At Minnesota State University, Mankato, every graduate student completes a capstone for their program. Most programs include a thesis/dissertation or alternative plan paper (APP) option, but many programs provide other capstone opportunities.
This is a collection of theses submitted by graduate students from various programs.
A thesis is an extensive original research paper resulting in a significant contribution to new knowledge.
Theses/Dissertations from 2012
Tying It All Together: An Autoethnographic Exploration of LGBTQ Forensic Competitors, Alyssa Barrie Reid
Grave Exclamations: An Analysis of Tombstones and Their Use as Narrative of Self, Lacey Jae Ritter
The Family Experience of Participating in an ICU Support Group: A Pilot Study, Rebecca Marie Scharpe
Perceptions of Risk Associated with Unintended Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections among University Women attending Minnesota State University, Mankato, Jessica Maria Seide
The Health Impacts of Nursing Shift Work, Amanda Maria Cason Shandor
Deviant Desires: Gender Resistance in Romantic Friendships Between Women during the Late-Eighteenth and Early-Nineteenth Centuries in Britain, Sophie Jade Slater
I Had an Abortion: Midwest Women, Stigma and Disclosure, Katie Stack
Nurses' Knowledge of Heart Failure Education Topics at a Regional Midwestern Hospital, Catherine Joy Standfuss
The Effect of Exercise on Endothelin and Endothelin Receptor Levels in SHR and WKY Male and Female Rats, Lacey Stiller
College Age Female Smokers and the Efficacy of Smoking Cessation on College Campuses, Gretchen Suzanne Strobel
La mentira como una estrategia de cortesía verbal: estudio pragmalinguístico de la telenovela La Saga, Maria Carolina Torres
A Feminist Content Analysis of Seventeen Magazine, Brittany Marie Trimble
Mental Illness and Stigmatization, Struther Louise Van Horn
Forensics and the Basic Communication Course: A New Path to Satisfying Learning Outcomes, Benjamin Walker
"I Now Pronounce You...Uhh": A Qualitative Autoethnographic Exploration of Women's and Men's Marital Surname-Choice Experiences, Julie Louceil Germain Walker
"Not Our Population to Serve": An Examination of Resources for Women with Physical Disabilities Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence, Kristen Lea Walters
Influences of Adjacent Land-Use on Avian Community Structure in Sub-Boreal Peatlands of the Midwest, Lucas J. Wandrie
Access and Barriers to Diabetic Self Care Education and Support Groups in a Rural Southern Minnesota Community, Elizabeth Waters
The Roles of Self-Efficacy and Self-Deception in Cheating on Unproctored Internet Testing, Christopher Adam Wedge
Refugee and Immigrant Services: An Investigation of Social Service Organization's Mission and Intercultural Interactions, Bethany J. Wenell
Negotiating the Ideological Boundaries of "The Four Freedoms": An Analysis of African American Rhetoric from World War II, Jansen Blake Werner
Electronic Portfolios as Job Search Tools: Perspectives from Students, Career Counselors, and Human Resource Professionals, Emily Werschay
Deconstructing "Chappelle's Show": Race, Masculinity,and Comedy As Resistance, Lyndsey Lynn Wetterberg
The Effectiveness Of An Incentivized Program To Increase Daily Fruit And Vegetable Dietary Intake By Low Income, Middle-Aged Women, Rebecca White
Effect of Process-Oriented Guided-Inquiry Learning on Non-Majors Biology Students' Understanding of Biological Classification, Breann Marie Wozniak
Theses/Dissertations from 2011
Assessing Transfer Student Performance, Hyderhusain Shakir Abadin
Evaluation of a Health Newsletter Intended for SagePlus Participants, Karen Lynn Anderson
Evaluation of the SagePlus Steps Program to Promote Physical Activity and Decrease Cardiovascular Risk in Low-Income Women, Callie Anne Avis
