Senior Honors Projects

The Shenandoah Association of Phi Beta Kappa and the JMU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi have announced the winners of the Outstanding Senior Honors Project Awards for 2000. Kelly Poliquin, graduating with distinction in biology, has received the Phi Beta Kappa Award. The Phi Kappa Phi Award goes to Danielle Pesce, graduating with distinction in history. Each winner receives a monetary gift and a plaque recognizing the achievement.

Students graduating with distinction have completed a senior honors project that demonstrates considerable knowledge in their field of study, discipline, and creativity. For honors scholars and subject-area honors students, the senior honors project is the culmination of their honors experience; for others, it is their total honors experience. These senior project students, working with a faculty mentor and faculty readers, have earned honors credit for work that has resulted in a thesis reflecting substantial scholarship and demonstrating outstanding research or a creative work that shows imagination, originality, and craftsmanship. Copies of the projects will be bound and entered into the permanent collection of Carrier Library.

Graduates with Distinction, 2000

Anthropology
Shannon Colleen Garvey
¿Sos Voseante? A Study of Historical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Spanish American Voseo
Director: Laura A. Lewis, Ph.D.

Trisha R. Maust
Journeys through Time and Meaning: The Mythology of Navajo Sandpainting
Director: William P. Boyer, Ph.D.

Art
Jessica Louise Martinkosky
Honors Scholar
Schizophrenia, Depression and Bipolar Disorder in Relation to Art and Artists
Director: Masako Miyata, M.F.A.

Elizabeth Lavely Miller
Contextualizing the Formal: A Body of Work Influenced by Opposing Esthetician's and Artist's Looks at Contextual and Formal Creations of Art
Director: Kenneth A. Szmagaj, M.F.A.

Bachelor of Individualized Studies
James Clifton Otey
Radiologic Management of the Breast Cancer Patient
Director: Thomas R. Syre, Ph.D.

Biology
Brian Chipman Belyea
Spatiotemporal Processing in the Tail Withdrawal Reflex of the Rat
Director: Corey L. Cleland, Ph.D.

James Cooper Brien
Electrical Stimulation of Nociceptors in Neonatal Rats Causes Permanent Hyperalgesia
Director: Corey L. Cleland, Ph.D.

Kathryn L. Clasen
Honors Scholar
Microbiolistic Transformation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with the Polyhydroxyalkanoate Synthase Gene
Director: Douglas E. Dennis, Ph.D.

Sarah Lee Jones
Relative Contributions of A( and C fibers in the Maintenance of Hyperalgesia
Director: Corey L. Cleland, Ph.D.

Kelly A. Poliquin
Honors Scholar
Purification and Characterization of (-Glucosidases in Arabidopsis thaliana
Phi Beta Kappa Outstanding Senior Honors Project Award
Director: Jonathan D. Monroe, Ph.D.

Erin Nicole Stevens
Honors Schoar
Use of Antibiotic Resistance Analysis to Determine the Effect of Streamwater Exposure on the Identification of Nonpoint Sources of Fecal Pollution
Director: Bruce A. Wiggins, Ph.D.

Communication Sciences and Disorders
Carolyn E. Keating
Subject Area Honors
American Sign Language: Its Academic Status in Virginia's Secondary and Higher Education Institutions
Director: Brenda Seal, Ph.D.

Economics
Stephanie A. Lucas
Honors Scholar
On the Possibility of Reconciling "Equality" and "Freedom"
Director: Vardaman R. Smith, Ph.D.

Sara C. Yakovac
Subject Area Honors
An Economic Study of Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention Programs
Director: Andrew I. Kohen, Ph.D.

English
Scott R. Bayer
Subject Area Honors
The Literary Evolution of the Senex from Antiquity to the Elizabethan Age
Director: Bruce A. Johnson, Ph.D.

Brian E. Downing
Honors Scholar
Combating the Premedical Syndrome
Director: Jean W. Cash, Ph.D.

Sara Regina Mitcho
Subject Area Honors
What's in a Name?: Defining Black Feminist Naming Techniques in a Comparison of Five Novels Written Between 1975 and 1985
Director: Mark D. Hawthorne, Ph.D.

Burt Cameron MacKenzie IV
Honors Scholar
Broken Bottles and Pirate Ships
Director: Elisabeth C. Gumnior, Ph.D.

Foreign Languages and Literatures
Stephanie L. Schlosser
Translation Strategies for Twentieth-Century French Poetry: A Qualitative Approach
Director: Christophe Réthoré, M.B.A.

Geographic Information Science
David N. Allen
Honors Scholar
Geospatial Information: The Premier Weapon of the Twenty-First Century
Director: Helmut Kraenzle, Ph.D.

Geology and Environmental Studies
Diantha B. Garms
Subject Area Honors
Concentration of Heavy Metals in Stream Sediment and Manganese Oxide Coatings in the Vicinity of the Bowers-Campbell Mine, Timberville, Virginia
Director: Gene R. Robinson, Ph.D.

