By Elizabeth Pray
Staff Writer
Some students had more on their minds than Spring Weekend plans over the last few weeks. Fifteen students fulfilled their Honors Program requirements with presentations in Plassmann Hall to an audience of students, faculty and staff April 18-24.
Francesca DiCillo, a senior English major, chose to do her project, titled “Having it Your Way: The Food-Service Industry in Films,” on the stereotype facing workers in the fast-food industry, present in movies and the media. Her idea stemmed from personal experience.
“I noticed after I went to Europe that workers are treated differently there, and I wondered why in America I was often treated poorly just because I worked at Burger King,” DiCillo wrote in an email. “People would tell their kids that if they didn’t work hard in school, they’d end up like me, which is ridiculous considering I am an Honors student. I wondered if people were getting their ideas about how to treat workers from Hollywood.”
Psychology major Heather Creary’s project, titled “The Influence of the Proximity and Visibility of Fruits and Vegetables on Intake,” focused on how visibility of fruits and vegetables affects whether or not somebody will eat them. Her idea came from an existing assignment.
“This was an extension of my lab project that I did in spring of my junior year,” Creary wrote. “So I had already worked a little in the area.”
Creary explained how a senior capstone differs from an Honors project.
“The honors project is a year-long project, whereas most senior capstones are just a semester,” Creary wrote. “The Honors project is supposed to encompass a wider area of expertise than just your major. It can incorporate other areas that one might find interesting.”
Terence Hartnett, an English major, developed the basis of a novel for his project, entitled “Truth in Fiction: Reflecting on Novel Writing from a First Time Novelist.
“I have always wanted to write, so I was excited that the Honors project allowed a creative option,” Hartnett wrote in an email. “I could channel my interest and ambition for academic credit.”
Each presentation had a three-person committee of supervising staff members.
Rick Simpson, a professor of English, served on a few of the committees and on the Honors Council from 1979 to 2008.
“My sense is that the goals (of these projects) are to give students experience with presentation of their materials through speech and visual material to a diversified audience — some of whom are expert in the field of the project, others not,” Simpson wrote in an email. “Further, members of the audience—including members of the project committee — may deepen their own understanding of the project.”
DiCillo offered a student’s perspective on the project.
“I think the project brings out a personal interest or experience of an individual that would otherwise be ignored,” she wrote. “I think it is a good way to get further into topics that would otherwise not be explored.”
prayer10@bonaventure.edu