Determining a Patient Recovery from a Total Knee Replacement Using Fuzzy Logic and Active Databases, Robert Azarbod
Nonmetric Trait Correlation: A Look at Environmental and Biological Influences on Third Trochanter Formation Among Pre-Contact Upper Midwest Populations, Sarah Jean Binkley
Should You Hire fluffybunny61@yahoo.com?: An Analysis of Job Applicants' Email Addresses and their Scores on Pre-Employment Assessments, Evan Blackhurst
Defining Success: Examining What it Means to be Good in Forensics, David J. Brennan
Evaluating Changes in Families with Members on Military Deployment, Jill Brink
Floristic and Environmental Characteristics of Sub-boreal Peatlands of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin, Kevin Douglas Clement
A Multi-Method Approach to Risk Assessment among Women with Sexual Abuse Histories, Susan Elizabeth Drevo
Assessing Students' Risk Factors for Type II Diabetes at a Midwest Public University, Nicole DeCourcy Ferrian
A Duality Theory for the Algebraic Invariants of Substitution Tiling Spaces, Jeffrey Myers Ford
An Evaluation of Writing Samples by English Learners in Special Education, Brett Patrick Frayseth
La búsqueda de identidad y toma de conciencia de los cuatro personajes principales en las obras Demasiados héroes y La multitud errante de Laura Restrepo, Mauricio Garcia Vargas
The Illusion of Transparency and Public Speaking: A Study of Social Anxiety, Chelsea Gloth
Determining Exurbia: Is It Really Its Own Entity or Merely An Extension of Americas Growing Suburbia, Thomas A. Green
Utilization And Maintaining The Spirit Of Motivational Interviewing In SagePlus Lifestyle Interventions, Joan Y. Grotewold
Somali Dialects in the United States: How Intelligible is Af-Maay to Speakers of Af-Maxaa?, Deqa Hassan
Evaluation of Health Newsletter Effectiveness on Dietary Habits in Low-Income Middle-Aged Women, Nichole Jennifer Hassebroek
Documenting the Oral Narratives of Transient Punks, Thomas Ross Heffernan
Gender Perceptions in Rheumatic Disease: A Secondary Analysis, Jean Heise
The Effects of Invasion by Reed Canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) on Avian Communities and Nesting Success in Minnesota Wetlands, Emily J. Hutchins
Utilizing Music in Speech and Language Therapy for Preschool Children and Children with Autism: A Systematic Review, Joelle Kay Johanson
Hegans: An Examination of the Emerging Male Vegan, Justine Ann Johnson
Comparison of a Ranking and Rating Format of the 5Plus5: A Personality Measure, Kristy Lynn Jungemann
Assessing the Effectiveness of the Community School Model in Closing the Achievement Gap for Low Income Students of Color: A Case Study, Suzanne Pauline Kelly
Social Disorganization and Sex Offenders in Minneapolis, MN: A Socio-Spatial Analysis, Joseph Koncur
Fractured Identity - The Jagged Path of Diaspora in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices, Lisa Lamor
The Effects of Amount of Contact, Relationship Quality, and Types of Activities on Child Social and Emotional Functioning in a Youth Mentoring Program, Dorothy Maria Lipski
Class Discovery and Prediction of Tumor with Microarray Data, Bo Liu
A Functional Analysis of Elderspeak Use by Certified Nursing Assistants in Caregiving Situations, Nathaniel Joseph Lombardi
Dying Today: Perspectives of the Modern Hospice Worker, Nicholas Jay Mac Murray
An Evaluation of Factors Leading to Mentor Satisfaction, Shannon Marie Martin
Social Media Communications in Local Community Education Organizations: Researching and Implementing Social Media Communications for Rochester Community Education, Anna Marie Matetic
Empathic Development of Counselor Trainees for Difficult Clients through Film and Narrative, Kristin Elisabeth Matson
An Investigation on HIV Related Stigma to Improve HIV Prevention Efforts in North Dakota, Krissie Lynn Mayer-Guerard