Health Sciences
Stephanie Dawn McCarty
Honors Scholar
Exploring Alternative and Complementary Medicine as These Topics Relate to the Clinical Practice of Physical Therapy
Director: Robert E. Koslow, Ph.D.

Jodi Lynn Speth
Honors Scholar
An Examination of the Carbohydrate Intake of Female Collegiate Cross-Country Runners
Director: Judith A. Flohr, Ph.D.

Kimberly Ann Trafton
Honors Scholar
Review of Current Interventions in the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis
Director: Jon M. Thompson, Ph.D.

History
Shelley Brooks
Educating Exceptional Children: The Fight for Equality and a Free, Appropriate Education Through Mainstreaming
Director: Raymond M. Hyser, Ph.D.

Girard Andrew Galvin
The Rise and Fall of the Good Friday Peace Agreement
Director: Raymond M. Hyser, Ph.D.

James Philip Iovino
The Breakdown, Restoration and Expansion of Royal Authority in Twelfth-Century England: Feudal Empire Building and the Angevin Family Assemblage, 1144-1189
Director: Caroline T. Marshall, Ph.D.

James Vincent Lowery
Educating a New Nation: The Influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on the Founding Fathers
Director: Michael J. Galgano, Ph.D.

Ella Carson Overstreet
The Reaction of Bedford, Virginia to the Normandy Invasion: War in Memory
Director: Raymond M. Hyser, Ph.D.

Gregory L. Owen
Matrose Baumann: The World War II Odyssey of a German U-boat Crewman and Prisoner of War in Augusta County, Virginia
Director: Gabriel Lanier, Ph.D.

Danielle Marie Pesce
Honors Scholar
The Logic of Eugenics: The Path from Social Darwinism to the Holocaust
Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Senior Honors Project Award
Director: Lee W. Congdon, Ph.D.

Denise L. Pignato
Before Animal House: Women in College in the 1920s
Director: Sidney R. Bland, Ph.D.

Kara E. Ryan
The Legal Dynamics of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-1956
Director: Raymond M. Hyser, Ph.D.

Kasey Savage
John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis: Realizing the Perils of Brinkmanship
Director: Steven W. Guerrier, Ph.D.

Daniel G. Schoettinger
Railroad Growth in the Shenandoah Valley: 1865-1895
Director: Raymond M. Hyser, Ph.D.

Patrick K. Spero
The Legacy of the Paxton Boys' Rebellion: The Restructuring of Colonial Pennsylvania's Political Landscape
Director: J. Chris Arndt, Ph.D.

Integrated Science and Technology
Todd L. Brown
Development of Software Client Tools for Merck's Fermentation Process Data Management System
Director: James J. Pomykalski, Ph.D.

Stephen Keith Holland
Enhanced Calibration Techniques for Focal Plane Arrays and Techniques for Radiometric Measurement of Tropospheric Carbon Monoxide
Director: Jonathan J. Miles, Ph.D.

Kelli Lynn Kalvesmaki
Development of a Biopharmaceutical Database
Director: Robert L. McKown, Ph.D.

Sarah Kay Matheson
Honors Scholar
Christians Creek Watershed: Assessing the Effect of Agricultural Best Management Practices on Water Quality
Director: Steven P. Frysinger, Ph.D.

Interdisciplinary Social Science
Margaret A. Schulcz
Honors Scholar
The Tie that Binds: An Examination of the Changing Relationship between Religion and Education
Director: Sue E. Spivey, Ph.D.

International Business
Ruediger Wassibauer
Size Matters: How the Euro Changed Europe
Director: J. Barkley Rosser, Ph.D.

Kinesiology
John O. Cox
The Effect of Oral Creatine Supplementation on Anaerobic Performance and Fluid Balance
Director: Judith A. Flohr, Ph.D.

Joseph Mattera III
Substrate Utilization in Fasted and Post-Prandial College Women
Director: Judith A. Flohr, Ph.D.

Kelly M. Warren
Honors Scholar
The Relationship Between Body Image, Age, and Physical Activity in Women
Director: Judith A. Flohr, Ph.D.

Marketing
Joshua J. Franklin
Honors Scholar
Data Mining and Customer Relations Management
Director: George W. Wynn, Ph.D.

Media Arts and Design
Kory Juul
Honors Scholar
Aquarius
Director: John M. Woody, M.F.A.

Stacey D. Neumann
Honors Scholar
An Analysis of Legal Obscenity Standards: Applying Miller v. California to Three Historic Novels
Director: Roger A. Soenksen, Ph.D.

John Jacob Rantz
Honors Scholar
Conch Republic's Cradle: The Coral Reefs of Key Largo 
Director: Tom J. McHardy, M.F.A.

Megan Ross
Subject Area Honors
Madison 101: A Project in Newspaper Redesign
Director: Roger A. Soenksen, Ph.D.

Kimberly Milliken Wethe
Honors Scholar
Cynicism in American Film: The World War II Era to the Vietnam War Era
Director: Charles C. Turner, Ph.D.

