Nearly 20 honors students presented their thesis projects Friday, April 8, with titles ranging from “The Role of Play in Supporting Mathematical Understanding in Kindergarten” to “A Comparative Study of Marine Mega Fauna Conservation: Efforts to Save the Gray Whale and the Manta Ray.”
The 45-minute presentations, along with a 30-40 page paper, gave the students an opportunity to share the results of research they’ve done in a particular area of study. Many of the students spend one or two semesters preparing their project, though some have taken even longer.
English professor and honors program chair Elizabeth Rich said the projects help students tremendously.
“They can speak to important matters in their disciplines with a knowledge that students without a thesis experience seldom can,” Rich said. “The presentations, of course, give students a chance to polish their thesis work and make it accessible to others outside of their fields.”
In her presentation, titled “Exploration of Nursing Students’ Stereotypes Toward Mental Health Through Word Usage in Three Different Cultures,” nursing senior Kristen Gardner said she was inspired to explore the topic by an exercise assigned by assistant professor of nursing Marcia Shannon, who would become Gardner’s adviser.
In the exercise, Shannon asked students what words they associated with mental health. For her project, Gardner applied a similar exercise to understand how nursing students in America, Nepal and Indonesia (specifically Bali) felt about those with mental disorders.
“(The thesis project) gives me an opportunity that I feel like a lot of students don’t have–to work closely with a faculty member and to be able to create a project and a topic that you’re interested in and to learn how to create a successful presentation,” Gardner said. “I’m hoping to present my project at a conference or to publish my paper somewhere, and those are opportunities not many students get to have.”
Shannon has advised four other thesis projects.
“A lot of times, the students come without having a real firm idea, so we can bounce around ideas depending on what they’re interested in,” Shannon said. “And, of course, usually they come to me because they know my interests too.”
Rich attends many of the presentations.
“My favorite part about observing the presentations is seeing how the nascent ideas that students and I discuss early in the process take shape in their final form,” Rich said.
Gardner spent several semesters working on her project.
“I think the most challenging part was getting all my thoughts organized,” Gardner said. “And it was upsetting to look at all of the statistics and hear what some of the nursing students and my peers thought. It was an eye-opening experience for me.”
Shannon said she loves working with students for their projects.
“They’re always energetic, intelligent, curious students,” she said. “Many of them come to me because they’ve also been on study abroads with me, so it’s an easy fix to say, ‘Well, let’s expand your topic to see different cultures,’ because I think sometimes in the United States we think we’re the best or we know it all. I always love it when the students can see there’s a win-win for both countries … 0even if they’re developing nations, there’s always something we can bring back to make us stronger … The students always learn so much.”
Rich said more students have been incorporating trips abroad into their thesis work in recent years.
“While each set of presentations do not change in clear ways each term, over the years, I have been seeing more honors students present theses,” Rich said. “(I have also been seeing) more theses that include international travel experiences and community-service projects.”
She noted that one student this semester had conducted a community outreach project from Saginaw to a community in Kenya and discussed the project in their presentation “Alleviating Barriers to Art Adherence Among HIV/AIDS Patients in Kisumu, Kenya Through Evidence-Based Nutrition.”
“Every year, I expect and see excellent work,” Rich said.
