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The Tassel Is Worth The Hassle: A Case Study Of Students Experiencing Homelessness Graduating High School
Get PDFThe purpose of Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (2015) is to protect the educational rights of students experiencing homelessness across the United States. Despite the coordinated efforts of State and Local Educational Agencies to carry out these mandates and ensure equitable academic opportunities, students in unstable living conditions are graduating high school at lower rates than their housed peers both in Virginia and throughout the nation. This study investigated the facilitating factors and barriers that influence the ability of students experiencing homelessness to graduate high school. The research questions addressed facilitating factors and barriers, as well as the perceived impact of a high school diploma and recommendations for various educators and other stakeholders, using Resiliency Theory as a background theoretical framework. In this single-site case study, I interviewed six high school graduates and eight school district personnel within a selected school district in Virginia, through two researcher-developed instruments, the High School Graduate Semi-Structured Interview and the School District Personnel Semi-Structured Interview. Results revealed that all participants understood the value of the diploma as a measurement of personal success and a predictor of future options and opportunities. Additionally, relationships fostered through good communication and small community settings played a critical role in helping students feel supported and connecting them to the services they needed to be successful. Teachers and counselors, as well as McKinney-Vento staff, were vital to ensuring students’ basic, emotional, and academic needs are met. The results of this study are significant, in terms of providing scholars and practitioners insights on next steps to closing the high school graduation gap between stably and unstably housed students.EducationDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Adjective order as a word learning cue in preschool-aged children
No full textThis study examined the ability of children aged 4-6 to use adjective order to syntactically bootstrap meaning onto novel adjectives. Following the work of Beyer et al 2024, this study presented to children illustrations of pillows and accompanying strings of novel adjectives embedded into sentences. Test trials were given as a forced-choice task between two options of visual stimuli. Children did not succeed at the task, performing at chance across both trials in the study. This indicates that children were unable to bootstrap adjective meaning based solely on adjective order in the context of the study, which is in sharp contrast with their abilities to bootstrap meaning based on other syntactic structures, such as transitivity. These results lend support to the theory that adjective order is not acquired by children until a later point in time. This may be due to adjective order constraints being tied to a concept that younger children cannot utilize yet, such as subjectivity, which is not learned until roughly age 9.LinguisticsBachelors of Arts (BA
Comparative accumulation and effects of microplastics and microplastic-associated PCB-153 in the white hard clam (Meretrix lyrata) and giant river prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) following chronic exposure
No full textGlobal environmental abundance of microplastics (MPs) is increasing. MPs may sorb hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs), accumulate in and cause deleterious effects on exposed organisms. This study investigated and compared the accumulation and effects of MPs and MP-associated PCB in the two indigenous aquatic organisms in Viet Nam, the white hard clams, Meretrix lyrata, and the giant river prawns, Macrobrachium rosenbergii. The test organisms were exposed to either polyethylene microbeads (PEMBs), waterborne polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB-153), or PEMB-associated PCB-153 (PEMB-PCB) over 28 days. Organismal MP accumulation, survival, and weight gain were examined at various sampling intervals. In general, MP accumulation was significantly greater in the clams than in the prawns. A significant quantity of MPs was observed in the digestive systems of the organisms after 0.5-day and during 28-day exposure. Although the effect of MPs and MP-associated PCB-153 on mean survival rate was not statistically significant, this effect was significant towards the end of the 28-day exposure. In addition, while MP-associated PCB-153 did not significantly affect the weight gain of the prawns, it significantly reduced weight gain in clams. Given the global increases of MPs and HOCs (and in southeast Asia specifically), and the importance of the hard clams and giant river prawns in the Indo-Pacific region, this present study provides valuable data to enhance our understanding of the effects of MPs and HOCs on these species.Virginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Developing Politics While Detained: How Juvenile Incarceration Impacts Political Participation and Behavior
No full textCarceral contact and childhood socialization matters, but we know little about how early encounters with carcerality mold political socialization. In this study, I examine a) if juvenile detention is a socializing agent, and b) how juvenile incarceration can shape political engagement and participation. I find that those incarcerated in their youth were less likely to be politically engaged but more likely to have negative feelings towards the criminal justice system compared to those first incarcerated as adults. Through semi-structured interviews of 8 people first incarcerated in their youth and 7 people first incarcerated in adulthood from Virginia, this paper analyzes removal from socializing agents like families and schools and juvenile detention’s influence. This study implies that juvenile detention can be a non-restorative institution and calls for a focus on civic healing for youth who have learned to be politically disengaged.GovernmentBachelors of Arts (BA
"Of Colonial And Historic Flavor": Food And Memory In Williamsburg, Virginia
No full textThis dissertation explores the relationship between food and memory in Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg itself has a unique relationship to historical memory. It was the capital of the colony of Virginia from 1699 to 1780. After the capital moved to Richmond, Williamsburg did not develop into a major city, unlike other colonial capitals like Boston or Philadelphia. Consequently, the eighteenth-century city plan, and many of the buildings, survived. In 1926, John D. Rockefeller Jr. and the Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin established Colonial Williamsburg, which today is the largest living history museum in the country. Colonial Williamsburg is not just a museum; it is an experience, where visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the eighteenth century. Using letters, diaries, account books, postcards, menus, and other ephemera, this dissertation argues that food has been an essential part of creating historical memory and identity in Williamsburg from the eighteenth century to the present. It connected eighteenth-century residents with each other and with their cultural identity. Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century residents of Williamsburg used food to reinforce visions of the city’s glorious colonial past. In the twentieth century, Colonial Williamsburg used food as an important tool to connect visitors to the eighteenth-century past, and citizens of Williamsburg used it to put forth their own interpretations and understandings of the past, separate from those promoted by Colonial Williamsburg. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that food has a central and compelling role in the public historiography in Williamsburg, one which enables new understandings of how historical interpretation in the city has changed over time.HistoryDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
