My service learning site has consisted of research for County Supervisor Virginia Bass on the shelter crisis declaration. I will be presenting my research on how does this declaration help and what are the benefits to having a crisis shelter declaration. I will also provide research on what other Counties in California have made these declaration that are similar to Humboldt county in size and rural characteristics.

My poster outlines the work I have put in, as an Environmental Studies capstone student, to create an educational outdoor program that is more inclusive for the Latinx community through the Wildlands Conservancy. I decided to work on this project because as a Mexicana I have struggled with being in enviromental spaces and feeling like I don't belong there. Although this program will be implemented on the local level it will still help to mitigate the problem that is a predominantly white Environmentalist Movement. If through this I am able to empower at least one Latinx student to feel like they belong in the Environmental Movement, then I will consider it a success.

This research explores popular discourse regarding the “opiate epidemic” and deconstructs the ways in which popular conceptions of addiction and addicts shapes the care that that people recieve. By looking at the systemic causes of addiction, this research also examines the links between addiction, environmental justice, rurality, and the many facets of systemic oppression.

In this study a triangulation of teacher testimonies and school policies is used to address how systemic inequalities are maintained through institutional rules and individual understandings and how teachers understand their role in a system that unjustly criminalizes students of color. With a grounded theory approach, four main themes were identified: 1) causes of disproportionate discipline according to educators; 2) “tough on discipline”; 3)policing, surveillance, and intolerance of student misbehavior; 4) bureaucratization of school discipline. Possible solutions are discussed and other avenues for future research are addressed.

Can the EU and UN survive a challenge to their legitimacy in regards to how each are handling the current refugee crisis. This poster will ask and answer the questions, is the UN effective and democratic, how is the UN handling this crises and how does the security council play a role in this ongoing human rights violation. The next questions are about the EU and how effective is it, is it democratic, how is it handling the crises and what is the comparison between the eastern EU countries and the western EU countries and their viewpoints on refugees. How does the EU and UN compare and contrast and the concluding question, can these dominant institutions survive?

California is a native biodiversity hotspot, and is affected by over 60 invasive plants and animals despite aggressive state efforts to combat this problem. This project will focus on the relationship between the Himalayan blackberry and its effect on neighboring native species in the riparian areas of the Mad River and Jacoby Creek in Arcata, CA. The goal of this project is to highlight the spatial location and extent of the invasive blackberry thickets and design a potential abatement program that can be implemented at the local level. GIS will be used for mapping and special analysis.

The goals of this project is to assess adverse childhood experiences(ACEs)among students who attend Humboldt State University, & to explore campus resources students use to sustain their academic success, despite these challenges. I conducted a survey on HSU students (n=133), scoring their ACEs using the Kaiser Permanente study of childhood experiences, & asking a series of questions about their childhood, adult & HSU experiences. I found various resources & attachments that students reported as supporting their success in college. This research can help bring attention adverse childhood experiences on campus, & can provide a useful insight on resources needed to serve this population.

In conjunction with the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology(AT), for my service learning project, I sought to share intersectional knowledge with the HSU community and beyond of self-resiliency, while being mindful of one’s impact upon the earth through appropriate technology and food sovereignty. Students and community members worked together to construct a communal garden that included AT construction techniques and promoted ecologically sound sustainable food systems that are beneficial to the entire community. It was my goal to empower individuals to become agents of change within our global community and invoke values that promoted the well being of the environment and people.

I will be using the information I have gathered through my internship with California Senator Mike McGuire. Specifically, the Senator has an ongoing project having to do with the opioid crisis taking place in Humboldt County. Humboldt County has more opioid prescriptions than residents. With 156,444 prescriptions in 2016, the rate was nearly 1,145 prescriptions per 1,000 residents. Senator Mike McGuire has hosted two town hall forums to bring awareness to the community and to discuss solutions in order to fix this epidemic that is affecting so many lives in the community we reside in.

This project presents a unique approach to mapping the Maya landscape of Northwestern Belize. The basis of the research will explore various GIS and cartographic techniques to manipulate and visualize geospatial data to map and produce a model to assist with predictive site survey of archaeological structures. As a result of this research, various images of relief visualization will be produced to help with pre-field planning for the summer 2018 field season. This project is part of the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (DH2GC) led by Dr. Marisol Cortes-Rincon at Humboldt State University.