Preston Bartels
Major: History/Religious Studies
Thesis Title: Lackawanna Leisure: Yemenites, Soccer, & Integration
Thesis Summary: This thesis explores how the Yemenite community of Lackawanna, New York, preserved their cultural heritage while integrating into a predominately White and Catholic city. By looking specifically at the institutions created by the Yemenites, such as the Yemen Soccer Club, the Yemenite Benevolent Association, and the Lackawanna Mosque, evidence of their heritage being maintained is evident in the face of positive and negative interaction from the rest of the Lackawanna community. From this thesis it is shown that, over generations, the Yemenite community has served to make Lackawanna a better place while working towards being seen as Americans.
Olivia Robertson
Major: Psychology
Thesis Title: College Students with Psychiatric Disability and their Perceptions of Social Support
Thesis Summary: Psychiatric disability (also known as mental illness) is still a widely stigmatized topic that affects many, including college students. There have been numerous programs implemented by the government and universities to break down psychiatric disability stigma; however, their effectiveness is not well documented. My honors thesis investigates the relationship between psychiatric disability and perceived social support in college students. Essentially, I am researching how college students with psychiatric disabilities are affected by their perceived levels of social support, demographic factors, perceived stigma toward psychiatric disability, and general levels of well-being.
Jaiden Fulton
Major: Criminology/Criminal Justice
Thesis Title: Media Depiction of Female Offenders
Thesis Summary: Criminological theories and empirical research studies developed to understand and explain female criminality are often based on male offenders, with little regard to the experience of female offenders. Feminist criminology is dedicated to the study of women and crime, as well as why female offenders engage in offending behaviors. Past victimization and understanding the victim-to-offender overlap is used by feminist criminology to explain the patterns of offending in women. Currently, there is a lack of research focused on female offenders which also contributes to a lack of knowledge within the general public surrounding women who commit crimes. This study uses research conducted on the popular television show “Criminal Minds”(2005) to understand and illustrate how the media views female offenders based on their perceptions and knowledge of female criminality. The results indicated that not only does “Criminal Minds” rarely show female offenders, but when they do, the information regarding the female offenders is media stereotypical and does not share the truth of female offenders. Furthermore, the results share a finding of a lack of knowledge surrounding female criminality and female offenders, which is then creating a harmful, false narrative to the public.
Sarah Waldmiller
Major: Chemistry
Thesis Title: HPLC Method Development for Select Cholesteryl Esters
Thesis Summary: My thesis is diving into developing an HPLC method to analyze pairs of cholesteryl esters that are used in the production of Cholestosomes. Each pair requires a slightly different method due to the nature of the molecules. The importance of developing these methods is because in order to provide analysis for theoretical calculations and dosing there needs to be a method of reliable analysis.
Julianna Struzik
Major: Childhood Special Education
Thesis Title: A Comparative Study of the ELA and Math Curricular and Instructional Framework in Nature-Based and Public Kindergarten
Thesis Summary: This thesis compared the ELA and math curriculum programs between nature-based schools and public schools in Ontario, Canada and Western NY. Forest schools encourage academic exploration and inquiry, with academic and social-emotional learning occuring in forest classrooms and open outdoor spaces. The project consisted of interviews with both nature-based schools and public schools, and further analysis of programming and work samples occurred. Academic content learned between the kindergarten settings proved to be fairly consistent, but nature-based learning opportunities lended themselves to further social-emotional development and increased problem-solving opportunities.
Sebastian Newell
Major: Theatre Design/Production, Art History/Museum Studies
Thesis Title: Knitting History Through a Gendered Lens (this title may change slightly in the interim if possible)
Thesis Summary: This thesis analyzes various points in hand-knitting history which reveals patterns in not only the gender of the “average knitter,” but also their age, class, education, and rights. Structure-wise, this thesis will survey several well-documented periods of knitting history ranging from medieval Parisian knitting guilds to American twentieth century war effort knitting, analyzing several variables in each instance that pushed knitting to be considered masculine or feminine.
Keith Elgar
Major: Nursing
Thesis Title: Treatment of the Developmentally Disabled Patient
Thesis Summary: I am exploring the treatment of the developmentally disabled patient in the hospitals. This includes patients with down syndrome, autism and any other developmental disability. From my experiences in the hospital, this topic interested me as I have had the opportunity to see firsthand how nurses interact with them and how these patients feel in the hospital.
Janell Steed
Major: Sports Management
Thesis Title: Coaching and Administrative Staff Greatly Impact Female Player Development On and Off the Court
Thesis Summary: We are undertaking this study to gather data needed to help provide insight between coaching, administrative staff, and players to provide player development by contributing to overall program success. Coach-athlete relationships, supportive coaching styles, and comprehensive administrative support promote positive motivation and overall development for female athletes. Studies prove that these relationships and coaching styles promote athlete satisfaction, which leads to the overall success of the program and individual athletes. This is important to me because as a former student athlete I feel my feel my experience in high school would have lead to a greater path if everything in this study was taken into consideration.
