trail map and discoveries from this study will be presented.Item Locke, Hobbes and the State of Nature(2009-05) Williams, BrettThis paper looks at the political theories of Locke and Hobbes and compares them. It then tries to draw some conclusions from their theories and apply those conclusions to our current lives. Social contract theory is a theory which receives much criticism; however, the author believes that a closer look at the theory can provide much insight into the role which government should play in our lives.Item Effects of Trauma on Holocaust Survivor Mental Health(2011-05-02) Skwarek, Natalie; Gagne, Danielle; Furlong, Nancy; Reginio, RobertMy thesis discusses the effects of trauma on the mental health of Holocaust and World War II survivors.Item BFA Thesis Exhibition(2011-12) Keith, ToryExtract from the thesis: "It is not until we grow, and see the world we have built for ourselves crack from the pressure, that we begin to understand the extent to which our views have shaped what we allow ourselves to be. I grew up on a farm in a rural community in western New York; I grew up in a world of distances and vast open spaces, and I grew up small and meek in the midst of it. I grew up more, and as I entered the beginnings of adulthood, the world challenged my meekness and the idea of myself that I had preemptively built. The twentieth-century psychologist James Marcia called it 'foreclosure'; a premature commitment to an unquestioned identity. Developing an identity is a part of life. There are people who seem to stay the same forever; they are like solid rocks, unchanging, their dispositions unweathered by time. For most, however, the seemingly endless transition into adulthood is fraught with self-doubt, experimentation, questions, and wrong turns. As the larger world presses in on our smaller ones and shatters it, we are forced to question the what and the who of our existence. My work is an attempt to examine this harrowing process, to metaphorically express the anxieties inherent in the process of self-actualization. Recognizing ourselves as separate entities is a painful process, a kind of second birth that we must navigate ourselves through. This time, however, there are boundaries that we must be careful not to cross, cultural taboos that we must not transgress, expectations that we must attempt to fulfill or reject and accept the consequences. This time, there is a price for misstepping."Item Modern conflict resolution efforts: faith-based and sport-based approaches(2012-04) Dannick, SamanthaOf the multiple ways to approach conflict resolution, the sport-based and faith-based models discussed in this thesis are only two of the many options. That being said, they are two very dissimilar approaches. What can be learned from each other? More specifically, given their fairly specialized scopes, what can be extrapolated from these approaches and applied to a more generalized body of knowledge?Item How the plight of small farmers shapes their perceptions of abandoned land(2012-05) Kuntz, KaraFor my honor's thesis, I surveyed Allegany County farmers on their perceptions of abandoned land, with a goal of discovering how they felt personally affected by land abandonment and what personal factors (socio-political) may have influenced that perception.Item Online and mobile app startup ideation: testing demand with Google Adwords and guerrilla marketing campaigns(2012-05) Grove, ZacharyThe premise of the thesis was to develop and articulate several ideas for online or mobile app businesses, with varying degrees of niche customers. I wanted to fit the potential businesses along a continuum of market size -- that is, on one end, conceive a business catering to a narrowly defined niche, with a more ambitious online or mobile app business on the other end of the spectrum tailored to a broader segment of customers.Item Out of context: a visual artist's relationship with books(2012-05) Ventura, AnnmarieI began the process of collecting books with the hope that by transforming them into visual art I would better understand why I loved them so much. The way they smell, the colors, small black letters on white pages helping me understand the world better: I still do not know precisely what it is about them that is so lovely. But I am beginning to understand why they are important to me. My emotional connection to books inspired me to use them as material for the exhibition Out of Context. By choosing to create a body of work for a senior thesis exhibition, I was faced with the challenge of finding my voice as an artist. I am buoyed by my past.Item A legacy of travelers: an Alfred University student travels to Italy(2012-05) Pellicciotti, AnneMy thesis is a creative nonfiction piece in the subgenre of travel writing. In this small collection of essays, I have written about my experiences of traveling abroad in Florence, Italy. I am working from true experiences but using language to try to render the more abstract emotions and concepts I received while visiting a different culture. Travel writing is extremely sensitive; it demands personal experiences from the writer. Through it, I learned to write from the inside out. It allowed me insight into my own precious journey, which was at once transformative and peculiar. Travel writing can catch the tender details of human interaction and engage all of the senses. It allowed me to continue my journey. I want to allow my reader to become a part of my journey (which didn't just begin abroad). I hope for them to taste the subtle, earthly flavors of a traditional Italian meal, to feel vulnerable and inspired.Item Including foreign language in elementary school(2012-05) Streisel, JessicaIn an effort to understand how the foreign-language-learning process works, I taught a series of Spanish lessons to a group of 21 fifth-grade students. Using the Total Physical Response Storytelling method, developed by James Asher and adapted by Blaine Ray, the students learned the vocabulary necessary to comprehend the story that we focused on. The method mirrors the way an infant learns their first language by immersing the child in the language and allowing them to communicate through motion before they are expected to respond verbally. In our four 40 to 60-minute lessons, the students actively participated by finding movements to represent vocabulary words that were spoken in Spanish and displayed in picture form on a SmartBoard. As I told the story, the students would follow along by using the appropriate motion when I came to particular words, saying the word along with me orally when they felt able. They were not expected to produce the language on their own until they felt ready. In the end, they were assessed on their ability to use the correct motions, without my modeling to