Music
Casey K. Cichowicz
Subject Area Honors
Three Songs About Misplaced Intentions: A Discussion of the Creation of Pop Music from Inspiration to Production
Director: David H. Cottrell, Ph.D.

Wendy Lynne Peterson
Honors Scholar
Improvisation in the Virginia Elementary Classroom Using the Orff Approach
Director: Gary K. Ritcher, Ed.D.

Philosophy and Religion
Bobbi Jo Dean
The Educational Philosophy of Maria Montessori
Director: William M. O'Meara, Ph.D.

John Gregory Koch
A Philosophical Defense of Scientific Method in Light of the Problem of Underdetermination, and Other Criticisms
Director: Willliam M. Knorp, Jr., Ph.D.

Christopher Swenson
Ethical Implications of Artificially Intelligent Beings in Future Society
Director: William M. O'Meara, Ph.D.

Political Science
Kristen Rae Paynter
Subject Area Honors
The Evolution of the Office of the First Lady
Director: Anthony J. Eksterowicz, Ph.D.

Cassie Ritter
Subject Area Honors
The Tobacco Debate: Litigation, Settlements, and Arguments of the Third Wave
Director: Elizabeth D. Garbrah-Aidoo, Ph.D.

Daniel T. Ryan
Honors Scholar
The Evolving Determinants of Power in the International System
Director: Glenn P. Hastedt, Ph.D.

Jessica Fay Smith
Honors Scholar
"No Car Tax!": A Case Study of Campaign Theme and Jim Gilmore's 1997 Gubernatorial Campaign in the Commonwealth of Virginia
Director: David A. Jones, Ph.D.

Matthew Strugar
When Spiders Unite They Can Tie Down the Lion: An Analysis of Sub-national "Free Burma" Initiatives
Director: Robin L. Teske, Ph.D.

Cara Walsh
Protecting Refugee Women: Gender-Based Persecution as Grounds for Asylum in the U.S.
Director: Kay M. Knickrehm, Ph.D.

Nicole D. Wygovsky
Honors Scholar
Women in State Legislatures: Vehicles of Progress
Director: Glenn P. Hastedt, Ph.D.

Psychology
Suzanne Victoria Boxer
Honors Scholar
Use of Food in Child Rearing: Is There a Relationship Between Parenting Practices and Body Mass?
Director: Michael L. Stoloff, Ph.D

Jennifer Cross Cullivan
The Effects of Magazine Images on the Body Satisfaction of Women with Disordered Eating Symptoms
Director: Tammy D. Gilligan, Ph.D.

Craig Evan Fichandler
Is Horizon Information Intrinsically or Extrinsically Scaled? The Perception of Size and Distance in Reality and Its Surrogates
Director: Sheena Rogers. Ph.D.
Lynn M. Hobeck
The Relationship Between Perceived Goal Orientations of College Athletes and Their Coaches
Director: Jim O. Benedict, Ph.D.

Abby Jones
Honors Scholar
Perceptions of Gender Differences in Helping Behavior
Director: Kevin J. Apple, Ph.D.

Tara Kachelriess
Honors Scholar
Fraternities and Athletic Teams and Sexual Assault: Is There a Relationship?
Director: Arnold S. Kahn, Ph.D. 

Tracy Ann Lambert
Pluralistic Ignorance and Hooking Up on College Campuses: Some Implications of Norm Misperception
Director: Arnold S. Kahn, Ph.D.

Rachel L. Layton
Honors Scholar
Social Support and Parental Stress on Parent-Child Interaction Quality
Director: Anne L. Stewart, Ph.D.

Jennifer Lynn Maskell
Subject Area Honors
Relationships Between Athletic Participation, Identity Development, Relationship Maturity, and the Incidence of Dating Abuse Among Female College Women
Director: Eileen S. Nelson, Ed.D.

Emily Baker Simpson
Honors Scholar
Relationships Between Attitude Toward Homosexuality, Attitude Toward Sexuality, and Religiosity
Director: Eileen S. Nelson, Ed.D.

Jessica Christine Volz
Honors Scholar
College Students' Attitudes Toward Cohabitation and Expectations of Marriage in Relation to Parental Conflict and Intactness
Director: Eileen S. Nelson, Ed.D.

Sociology
Jasmine Chloe Aherne
Honors Scholar
Intimacy in Young Adulthood and the Extent to which it is Shaped by Parental Relationships
Director: Margaret S. Plass, Ph.D.

Rachael Elizabeth Krempasky
Pink or Blue, Single or Two: A Comparative Analysis of Parental Involvement, Gender, and Student Academic Achievement
Director: Mary Lou Wylie, Ph.D.

Shehzad Nadeem
Neo-Malthusianism and the Politics of Population Growth
Director: Bruce C. Busching, Ph.D.

Theatre and Dance
Jessica L. Browne-White
Honors Scholar
Eleven in One: Jane Martin's "Talking With" as a One Woman Show
Director: Thomas H. Arthur, Ph.D.

Michelle Lynn Ferrara
Honors Scholar
Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's Celebration: A Choreographic Process
Director: John C. Bell, M.F.A.