Undergraduate Honors Theses

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The collection includes honors theses submitted to the Honors College by Ball State University undergraduate students in partial fulfillment of degree requirements.

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    Strategies for retirement planning
    (2024-05) Wulff, Alexis; Rutter, Emily Ruth
    The creative project, “Strategies for Retirement Planning” is in the form of a website that aims to inform viewers of the different types of retirement plans available to them and the strategies to maximize each individual plan. The goal of my creative project was to create a project that would be beneficial to both me in my education and to the future viewers of this website. As a finance major, I selected the topic of retirement planning. The area of retirement planning was one that I am interested in and wanted to enrich my education in. It is also an area where many individuals have an insufficient background and do not know the different plans available to them and how to maximize their contributions to generate more wealth in the future. The website breaks down several of the most popular retirement plans, including a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, Roth 401(k), Traditional 401(k), and a 403(b) Plan. Additionally, this platform provides some of the most recommended strategies for maximizing contributions to the different types of plans, as well as strategies to avoid. This website was designed with a goal of educating its viewers in the area of retirement planning.
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    Finding your college fit in Indiana
    (2024-05) Whaley, Chloe; Rutter, Emily
    “Finding Your College Fit in Indiana” is a creative project that takes the form of a website. The purpose of this website is to help Indiana high school and college students make more informed decisions regarding various college-related choices. The project explores reasons to attend or not attend college, weighing different costs with the financial, social, spiritual, and cultural benefits. The project also details a multitude of factors that prospective students should consider when finding the right school for them, including their best-fit area of study, type of institution to attend, what different institutions have to offer, financing options available to cover the costs of education, an analysis of the financial implications of attending various Indiana institutions and how this compares with future earnings for the desired career outcome, the location and distance of Indiana institutions, and an overview of 44 four-year institutions and eight community colleges in Indiana. Finally, the website provides five alternatives to attending college for viewers who choose not to go to college. The creative project compiles many sources and tools to create a website that assists in various college decisions that high school and early college students may face.
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    What if Athens killed Confucius: a thought experiment following the development of the American justice system's conception of punishment
    (2024-05) Weaver, Karla; Powell, Jason
    A primary component of the American Criminal Justice System is the approach to punishment, which includes intention, justification, and methodology. This paper establishes a timeline that follows the development of punishment, beginning in the present and working back to Ancient Greece to the trial of Socrates, commonly referred to as the father of Western philosophy. Around the same time in history, the father of Eastern philosophy, Confucius, taught in the East. Socrates and Confucius had very different approaches to most aspects of life, especially punishment. Where Socrates saw punishment as a cure for the soul, Confucius thought punishment should be light and moderate, focusing on rehabilitation. This paper explores their conceptions of punishment and then proceeds to partake in a thought experiment where Confucius replaces Socrates in ancient Greece. The exact timeline from the first part of the paper is utilized to observe the significant deviations that would occur in the evolution of punishment theory with Confucius’s collectivist influence. By the end of the timeline, the present day, the American conception of punishment shifts to foundationally classify rehabilitation as the primary function of punishment to assist in the self-cultivation of offenders so that they may have a better chance of reentering of productive members of society.
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    Community theatre and its impact for youth
    (2024-05) Waddle, Carter; Waldron, Andrew
    In this study, I wanted to find evidence that suggests that community theater is an important and positive learning environment for young people. My goal is to see the comparisons between a school environment and a community theater environment and how it affects youth academically, socially, and mentally. To prove this, I worked at Muncie Civic Theater as a Stage Manager for their youth program and observed the young actors throughout the rehearsal process. I also gave a portion of the young actors a questionnaire that asked demographic questions as well as questions regarding what the young actors have learned while being a part of the program. My results of the observations and questionnaire showed that young actors who took part in the Muncie Civic Theater youth program were more confident and learned social skills because of their participation. I concluded at the end of this study that young people do much better socially and mentally if they participate in community arts programs than if their only learning environment was school.
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    The "Last Great Taboo": the rise of Thanatophobia in the United States and how we can deal with it
    (2024-05) Stacey, Maria; Frausto, Obed
    Our relationship with death in the United States has changed dramatically since the nineteenth century. With the rise of modern technology as well as modern medicine, we as a society have become very disconnected from death. As a result of this as well as the notion that death is “un-American,” we have become very fearful of death (Samuel x). While it may seem that our relationship with death in the United States is too far gone to worry about fixing, there are things that we can do to repair our relationship with our mortality. By adopting the tenets of the death positivity movement and choosing more eco-friendly alternatives to death care, as well as listening to people from non-death-denying cultures, we can make our relationship with death a bit more positive, and also begin to better understand and appreciate the natural cycle of life.