This thesis intends to explore the virtual working environment that this country’s future workforce will encounter, with an emphasis on my experience as a Procurement Financial Analyst Intern at Boeing this past summer. The events that have unfolded this year, due to the global reach of the novel CoronaVirus pandemic, have led to an unprecedented change in the way in which a majority of America’s corporations have been forced to operate. Businesses have told their employees to stay home and this has dramatically changed the workforce’s paradigm. The uncertainty of the duration of this new paradigm affects everyone from top-level management in decision making, to global recruitment teams, to college students searching for their first jobs in a worldwide market downturn.

In recent events, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been under fire for not creating a way for student-athletes to make money. However, after pressure from legislatures in multiple states, the NCAA decided to adopt a solution for collegiate athletes to receive compensation. Taking effect in January 2021, student-athletes will be able to obtain monetary awards. However, the NCAA has yet to release concrete rules regarding how student-athletes will receive compensation. By analyzing the history, economics, current structure, and various interviews with collegiate athletes, a pragmatic solution is extrapolated. College sports is the only place in the United States that does not allow individuals to make money off their market-driven talents, often leading to students leaving college before graduation. However, a solution exists for student-athletes to justly receive compensation without negatively affecting their sport, school, and graduation. This thesis seeks to deliver a logical solution to this situation.

As recent statistics from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) show, “in the United States, food waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply…at the retail and consumer levels, correspond[ing] to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010” (“Food Loss and Waste | FDA”, 2020). Not only is excess food waste an economic problem for numerous companies, it’s unsustainable and inefficient when there could be the potential for learning and implementing innovative solutions, both on a large and small scale. The research from this creative project will focus on comparing The Walt Disney Company’s current food waste sustainability practices at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, with Arizona State University’s (ASU’s) local Aramark Catering Services practices and initiatives throughout the Tempe campus’ dining halls. Specifically, the thesis will explore the benefits of anaerobic digesters and The Walt Disney Company’s use of anaerobic digesters at their Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts as a central means of converting food waste material into renewable natural gas. It will also explore Aramark’s current food waste management processes, specifically composting with the City of Phoenix’s industrial-grade composting yard, and the potential for implementing anaerobic digestion via a partnership with the City of Mesa into or in place of their current processes on ASU’s Tempe campus in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that music festivals have on the local region. In the context of this paper, this will include not only the financial impact of these events but also the social consequences that may impact the local economy both directly and indirectly. The metrics used to gauge the impact of these festivals include the number of people these events attract, the capital that comes with these people, the impact the influx of people have on the local market, the impact the influx of people have on local crime rates, and the actions the host regions take to accommodate current and future events. While music festivals as a general concept will be discussed, the area of focus will be directed towards both the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the country music festival Stagecoach. Concurrently, the impact these festivals have on their host region of the Greater Palm Springs Area and host city of Indio will be a focus of analysis. Because music festivals have become highly organized, well-funded, and well-advertised over the past decades, cities and regions are likely to experience significant financial gains by hosting and assisting with the execution of these events within their area.

According to the 2010 census, 40 million people living in the United States were foreign-born, meaning they were not U.S. citizens at birth (2). The Harvard Business Review also said that "In 2017, strong growth across most of the world propelled the DHL Global Connectedness Index to a record high. The proportions of trade, capital, information, and people flow crossing national borders all increased significantly" (7). With the U.S. being a cultural "mixing pot" and the world being more globalized than ever before, we must incorporate global citizenship education in our school systems. Growing Global is a creative project thesis that explores the idea of a global citizenship after-school program for youth in the Tempe Public School District. The outcomes of this project will be a proposal for the program, a curriculum outline including three examples of lesson plans [see Exhibit 1], student surveys for measuring curriculum effectiveness [see Exhibit 3], and an educator training guide and preparedness assessment [see Exhibits 2 and 4]. The Growing Global project proposal will cover the need for the program, a program timeline and explanation, the impact it will hold and how to measure it, potential barriers, the capacity of the team and its resources, and the budget for piloting the program.