The mortality rate for African American mothers is nearly three times higher than white women and African American infants’ mortality rate is double the rate of white infants (Devido, Appelt, & Szalla, 2019, p. 1). Research has shown racism remains a prominent problem for the contemporary healthcare industry, with high mortality rates due to inequities in healthcare caused by racism, including stress, restricted access to healthcare, and mistrust in medical professionals amongst the African American community (Devido et al., 2019). In this analysis, the legacy of historical racism was explored in relation to its continued impact on the present-day treatment of pregnant African American women within the healthcare industry. A key finding was that African American women do not trust the healthcare system or the healthcare professionals due to: 1. awareness of historical inequities in healthcare provision; 2. awareness of the inequities experienced daily within the African American community; 3. awareness of the high mortality rates of pregnant African American women and babies; 4. personal experiences of the disparities in healthcare either directly or by community members. Specific strategies were identified to combat systemic and overt racism and to build trust within African American communities to directly increase the rate of survival for expectant African American women and their newborns. First, the active hiring of African American medical professionals by healthcare facilities, especially in those that serve African American communities. Second, the implementation of education, awareness, and inclusivity training to all healthcare professionals and providers to address and combat the issues and behaviors underlying the major disparities and systemic issues. However, given the embedded and systemic problems and the challenges of substantive change, healthcare provision for pregnant African Americans and their newborns should include high quality community-led and community-based healthcare and support.

The thesis represented here was for my Honors undergraduate thesis project, which explored the social stigma of disability and its representational differences between congenital and acquired disability within the user comments in an online forum of discussion. Existing literature on Critical Disability Studies and Rehabilitative Psychology has noted the nature of disability stigma and lack of accurate representation in social settings as well as the ramifications that follow. (Mis)representations of disability can result in bias, inaccessibility, and other social ramifications such as microaggressions because of the long history of oppression and stigmatization that disabled individuals have experienced (Keller & Galgay, 2010). Data was collected from two online forums addressing disability stigma and analyzed using both deductive coding and inductive emergent analysis of recurrent themes, experiences, or ideas that were expressed in user comments. Analysis of user comments helped address the goal of this research which aimed to explore stigma, identity, and disability within a representational context. This thesis, then, wanted to better understand disability stigma by analyzing the representational differences (if any) of congenital and acquired disabled user’s comments.

This creative project is a compilation of the research of three Latin countries, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and the influence on popular cuisines. The project focuses on how colonization and indigenous cultures from the respective countries blended and created fusion foods. The project findings will ultimately be compiled into an interactive recipe book. By examining Latin immigrant recipes and their different variations, as well as the history of certain ingredients and their usages, I understood that the history of these recipes is not black and white. Researching certain ingredients helped me understand what pattern in history I was looking for when it came to indigenous recipes to the country and what was influenced. I sought out the roots of these famous recipes expecting to find how European and national roots influenced them. Further research indicated that fusion foods were not experimental recipes but a modernized fusion of the roots.

When one pursues a Bachelor's degree they are generally under the impression that the degree they are after will provide them with the necessary skills and knowledge to enter their career at entry-level. This is not the case for all students in every degree program. Many times Bachelor's degree holders find it difficult to enter the field. The goal of this paper is to identify gaps or discrepancies between Arizona State University's (ASU’s) Applied Computing (ACO) - Cybersecurity program's learning objectives and industry requirements for entry-level positions in the cybersecurity industry. The data used in this textual analysis were gathered from several popular employment websites and ACO course syllabi. Using this relatively small data pool several gaps were identified between the cybersecurity industry; the private and public sectors job listing requirements; and ASU's ACO course objectives. By analyzing the gaps found in the data, I have been able to provide many suggestions for ASU and some for the cybersecurity industry to implement to better prepare ACO students for entry-level cybersecurity industry positions.