Minnesota River Basin Flood Mapping and Impact Assessment, Willy J. Mekeel
The Life of Spanish Noblewomen in the Secular World and Their One Alternative: The Role of the Convent in María de Zayas' Desengaños amorosos, Maria Middleton
A Study of Turkish and English Refusal Speech Acts with a Secondary Examination for Bi-Directional Language Transferrals, Morgan Jerome Moody
Addicted Youth: The Understanding Of Smoking-Related Health Risks In Female College Students, Rebekah Agnes Ann Morris
University E-newsletters: The Implementation of Best Practices, Paula Helen Naumann
Cultural Intelligence and Collective Efficacy in Virtual Team Effectiveness, Pei See Ng
Colorful Dialogue: Talking Towards Civic Engagement, Kate Olson
Esther Tusquets' El mismo mar de todos los veranos and "Carta a la madre": The Healing Transformation of the Mother-Daughter Relationship, Julie Marie Petersen
Capturing The Unseen Experience Of Asian International Students In The United States, Martel Pipkins
The Role of Medical Training Background in Patient Satisfaction, Mariam Zia Qureshi
Relationship Type Determines the Target of Threat in Perceived Relational Devaluation: Organizational Self vs. Interpersonal Relationships, Peter Sanacore
Barriers to Using Motivational Interviewing for Lifestyle Counseling, Heidi June Sannes
Evaluation of Health Newsletters as a Motivational Tool to Promote Exercise, JoLene Schlegel
An Application of a High-P Low-P Procedure to Improve Recall Memory in Elderly Patients with Mild to Moderate Cognitive Impairment, Dawn Amber Seefeldt
A Web Based Fuzzy Data Mining Using Combs Inference Method And Decision Predictor, Shajia Akhter Sharmin
Application of the TDMA Technique Toward the Size and Charge Distribution Measurement of Graphite, Gold, Palladium, and Silver Aerosols, Matthew Paul Simones
Adolescent Substance Use: Perceptions Of Parents And Teenagers, Anthony Stadtherr
Use of Social Marketing Promotional Strategies to Create Awareness of Worksite Health Promotion Programs: A Survey of Program Coordinators, Anna Catherine Stahl
A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Distractors Identified Through Stimulus Preference Assessment Versus Caregiver Opinion, Jonathan Steele
Rhetorical Analysis of Public Policy Rhetoric: Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act of 2004 and 2010, Julie Ann Stella
Homemaker to Seductress: A Content Analysis of Gender Stereotypes in Online Embedded Advertisements, Danica L. Stith
Rapid Response Team Utilization of Modified Early Warning Scores to Improve Patient Outcomes, Nikki L. Stoffel-Lowis
A Cross Cultural Study of Disability in the United States and Brazil, Emily Kirsten Stortz
Empathy of Nurses and Family Needs in the Intensive Care Unit, Jolene Marie Tietz
Development of an Assessment Center as a Selection Method for I/O Graduate Applicants, Ting Tseng
Kindred and A Canticle for Leibowitz as Palimpsestic Novels, Sue Vander Hook
Motivational Interviewing Training And Provider Proficiency, Jeremy Jay Waldo
Investigation into the Potential Use of Windbreaks to Improve Solar Collector Performance, Michael Watts
Analysis of the Genetic Structure of Bithynia tentaculata Snail Populations in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Sarah J. Whalen
Hiking, Haiku, or Happy Hour After Hours: The Effects of Need Satisfaction and Proactive Personality on the Recovery-Strain Relationship, Paige Woodruff
Exploring the Antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Knowledge-based Virtual Communities, Luman Yong
Theses/Dissertations from 2010
Characterization of Biofilms Formed by Mycobacterium aviumn subspecies paratuberculosis in Psychologically Relevant Conditions, Richard Brunner
Democratic or Gendered Domain: Communication and Learning Styles in the Online Classroom, Jennifer Ann Bruns
