Honors 401 Theses

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    The Need for Endometriosis Awareness: A Case Study of College Students and Medical Professionals
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2023) Harris , Rachael; Duryea, Katie
    Endometriosis is an estrogen-dependent chronic illness in which tissue similar to the endometrium develops outside of the uterine cavity. This disease affects an estimated 10-15% of individuals with a uterus at reproductive age and yet it takes an average of 7.5 years for an individual to receive an accurate diagnosis. This delay in diagnosis, along with recent studies on endometriosis, suggest a severe lack of education on endometriosis within both the medical community and the general public. There is literature that suggests there is a strong need for more education and awareness of endometriosis in the global medical community. However, there is a lack of literature that addresses the knowledge of college-age individuals in the United States on endometriosis. This thesis consists of a focus group at Southern New Hampshire University that determined the knowledge of college-age individuals on endometriosis, the menstrual cycle and reproductive health. This thesis found that there is a need for more education on topics relating to endometriosis, the menstrual cycle and reproductive health. General practitioners, specifically pediatricians need to develop more knowledge on these topics and be willing to share their information with their patients in order to educate them and ultimately reduce the length of diagnostic delay of endometriosis and other diseases characterized by reproductive issues.
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    Rock History Revamp
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2023) Huizenga, Noah; Boysen, Lyndsay
    Overview: This nine-lesson unit is designed to be taught in a 7th or 8th Grade General Music class. While they were written to fill a 15-20 minute segment of class time, they could easily be extended to fit the needs of a different class. The content of these lessons is “Rock History,” starting in the 1800s and continuing till present day. While obviously not every band, artist, or movement can be covered in this short amount of time, an effort was made to include the most important cornerstones of the genre. For the format of the lessons, the first eight are informal “lectures,” where students are encouraged to answer questions and engage in thoughtful discussion. Additionally, each of the first eight lessons has a corresponding question worksheet, which the students are required to fill out during class time. These are the unit's main form of formative assessment. The summative assessment is delivered in lesson nine in the form of a game-show style trivia competition. In this lesson, students will compete in predetermined-teams to answer questions pertaining to each of the areas covered in the first eight lessons. Because of the lessons’ flexible nature, this document is not supposed to be a step-by-step guide of how to teach them. Rather, it will provide the main ideas behind each lesson, some strategies of how to deliver the content, and the different assessment tools being employed. Lastly, do not treat these lessons as individual entities, but as part of a larger whole. Take any opportunity to have students recall information from previous lessons to inform the current lesson. This is not only a great way of tying the material together, but also an opportunity to assess students’ knowledge.
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    The impacts of experiential learning travel courses on student education, professionalism, and interpersonal relationships
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2021) Gilbert, Alyssa; Corbin, Joseph; Matthews, Lowell Chris
    This research study aims to explore the academic, professional, and interpersonal impacts experiential learning travel courses are having on undergraduate college students. Current research demonstrates that many educational formats do not provide optimal educational outcomes to students. Empirical observations from multiple faculty suggest experiential learning travel courses do provide these outcomes as well as highly impactful lifelong skills. Focus groups with diverse populations were conducted with current students on how experiential learning travel courses (ELTC) impacted their education, career, and interpersonal relationships with other students and faculty. Faculty were surveyed on their perception of how students were impacted by these courses. The research collected from the focus groups was analyzed through a combination of thematic content and narrative analysis. Searching for insightful narratives and recurring themes allowed conclusions to be drawn about the overall academic, professional, and interpersonal impacts these experiential courses have on students. The research hypothesis of this study is that experiential learning travel courses will positively impact academic, professional, and interpersonal aspects of students’ lives and these aspects will interact with each other as well. The research aims to provide a better understanding of how experiential learning travel courses are impacting the lives of students who participate in such courses. (Author abstract)
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    Global refugee crisis and system reform: National response comparison of the United States and Germany
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2021) Liriano Trejo, Arielys; Clamp, Christina; Matthews, Lowell Chris
    Migration policy faces the new challenges of the 21st century such as civil unrest, climate change, and health concerns. Nearly 26 million people were refugees in 2019 (UNHCR, 2020), which showcases the human rights and political magnitude of the situation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the policy initiatives taken by the United States and Germany in response to increased numbers of refugees and concerns about opening borders to determine ways to improve the refugee intake and resettlement process. Varying nations have differences in policy and acceptance of refugees. Nations need to determine where they lie in the spectrum concerning acceptance or denial of refugee entrance to their borders. By focusing on the United States and Germany, the study aims to assess government responses to the situation and determine whether there are ways to improve policies that impact the current resettlement model. Interviews of key informants in the refugee resettlement process in the United States and literature review of both the United States and Germany will be conducted. In this way, the experiences of service agencies will serve as feedback to determine ways that policy can address gaps in the system and policy implications. An approach of literature review analysis and interviews will allow the audience to gain perspective on a critical examination of German and American immigration law and policy and suggestions to improve the current scheme. (Author abstract)
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    The dissipation of the skilled labor force
    (Southern New Hampshire University, 2021) Spangler, Bethany; St. Jean, Nathaniel; Matthews, Lowell Chris
    Currently, the skilled labor industry is facing a huge gap in the number of working laborers. This gap is shown in the quickly declining numbers of workers in the trades and in the 7 million open jobs that are unable to be filled. Unfortunately, this is due to the general lack of interest in the trades, the lack of skills that individuals possess to excel in these fields, and individual attitude towards the trades that influence the decision to learn these skills. This gap affects companies and the amenities that they give to society. With a shortage of workers, many companies are shutting down because they are unable to complete the work needed. High school Career and Technical Education programs are a great way to gain awareness in this issue and begin to help this problem. There are a multitude of personal benefits for students linked to attending CTE programs as well, which in turn enhances their education. Public perception is a huge influencing factor in why the skills gap is so large today. On a refined level, perception directly impacts vocational school attendance, which is arguably the first steppingstone that many take into the trades. With lower vocational school attendance, there are automatically less individuals that enter into the trades which then contributes to the labor gap. In order to help with this issue, we first need to begin with understanding perception. This paper aims to begin to understand this. (Author abstract)