Honors Projects
Display of Honors contracts, projects, and reflections not displayed on previous pages
Fall 2023: SPEA-J 202
Honors Contract for SPEA-J 202
Title: Law Enforcement Methods in Small Towns vs. Big Cities
I am choosing to do my honors contract in SPEA-J 202 Criminal Justice Data Methods and Resources. This course discusses the research and analysis of the criminal justice system.
My project will be focused on the research I will do on how law enforcement officers work in their day-to-day lives by using participant observation. To do this research, I will be going on a ride-along and taking notes with an officer in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and one with an officer in the Covington Police Department in my hometown. I will compare the experience of an officer in a larger metropolitan area with that of an officer in a small town. After partaking in the ride-along in both areas, I will go through my notes and observations and write a journal detailing my experience during the ride-along and the observations I made. Following the completion of both journals, I will write a paper explaining what participant observation entails and how it connects to the SPEA-J 202, a summary of my notes and journals, and a reflection. The final paper will be approximately 5 pages. I will submit the paper along with my journal including the notes and journal entries to Dr. Loftus at the end of the semester.
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Approximate Schedule:
September 8: Submit honors contract for approval
September 11-15: Meet with Dr. Loftus to finetune details of project and activity
September 16-17: Contact police departments to schedule ride-along
October 1-31: Go on a ride-along with both departments, write down observations, and complete journal entries
November 1-14: Meet with Dr. Loftus and make connections between observations and class material
November 15-30: Compile journal entries and write a paper
December 1-8: Revise paper for submission
December 11: Turn in the final project
Engaged Learning Experience(s):
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Research: This project will require me to do research on law enforcement officers.
Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success Skill(s):
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Communication: To schedule a ride-along, I will need to communicate with the police departments. I will then have to communicate with the officers during the ride-along to conduct my research.
Summary:
This is an example of my honors contract for my first semester at the IUPUI Honors College. This project was a research project studying the differences and similarities between rural and urban policing in Indiana.
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Reflection:
This project was very enjoyable. I did two ride-alongs with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department downtown district and one with Covington Police Department. I took field notes and completed journals. I learned about how law enforcement officers operate in their every day lives. This experience helped me understand the struggles police officers go through and what sort of training they need.
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Spring 2024: SPEA-J 205
Honors Contract for SPEA-J 205
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Title: Prosecutors and Public Defenders
I am choosing to do my honors contract in SPEA-J 205 Juvenile Justice. This course discusses the juvenile aspect of the criminal justice system.
My project will be focused on researching the life of a prosecutor and a public defender. I will conduct this research by shadowing an individual in each field. After the shadows, I will write a short summary of my experience with each job. Along with shadowing each person, I will be conducting interviews about their views and opinions on their careers. I will schedule the interviews and shadows through Professor Jefferson, who has connections to the offices I must go through. I plan to record the interviews to allow other students insight into the careers and lives of these positions as well, with permission from those I am interviewing. I will then be able to compare and contrast the two fields. This will allow me to create my own opinions on the careers and provide experience on which to base my future endeavors. Following these events, I will reflect on my experiences and write a reflection paper. The end product I will create is a combination of summaries, interviews, and a reflection on the experience as a whole. I will submit all of these to Professor Jefferson by April 26th or sooner.
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Approximate Schedule:
January 26: Submit honors contract for approval
February 1: Schedule a meeting with Professor Jefferson
February 2-8: Have a meeting to discuss more details of the project
February 9-16: Schedule a time to shadow prosecutor and public defender
February 19 – March 29: Shadow the prosecutor and public defender and conduct interviews
April 1-5: Have a second meeting to discuss shadow and interviews
April 26: Turn in the final project
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Engaged Learning Experience(s):​
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Research: This project will require me to research the life of a prosecutor and a public defender.
Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success Skill(s):
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Communication: To schedule the shadows and interviews, I will need to communicate with Professor Jefferson and both people I will be interviewing. The interviews and shadows will also consist of communication.
Summary:
This is one of my favorite projects I have done. It was from my second semester with the Honors College. I provided the summary paper I wrote following the experience below.
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Reflection:
To start this project, I began with planning with my professor. I was able to set up a time and shadow a public defender in the juvenile court of Marion county. During that time, I was able to watch a few different cases play out in court and spend time with multiple public defenders. This allowed me to learn about what the day-to-day routine of a public defender looks like. Following that experience, I conducted an interview with the public defender I shadowed and one with a prosecutor. I wanted to include the prosecutor to see the differences between the two jobs and what each entails.
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Summer 2024: HON-H 398
Honors Contract for HON-H 389
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Title: Austrian Society
I am choosing to do my honors contract using HON-H 398 Honors International Experience, which will allow me to gain credit for honors while studying abroad in Vienna, Austria. This will go along with the course PS 343B Psychology and Society in Vienna, which is about the history and development of psychology in Vienna.
My project will be connecting with the Austrian culture and discovering the issues in their society today. To do this research, I will be asking natives and looking at news outlets, like papers and television. After looking to these sources for information, I will come up with the top five predominate subjects in Austrian society. I will then write one page on each of the topics. I will be asking the question: What mindsets have led to these topics being on the rise? I will also pick one subject that connects to my Psychology and Society course and write another three to five pages diving more in-depth into the topic and how it relates to what I have learned in the class. I will work with Dr. McIntosh to discuss my topics and refine my final product by doing check-ins throughout the summer. I will submit my final product as an eight to ten-page paper to be reviewed by Dr. McIntosh before the completion of my time abroad, along with a reflection on the whole experience.
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​Approximate Schedule:
May 11: Submit honors contract for approval
May 27-31: Begin conducting research
June 3-7: Have a meeting with Dr. McIntosh about ideas for topics
June 10-14: Decide on the five topics and write the first section; also decide on one topic to expand further
June 17-21: Do more research to write the final section and write reflection
June 24: Turn in the final project
Engaged Learning Experience(s):
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Research: This project will require me to do research in the form of literary research as well as research in social spaces.
Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success Skill(s):
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Communication: I will need to use communication to talk with others about what they believe the top problems in Austrian society are. I will also need to communicate to find out the best sources of information in regard to news outlets.
Summary:
This is an example of an honors contract I did during the summer while I was studying abroad. This project was focused on researching the country I lived in for six weeks.
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Reflection:
For this project, I first conducted research by translating newspapers I would find at my favorite cafe in Vienna. I also spoke to different natives of the country to find out what they believed to be the most pressing issues in Austria. Once I decided on five main topics, I did my own research using scholarly articles and simple google searches. I wrote a paper detailing my findings and then chose one topic to expand further on. This led to one page for each topic and another five pages on the topic that I found the most interesting.
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