Fish Detectives: Identifying and Classifying Fishes Using a Dichotomous Key
Get PDFGrades: 4-8. Subjects: Life Science | Biology | Oceanography Understanding how a dichotomous key can be utilized to explore how to identify and a group of fishes based on their physical characteristics.Virginia Institute of Marine Scienc
Breaking and Setting the Pattern: European Influences on Early Catalan Nationalism
No full textDuring the development of the Catalan nationalist political tradition between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, early Catalanist thinkers drew heavily from the examples of their European and American contemporaries. As Catalonia developed an industrial base and began celebrating its linguistic and cultural heritage during the nineteenth century, it increasingly looked outwards. Seeing themselves as more European than Spanish, Catalanist desperately wished to modernize their region and nation. To this end, Catalanists developed a very specific and Eurocentric standard for civilizations that they thought critical for national development. This work traces the development of this model, what it entailed, how it emerged in reaction to perceived Spanish failures and European successes, how it was wielded to criticize the Spanish Restoration state, and what it implied for Catalonia's national aspirations.HistoryBachelors of Arts (BA
A Methodology For The Visualization Of 3D Petroglyph Data As Applied To Rock Markings Of The Eastern United States
No full textAs a visual testament to the complexity of ancient peoples, rock markings have long captivated the public imagination. More recently, the archaeological field has witnessed a renaissance in rock marking scholarship as researchers increasingly recognize both the continued importance of these features to descendant communities and their potential to inform our understandings of antiquity. In the semiotic content of petroglyphs and pictographs, many archaeologists see an opportunity to access otherwise irretrievable details of past belief systems. Yet, attempts to engage with this content are complicated by the immense challenge researchers face in delineating the boundaries and details of rock markings. Sketches, charcoal rubbings, and – since the advent of photography – pictures of chalk-marked stones comprise just a few of the subjective recording methods applied to documenting these features. As a result, entirely different drawings often exist for the same petroglyphs, and from their widely divergent starting points scholars have unsurprisingly arrived at antipodal interpretations. In the last couple decades, archaeologists have brought new technology to bear on this subject. Increasingly prevalent in the documentation of rock markings are three-dimensional recording techniques such as digital photogrammetry, LiDAR, and structured-light scanning. Despite a growing body of 3D spatial data, we still lack a comprehensive and objective methodology for making appropriate use of this new class of information. This study presents new techniques for leveraging the data potential of 3D petroglyph scans in the creation of objective visualizations of rock markings. It outlines and then demonstrates a process of uniform manipulations performed on 3D petroglyph data in CloudCompare, a free 3D modelling software, for the purpose of achieving improved visual contrast of rock carvings. It also evaluates some existing methods and tools for colorizing images on stone. The methodology offered here can contribute significantly to petroglyph research as it fulfills the need for a systematic route to increasing glyph clarity, yet does so in a more objective manner than traditional segmentation techniques. In this role, it has the capacity to make visible previously unidentified markings. The use of this process on a dataset primarily from the Eastern United States facilitated the discovery of unrecognized petroglyphs at known petroglyph sites. Moreover, this process may prove applicable to other archaeological problems, such as reading eroded gravestones.AnthropologyMaster of Arts (M.A.
Fantasy And Fortune: The Empress Of China On The Eyes Of Early America / Open Sesame: How Ginseng Made The Early Americans Presence In Canton
No full textOn February 22, 1784, the Empress of China, as the first American ship to sail from the United States to China, departed the levee of New York Harbor and bounded up to the Chinese waters on what was projected as a long, challenging, but lucrative voyage. But in narrating so, we overlook the economic reach that held the newly nation’s political ambition. By revisiting the period of fifty years surrounding the voyage of the Empress of China (1783-1833), this study examines how this previously profit-driven China venture gradually had a political reach. In doing so, this study locates that the new federal state’s success in accessing China also represented the Early Republic’s ability to keep its political independence. Hence, the voyage both buttressed the infant republic’s political legitimacy and demonstrated that the US desired a place in the world to be taken seriously. In light of this, policymakers, private capitalists, and the public seized upon the Empress of China as a symbol to project their hopes for the new republic’s prosperity and independence./ Bearing the hopes for the new republic’s prosperity and independence, the Empress of China was mainly loaded with silver as the currency to trade with China and ginseng as the goods to export to China. Among these cargoes shipped to China, American ginseng stands out for its large quantity, early American merchants’ high hopes placed on it, and its predominantly economic return. By investigating how the early American merchants chose ginseng as the major commodity to trade with China, this research shows how they mobilized a knowledge network and took advantage of the nation’s natural ginseng resources to open the Chinese market. It also demonstrates the entangled intellectual and cultural worlds of Europeans, Asians, and Americans, the decisions made by American merchants relied on their previous experience as citizens of Great Britain as well as their relationship with indigenous suppliers of ginseng, and American merchants’ determination and effort to leverage their knowledge and resources to occupy a prominent position within a fluid global market.HistoryMaster of Arts (M.A.