guide them, as I told the story. They were also asked to fill out a worksheet connecting the Spanish words to associated pictures, though they had not seen the words in written form before. Finally, a group of volunteer students were asked to retell the story either individually or in small groups, using as many of the vocabulary words as possible, and demonstrate that they understood the plot of the story.Item Participation as observation: how I create myself from others(2012-05) Maffey, JessicaMy work consists of images of the type of people I have had the most experience with: 20-something year old, white, middle-class men. Almost all of the images are of my closest friends, or of other young men I am around because of my proximity to the activities of college men. I have put their interests and actions in the context of family and tradition; thus, oval mats and hanging frames. The frames are made of different materials ' wood, plastic, metal ' and resemble the hodgepodge nature of frames found in most family homes. The use of frames and mats indicates my relationship to the men ' loving and familial ' while also pointing to the specific culture formed by a family. They each come bearing their own culture of traditions as all participate in a new one, one formed by their everyday interactions with their peers. Frames provide a familiar and dated method of presentation of the portrait, but the formality of a posed sitter is broken by intimate and specific views of young men's actions. By placing him in the home, I am drawing attention to a general familiarity with the modern young man and putting his seemingly innocuous actions up for consideration.Item "On" and "Through"(2012-05) Zajac, MichelleIn search of authenticity, I have begun to question the different aspects that make up life. Perhaps life is merely an array of experiences felt through time. The concepts of experience and time are both universal and elusive. Can an elusive idea be authentic or real? One thing we can say for certain is that we are bodies moving through space, and from birth to death we undergo experience. We experience the present, shaped by our perceptions of the past and future. In order to resolve my questioning of authenticity I will discuss the future, present, past, and our bodies in these time frames. In my work, I strive to create a feeling not only of bodily presence, but also of the present. By this, I simply mean to create a moment in which viewers become wholly aware of themselves in the present, in the now. The moment in which bodily awareness exists brings together the authenticity of the present with the authenticity of the physical, the body. The quest to define, explain, and create this moment has become my thesis project.Item The Muses Revived(2012-05) Koltiska, KatherineMy work is about finding the center. It is about searching for the calm, appreciating the understated, and celebrating the small moments. There are three major elements: simplicity of form; complexity of meaning; and intensity of emotion. My practice mixes together the artist and the scholar; I enjoy melding academia and intellect with exploration of technique. The product is quiet and elegant, gentle and expressive, a collection of layers of interpretation steeped in art historical tradition. My most recent work comprises of a series of historically-inspired prints featuring the Muses. The series consists of woodcuts printed on rice paper. The paper reflects the delicacy of the women while the printing speaks of traditional methods. These prints follow in a long line of images inspired by the Muses. The figures come and go throughout history, making their presence known one moment then standing back to watch the creation that they inspire. These pieces focus on the grace and beauty of the feminine form as well as the harmony of seemingly-opposite traits that balance each other. My figures are confident and gentle, strong and delicate, quiet leaders. Ultimately, they are centered, self-actualized individuals.Item An assessment of stream conditions and their effects on benthic macroinvertebrate community structure(2012-05) Rice-Mitchell, EanI examined the effects of environmental variables on benthic macroinvertebrate community structure in four stream catchments in the Upper Genesee Watershed of Allegany County. I proposed that some variables would be more pertinent in the determination of community composition especially those related to the effects of land abandonment.Item Zinc-Finger Nucleases: the past and future of in vivo genome editing(2012-05) VanderWeide, KaitlinThe race to discover the solution to genetic disease has been a long one; only recently has it come to look like it is a race that may actually be won. Zinc-Finger Nucleases (ZFNs) are synthetic enzymes that can be designed to generate targeted double-stranded breaks in DNA, giving the scientific community a way to effectively stimulate genomic changes. With the exquisite control granted by the use of custom ZFN technology, the door has been opened to the age of in vivo genome editing. Through examination of the development of this synthetic nuclease technology, as well as its past and present uses, conjecture can be made regarding future use. This study uses Cystic Fibrosis as a model to which ZFNs may be applied, examining the possibility of using this technology as a treatment for this disease in the future.Item The observational sketchbook: strangeness in the familiar(2012-05) Dunscombe, HannahObservational drawing is the artist's way of discovering his or her surroundings. In order to explore this, I constructed an accordion-fold sketchbook and filled it with drawings done around upstate New York. In order to further explore the process of bookmaking and the function of a book, I reprinted the drawings on a smaller scale, and reconstructed them in the same accordion fashion. As the process of drawing and bookmaking progressed, I allowed my subjects and accordion format to influence my creative decisions. Through these steps, I have determined that the observational sketchbook is as much about the reflection of the artist as it is about the subject being observed.Item Heirloom Artifacts(2012-05-07) Westfall, Kathryn Chandler"I collect artifacts of the people, places, and events that hold my roots. My inspiration began with the experience of looking through boxes of unsorted ancestral photographs in my grandmother's attic. I would like people to have this same sense of discovery and time as they use my pieces. The intimacy of ceramic wares readily offer a platform from which to examine how we retain memories and recreate stories from their fragments. This idea of containing captured moments is expressed through cropped imagery, historical patterning and the tactile surface."