An Honors Senior Project is required for graduation through the WWU Honors College. The Senior Project serves as a “capstone” experience, synthesizing what students have done in their entire education, including but not limited to their work in the major and in Honors.
The term, Senior Project, is vague, and for a reason. The term “Senior Thesis” is easily available, but it is one the WWU Honors College deliberately has avoided. While the project must be “product oriented,” i.e., there must be something tangible at the end of the process, it may be a long paper, that is a thesis, but it may also take several other forms, e.g., a recital, a painting, an album, a bound book, all of which have been quite successful senior projects.
2024
Climate Storytelling: An Experiment in Interdisciplinary Course Design, Gabrielle Jean Laipenieks
Investigations of an RNA interference pathway in Tetrahymena thermophila, Lola Lang
Goo Gone! Removing adhesive contamination from PakTech beverage toppers for recycling, Emmaline Lenz
Villain or Victim: A Poetic Interpretation of Helen of Troy’s Legacy, Anne Lillis
S.A.D. Survival Kit: A Podcast on Seasonal Affective Disorder, Kate Lincoln
Total Synthesis of Rupestines H and I, Aimee Long and James Vyvyan
witness marks: A Poetry Chapbook, Briana Lubinski
Effects of Foam Rolling on Tissue Stiffness in Back Muscles After a Rowing Workout: A Case Series, Adalia Ludwig
Birds of Costa Rica: Journal & Sketchbook, Clara Magsarili
Imaging of the shallow crustal structure across the region of the 2013 Mw 7.5 Craig Earthquake with high-resolution seismic streamer tomography, Emma Martin, Andrew Gase, and Emily Roland
Palm (excerpt from Northern Flicker), Fiona Martinez
"The Soldier, the Woman, and the Fence" - Animated Short Story, Juliana McKeehan
Examining the Accessibility of Digital Payment: The Rise of Socioeconomic Inequality due to the Cashless Revolution, Kaylie McRea
Miss Americana & The Queen Bey: A Seismic Analysis of Synchronous Crowd Movement at Lumen Field Concerts in Seattle, WA, Karenna A. Merritt
Food and Mutualistic Exchange, Alexander D. Miller
Finding the Green, Bridget Miller
Western Lives, Ilah Mittelstaedt
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Review of Evidence-Based Practice within Communication Sciences and Disorders, Mackenzie Morehead
So what is exercise anyway?: A Sociolinguistic Study on the Definition of Exercise, Javin Morrison
Evaluating Automated Accessibility Checker Tools, Thai Nguyen
Accelerating Sortase-Mediated Ligation Reactions with N-terminal Substrate Elements, Noah Noah Goodwin-Rice
Early Spring Seasonal Eating Guide, Emma Owens
The Great Escape, Tristan Parzuchowski
Life Cycle Progression of Chlainomonas sp.: A Field Study, Honu Pata, Robin Kodner, AG Camara, Clare Hanneman, Maya Matsumoto, and Dan van Hees
Prescribing Dance : An ethnography of participants in a dance class for neurological disorders, Emily Petersen
Implementing Impact: A Lesson on mySQL Databases and Accessibility, Abigayle Peterson and Yasmine Elglaly
Exploring the Effects of Cannabidiol and Beta-Caryophyllene on Stress-Induced Allodynia in Mice, Simone Player, Alana Sullivan, and Josh Kaplan
Evaluating How Well Open-Source AI Models Interpret Written Prompts, Madeline Pysher
Shoreline: A Short Film, Carina Raffaelli
An Experimental Approach to Solving the Aperture Problem with EEG Scans of the V5 and Power Analysis, Kathryn L. Rigberg
Gray Areas: Levels Within Philosophy, Cassandra Roberto
The 22nd Annual Masquerade, Isabella Royster
Fashion Slow: Poetic Threads of Fate and Decay, Adrienne Rugg
Supporting an Ecosystem of Learning: Outdoor ECE Lesson Plans, Nicole K. Ryden
Colorful Relations: How Race Conditions the Relationship Between Sexual Orientation and Willingness to Interracially Date, Emily Sabisch
Medical Horror: Authority and History in Medical Spaces, Sebastian Sauceda
Bloom or Bust: an interdisciplinary exploration of flowering plants and how climate change impacts them, Carolyn Schmode
Our Story: A Collection of Interviews, Carlee Schram
And They Were Roommates, Eleanor Scott
Loremaking, Queerness, and Community: Fanfiction from Dante to MsKingBean89, Samantha Seaboldt
Logic Lessons, Elizabeth Skiffington
Reading the Gap: Interpreting Non-Representation through Literature, N. Lake Starr
Colorblind Ideology and Inheritance Status Predicting Wealth Inequality and Poverty Perceptions in the United States, Caitlyn Steiner