Alexandra Kiedrowski
Major: Biology/Computer Information Sciences
Thesis Title: Impact of Auxiliary Metabolic Genes on Cyanobacterial Populations in Meromictic Lakes
Thesis Summary: My work focuses on bacteriophages, viruses that infect only bacteria, in two local lakes, Devil’s Bathtub (Rochester, NY) and Fayetteville Green Lake (Syracuse, NY). We use these lakes as our model because they are permanently chemically stratified, and we can easily target phages and their bacterial hosts within the water column. My thesis focuses on the relationship between the phages and their bacterial hosts. When phages replicate they have the ability to integrate their genetic information into the host, and when it excises itself, it can take an auxiliary metabolic gene from its current host to a new host. While the phage does this to enrich the host to support the reproduction of more phages, we are additionally studying how the phages are able to influence changes to the bacterial populations and their effect on carbon cycling within the lake.
Grace Kamvakis
Major: Criminology/Psychology 2025
Thesis Title: Uncensored: How Have Trends of Sexual Content in Popular Music Changed Over Time?
Thesis Summary: Through the coding and analysis of four hundred top rated songs, this study quantitatively creates a clear image of relevant music trends. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how trends of sexual content in popular music have changed over the last decade. Each song was evaluated by measuring the frequency of adjectives, key phrases, derogatory language, and body parts used in lyrics. The study also compared the sex of artist and the year the song was written to the presence of sexual content in the songs.
Mary Lennon
Major: Tourism Destination Management
Thesis Title: A World of Magic: The Influence of Culture on Disney’s Theme Parks
Thesis Summary: Disney theme parks are immersive experiences that incorporate local traditions, histories, and social norms into their design, food, rides, entertainment, and guest services. My thesis explores how the six global Disney theme parks adapt to cultural expectations while maintaining Disney’s signature brand identity. Through comparative analysis, this study demonstrates that Disney’s success lies in blending classic storytelling with culturally specific elements. Ultimately, culture is not just an aesthetic addition but a fundamental aspect that shapes the guest experience in Disney theme parks worldwide.
Corinne Kleiner
Major: Biology
Thesis Title: Development and Characterization of Thermosensitive Liposomes as an Aqueous Delivery System
Thesis Summary: This study aims to develop an effective theromsensitive liposome composition that can serve as a targeted drug delivery system to the tumor microenvironment. We explore the effects of MPPC lipid composition on thermosensitivity and encapsulation release.
Dominic Ciraolo
Major: Childhood Special Education (1-6)
Thesis Title: Teachers’ Perceptions of Literacy Levels and Their Impact on Content-Area Achievement
Thesis Summary: The goal of this study is to obtain a better understanding of how literacy levels affect a student’s content-area achievement. Interviewing current and former K-12 teachers can give us a better understanding of how teachers view this relationship between literacy and content-area achievement as well as give us their personal experiences with it. The data collected from this study can be used to express the importance of this relationship, as well as give new and current teachers a better idea of how to support their students when their literacy level is affecting their achievement in the content-areas.
Julia Colabufo
Major: Psychology
Thesis Title: SES and Mock Juror Sentencing Decisions for Mexican-American Defendants
Thesis Summary: My study explores how stereotypes about Mexican Americans and socioeconomic status (SES) might influence sentencing outcomes in the U.S., moving beyond the traditional Black-White racial comparisons. Mexican Americans are often criminalized due to stereotypes related to their ethnic association with immigration and crime, and low SES amplifies negative biases, potentially leading to harsher sentences compared to higher SES defendants. By integrating stereotype activation theory, the present study investigated how unconscious biases related to stereotypes and SES may affect juror perceptions and sentencing decisions.
Duncan Miller
Major: Mathematics
Thesis Title: Verification of the Diffuse Interface and Differential Equation Methods of an Interface
Thesis Summary: I essentially started by learning specific techniques from differential geometry and partial differential equations. From there, I applied these things and some other outside techniques to a paper by Piermarco Fonda et al. entitled “Interface Geometry of Binary Mixtures on Curved Substrates.” Our work outlines specific examples from the paper that were presented and looked into them using both models to verify their credibility. Both methods have been used to solve these things, but from what we have seen, a direct comparison of both methods has never been done. We also used software like excel and python to do these things numerically, as doing it entirely theoretically would take an extremely long time and would require more understanding of the topic at hand.
Stephen Fronczak
Major: Actuarial Science
Thesis Title: Benford’s Law and its Applications in Data Fraud Analysis
Thesis Summary: Benford’s Law analyzes digit frequencies in data sets to detect fraud. This law has been used by many examiners to identify fraudulent data sets. Real-world applications include examining accounting, economic, and financial data.
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