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Women in the Shahnameh: A look at Representation of Women in the Shahnameh and how it Connects to Iranian Identity and the Fight for Female Autonomy in Iran
No full textThis capstone is a personal exploration of my identity as an Iranian woman through the use of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran. My capstone is a combination of summaries of female characters from the Shahnameh and reflections on these stories from me and some close female relatives. When reflecting, I focused on: patterns between each of these stories; parallels between these stories and the current fight for female autonomy in Iran; how these stories connect to my own identity as an Iranian woman; and how women are represented in a story so integral to Iranian identity. The stories discussed in this project are those of Gordafarid, Qaydafeh, Sindokht, and Homay
Coming of Age in an Interface
No full textThis autoethnographic essay explores the role digital technology has played in shaping my social life and sense of selfhood. As someone who grew up online and later studied computer science, I write from the dual perspective of both \u27user\u27 and builder. Through personal narrative and media theory, I trace how my relationship to the internet has shifted across childhood, middle school, high school, college, and now, moving toward a future shaped by platform fatigue, digital nostalgia, and a desire for more intentional connection. I draw on cultural critics and theorists such as E.M. Forster, Guy Debord, Olia Lialina, Jia Tolentino, and Grafton Tanner to examine how social media platforms structure our interactions and performances of identity. Ultimately, this project reflects on how online spaces have both enabled and constrained my ability to connect, and what it might mean to log on differently in the years to come
Sortase A: Extended and Endogenous Binding Models
No full textIn Gram-positive bacteria, the Sortase A enzyme (SrtA) catalyzes the ligation of other anchored proteins to the cell surface. The cysteine transpeptidase’s ability to recognize an LPXTG cell wall sorting signal along the substrate and cleave has led to the development of several biochemical applications for the enzyme. Yet, our understanding of the influence of substrate amino acids beyond the LPXTG pentapeptide motif is limited. By understanding how substrate sequence impacts activity, we can expand the versatility of current and future SrtA methods. We applied two models to explore positions along the N-terminus of the cell wall sorting signal (CWSS). The first model was an extension of the LPXTG motif, XLPATG (X = I, P, S, A, D, N, M, G, R, and W). The XLPATG sequences were tested with four SrtA variants for impacts on enzyme activity. The second model sequence was KRQLPSTGE, a Streptococcus pyogenes SrtA (spySrtA) substrate sequence, which was tested with spySrtA. Initial FRET kinetic assays of XLPATG found that Streptococcus agalactiae and Listeria monocytogenes SrtA had little flexibility beyond LPXTG. Yet, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes SrtA demonstrated that amino acids in the X position (P5) influenced activity. The KRQLPSTGE model was applied to both FRET assays and Alpha Fold 3 (AF3) modeling and supported the results of the XLPATG assays. Additionally, biochemical and structural analysis supported potential interactions between spySrtA and R/Q substrate residues. This data provides substantial proof that the current CWSS LPXTG model doesn’t fully account for all influential amino acids within Sortase substrates
Advancing Conservative Agendas Under the Guise of Neutrality: An Analysis of Utah’s Higher Education System
No full textThis article examines the use of institutional neutrality and free speech policies in Utah\u27s higher education system. Over the past two years, legislators have been putting new policies in place for universities regarding requirements for free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint neutrality. While crafting these policies that built off one another, the legislature passed an anti-DEI bill, which further disenfranchised many students, faculty, and staff on campuses across the state. This article examines how these policies came to be and how they have been utilized to push forward a conservative agenda, including pressuring institutions to break neutrality to uphold legislators\u27 beliefs
NSEA Camp Educator Intern
No full textIn the Summer 2025, I joined the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association (NSEA) as a Camp Educator Intern for their program Camp Keystone. Bringing environmental education to life for children ages 3-6. Over nine weeks, I helped design and lead hands-on, nature-based activities driven by campers curiosity, weaving their interests into and emergent curriculum. Through stories, games, and creative projects, I introduced preschoolers to the five species of Pacific salmon and guided them through the salmon lifecycle. Rooted in NSEA’s mission of salmon recovery, my role as Camp Educator combined early childhood education with environmental awareness, fostering both wonder and awareness for the next generation
Skagit YMCA Camp Anderson Counselor
No full textThrough this educational experience, I not only had the opportunity of working with more than one hundred amazing children over the span of eight weeks, but I also got to build relationships and skills with various groups of people and kids. Working with a team of people from different backgrounds and skills who are dedicated to making the outdoors a comfortable and safe place for kids to explore, as well as fostering an environment for kids to have fun was beyond rewarding
One Hundred
Get PDFOne Hundred reclaims the imaginative potential of daily life. An enactment of generative interdependence and sustainable unknowing, One Hundred seeks the boundless creativity of youth through improvisational inquiry and selfless making. Fulfilling a list of wishes and directives of four-to-eight-year-old students from five Bellingham preschools and elementaries, the project documents one hundred consecutive days of practicing newness. Between November 20, 2024, and February 27, 2025, the author was given something new to try or make or do each day. She did not know her day’s work in advance. Each morning, she opened an envelope prepared by her advisor and adapted. If given a familiar task, she made it new. If given the impossible, she made it possible. Completed amidst a hectic schedule of coursework and volunteer employment, the questions posed by One Hundred are immense. How do we maintain daily transformation? How do we redefine routine? How do we cultivate creativity in the face of deadlines and depletion? While its answers are many, what One Hundred insists upon is remembering what we’ve lost along the way.
[A transcript to the video is included below as a supplementary file.
WWU Spatial Institute Internship
Get PDFMy coursework prior to this internship provided me with a solid basis in understanding the nature of geography and GIS, technical GIS skills, and critical considerations surrounding mapping. Through the introductory GIS sequence, I became comfortable in ArcGIS software, and the cartographic, analytical, and research skills needed to understand and create spatial data and GIS projects. Meanwhile, my environmental studies courses have provided me with valuable ethical and historical frameworks to consider environmental problems I may be working on through
Dioxasilinanes: Advancing Carbonyl Reductions and Silicon-Based Protecting Groups
Get PDFThe reduction of carbonyl compounds is a cornerstone of organic synthesis, essential for the construction of complex molecules. This report presents a novel methodology for carbonyl reductions, in which tetra-n-butylammonium triphenyldifluorosilicate (TBAT)-catalyzed hydrosilylation of β-hydroxyketones leads to the formation of dioxasilinane products. These cyclic, silicon-containing intermediates offer significant synthetic utility: an aqueous workup yields desilylated 1,3-diols, while treatment with nucleophilic reagents enables regioselective ring-opening to afford differentiated 1,3-diols. The selective protection of the secondary alcohol as a diphenylmethylsilyl (DPMS) ether is achieved when methyl lithium (MeLi) is used as the nucleophile. This efficient and improved method for the formation and isolation of dioxasilinanes from β-hydroxyketones is used in the formation of several diastereoselective dioxasilinane and DPMS ether products
Lineage of Love
No full textHow can we heal the world? Love. Lineage of Love is a manuscript of poetry created in response to the call of love- the most powerful force in creation. This manuscript participates in the generational joining and unjoining of hands- the ancestral connection I call a lineage of love. In this lineage of love, we see all the places where love is present and all the places where love is needed. Through nommo, I bridge the gap between nations and generations, calling each reader to speak from love and act in love. I call on the words of ancestors such as Dr. Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and Malcolm X as I seek their wisdom in hopes of illuminating the purest love through poetry