MAD WOMEN: Hidden Patriarchal Practices and Feminine Rage, Ariana Stephens
Justifying Goods, Max Stone
Feed the Earth: An Exploration of Regenerative Agriculture Programs in Washington State, Lily Storbeck
Our Inheritance: An Honors Capstone exploring the potential future of environmental policy under climate change, Maggie Strecker
The Myth of Brokenness: Ableism and Anti-Ableism in the Field of Speech-Language Pathology, Kieran Sutton
Representing Self and Community Through Aerial Dance, Ellery Temple
Threads of Life: Stories and Lessons Learned Caring for the Dying and the Dead, Kathleen Thornbourgh
Fem in STEM: a short podcast series, Hannah Thorp and Lina Dahlberg
The Business of Research, Lydia Tibbott
Behavioral multigenerational outcomes of mild in-utero stress in C.elegans, Aicha Tokar Falatah
Ashes to Algae: Phytoplankton Communities in Early Successional Ponds at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Lillie Tomlinson
Twi Protein Contribution to Genome Integrity in Tetrahymena thermophila, Toby Traudt
Singing the Praises: A Short Album Listening Party, Tristan Trudell
Student Perspectives on Returning to In-Person Learning Modalities, Lance K. Tulloch
Visualising Household Food Resilience, Chloe Unflat
The Dawn of a New Era: Generative AI and the Future of Work, Saunder VanWoerden
To Walk Between Worlds, Ingrid Violette
Sustainable Lab Certification Project Report, Alyssa White and Megan Ellis
Learning and Aligning Structured Random Feature Networks, Vivian White, Muawiz Chaudhary, Guy Wolf, Guillaume Lajoie, and Kameron Decker Harris
Married or Dead: The Girl Next Door, Little Women, and Feminine Irrelevance, Phoenix Willging
The Politics of Choice: Key Predictors of Abortion Attitudes, 1972-2020, Bella Wiseman
DEATH AFTER: A Visualization of Death in a Digital Medium, Cole Yamamura
Shmoomics!, Winter Yi and Dan Pollard
SEL and Literacy Informed Music Education: Songs and Games for the Elementary Music Curriculum, Elijah Yost
Understories: A Queer Rewilding of Ecology and Literature, Aina Zabinski
2023
Become the Monster: Identity, Perception, and What it Means to be Inhuman, Juniper Amundson
Language Barriers Among Immigrant Communities, Rosia Aning
Racial Diversity and Retention Rates of Psychology Faculty in Washington State Public Universities, Chiyo Aoki-Kramer
The Three R's of Exercise: Review, Reframe, Recommend, Liam Arenas-Field
Fierce Female Friendships: An Artistic Representation and Exploration of the Benefits of Gender-Based Inclusivity and Community in STEM, Maya Bachmeier-Evans
SENTIMENTAL VALUE: Developing a model for sentiment & linguistic analysis of cable news, Caitlin Bannister
CBD Levels and Localization in the Body, Jenavieve Barson
Outdoor Therapy for Women: A Coming Home, Drew Baty
Hunting Down Treatment Therapies for Huntington's Disease, Sage Berry
"You Have to Look at Both Sides": Percepticide and Memory in Argentina's Parque de la Memoria, Lily Berver
She Who Seeks the Deep, Laci Bowhay
Enticing Communication: An Examination of Environmental Arrangement Strategies in Early Intervention Settings, Anna Brillault-Kenny and Beatrice King
Verse Engineering: A Compositional Analysis of World Music Cultures, Mosey Brown
Studying the South Lake Whatcom Fire, Lillian Buck
Vail Resorts, Inc. - Valuation and Comprehensive Analysis, Griffin Butler
The Secret History of Bagley Basin: Snow Algae and the Millennia Long Story They Tell, AG Camara, Robin Kodner, Doug Clark, Michael Kraft, and Emma Mickelson
Perspectives on (In)Human(e) Displacement and Migration, Jordan Carey
An Analysis of Clinopyroxene Reaction Rims as Assimilation Chronometers at Cinder Cone Volcano, Lassen National Volcanic Park, California, Annabelle Carozza
Women in Classical Music, Caitriona Cassel
Math Identity: Breaking Barriers and Building Brilliance, Emily Chappell
Dine and Dash: Changing Harbor Seal Numbers and Habitat Use at the Developing Bellingham Waterfront, Holland Conwell
What are our plans missing? What are our missing plans?, Vivien Coop
Recreation: Work That Makes A Difference, Logan Cornwell
Making Space: How the ENGD Makerspace promotes inclusion and belonging, and its success in doing so, Noah Crow
Perceptions of Political Knowledge, Political Participation, and Political Efficacy Among Western Washington University Students, Bryndis Danke
Not All Monsters Live Under Your Bed, Rebecca Davis
Pieces of the Puzzle: How public health fits in with the world, Erin Demir