College Students Acculturative Stress and Wellbeing: Examining School Connectedness as a Moderator

College of Professional Studies

Amongst adolescents, school connectedness has been found to predict positive student wellbeing (i.e., self esteem and depression). The present study plans to replicate these result with college students, whom experience daily stress. For some students this daily stress includes acculturative stress (i.e., psychological process of adapting to a dominant group that differs from one's heritage), which is negatively associated with wellbeing. We will examine how school connectedness buffers this association.

Commander-in-Clown: An Analysis of Political Rhetoric in Relation to Saturday Night Live

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Saturday Night Live is a major cultural touchstone and a reactive satire which parodies the same politics it influences. Though whether this influence is descriptive or prescriptive remains to be seen. During the 2016 election, the show changed its portrayal of Donald Trump when Alec Baldwin took over the role. Trump was portrayed as ultimately stupid and unlikely to win. The show helped to normalize his campaign, repudiating Trump’s mannerisms but not his policies. By lavishing so much faith on Clinton and treating Trump like a throwaway joke, Saturday Night Live may have inadvertently helped him win the election.

Comparison Between Native Californian and Governmental Attitudes Toward Resource Management and Conservation

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Research on various land/ resource management and conservation techniques employed by Native communities in California; their foundations in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, influence on the natural history of Californian ecosystems/ habitats, and their relevance in today's California. Furthermore, the differences between Native community and State and Federal government attitudes toward land/ resource management and conservation will be explored, as well as the overlap/ cooperation between attitudes, especially in the case of the State of California and Native Californian communities.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and their Consequential Effects on the Biotic Community

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are not only an environmental hazard, they are hazardous to the animals confined in them and neighboring communities. In this project, I researched the consequential effects of CAFOs on the entire biotic community. The main effects discussed include but are not limited to: waste concentration, water quality, air quality, and public health. The interdisciplinarity of the issue at hand is brought to light by analyzing these detrimental effects through an Environmental Justice and Ecofeminist lens. Proposed areas of further research and community inclusion/empowerment are provided upon conclusion.

Conservation on Hunting

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The goals of animal conservation and the goals of indigenous peoples wishing to hunt are not compatible in all cases. There has been a large amount of land being modified by modern civilization and it is increasing rapidly. There has been two pressing reasons for the preservation of undisturbed land, one is the preservation of indigenous homelands and the preservation of wildlife. Conservationists and indigenous peoples have been paying attention on certain wildlife and Indigenous homelands. Some of the data they do on hunting by indigenous people are, 1) the time period over which the information on hunting was collected ; and 2) the number of people consuming the game killed.

Conspicuous Crisis Concerning Consumption of Calamitous Compounds

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

After manipulating the data, our team presents our conclusions and strategies in an attempt to illuminate and combat the opioid crisis in the 5 states of question. We make policy recommendations for government officials regarding (1) the spread of the current opioid crisis in and between the five states, (2) the various characteristics of opioid incidents in all counties, and (3) the associated socio-economic factors that are present in counties that are in danger of being in an Opioid Crisis.

Context-Specific Effects of Facial Dominance and Trustworthiness on Leadership Judgments

College of Professional Studies

Social judgments of faces predict important social outcomes, including leadership decisions. Some studies have even linked these face preferences to actual election outcomes, within one second using just facial cues. Facial dominance and trustworthiness have context-specific effects on leadership decisions, with facial cues linked to dominance being preferred in hypothetical wartime scenarios and facial cues linked to trustworthiness being preferred in hypothetical peacetime scenarios. Here, we report a conceptual replication of Spisak et al. (2012), using only female faces that vary naturally in perceived trustworthiness and dominance.

Controlled Fires

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

For our creative project we decided to create a poster explaining the relationionships between controled fires and forests. While participating in our Native American Studies class, we spoke breifly about how Native Americans used controlled fires to better the vegagtaion within their land. As biology (the study of life) and botnay (the study of plants) majors, the idea of controlled fires helping forests become more suitable for the life surronding it was an increcribly intresting topic for our research poster. Throughout our presentation we will be taking a closer look at how exactly controlled fires are able to help plants grow back stronger and healthier in the years after the fire.

Creating Awareness About Traumatic Brain Injuries

College of Professional Studies

The focus of my project was to address the lack of knowledge pertaining to Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and to let locals know. This included Bear River Rancheria, Eureka Police Department, Making Headway Center, and some other local locations. Pamphlets were dispersed with information regarding TBIs and were culturally appropriate for whichever population that they were dispersed to.

Creating Methodology for Classroom Materials using Correlations between Childhood and Adulthood Literacy

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Kindergarten reading habits are expected to persist into adulthood; however, for many adults in Washtenaw County this is not the case. This population will rise as half of their children will become illiterate themselves. Survey responses of 76 teachers regarding selection of reading materials based on grammar, syntax, and reading topics were collected in the fall of 2018. Teachers commonly selected pre-leveled reading materials regarding grammar with minor focus on topical matter. These materials did not correlate with topical-matter focused adult reading materials. This study suggests renovation of adult reading materials to help combat the ongoing cycle of illiteracy in Washtenaw County.