honorificabilitudinitatibusWesson Honors Program neWslettermay 2008 Vol. 5 no. 5

1Colby-sawyer College

Honoring tHe Class of 2008

6 Colby-sawyer College

featuresThis issue of the Honors Newsletter is dedicated to the members of the program who will be graduating this May with the Class of 2008. They are scholars, athletes, mentors, artists, friends, and a part of the college community. Their contributions to the program have helped shape what it is today. In this issue, they share their capstone studies as well as their experi-ences at Colby-Sawyer. Congratulations

and good luck, Seniors!

neWsletter

contributorsediting and layout Design

Writers

Elisabeth RyanMegan Ruggiero

Evelina Simanoyte Sarah HeaneyElisabeth NovakAllyson Newell Christelle KamalizaAngela Eastman Bill and Jan WessonProf. Ann Page Stecker

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

the effects of visual presentation

For my senior psychology capstone project

I conducted an experimental study, “The

Effects of Visual Presentation in Divided

Attention Situations.” The purpose of

this experiment was to test whether in

divided attention situations visual brand

advertising is retained in memory better

than primarily verbal advertising. 44 Colby-

Sawyer students were divided into two

equal groups, one of which was exposed

to visual advertising while the other saw

verbal advertising for the same brands

embedded in three magazine articles.

Divided attention situation was created by

having the participants read the articles

and simultaneously count the number of

bell sounds heard. There was no instruction

to look at the brand advertising, which

helped conceal the true nature of the study

and allowed me to later see how well the

participants remembered the advertising

without having paid any attention to it.

Statistical analyses yielded support for the

hypothesis: visual advertising images were

significantly better recognized than verbal

ad cues, which in turn supported the idea

that a lot of our learning occurs implicitly,

i.e. we learn from our environment without

having to consciously pay attention to

it. Visual images seem to be particularly

effective in connecting with the viewer on

an implicit level.

Adding the honors component to this

study was a little challenging, because I had

not included it in the design of my study,

therefore I had to expand the study after

it had already been done. However, the

idea of the honors component is to view

the topic of study from an interdisciplinary

perspective, so the possibilities of enriching

the capstone project are endless. A good

question to ask is how do I improve the

(continued on page 3)

CoorDinator’s

nanosecond As I think of our seniors’ individual and collective successes, and as I think of saying

goodbye, the old 1960’s me keeps hearing the Beatles lyric:

“Why why why why why why do you say goodbye goodbye, oh no?

You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello hello

I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Hello hello

I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”

Fare-the- well, Sonya, Angela, Sarah, Christelle, Allyson, Elisabeth, and Evelina! Send us a

postcard from your new life.

Professor Ann Page Stecker

a letter to tHe Honors stuDents

bill and jan wesson

aWarDs anD reCognition

the class of 2008The following members of the Honors Program will receive awards and recognition during

the 2008 commencement ceremony:

Sarah Heaney will receive the Alpha Chi Award for exemplifying the Alpha Chi National

College Honor Society’s ideals of truth and character.

Christelle Kamaliza will receive the baccalaureate award in Business Administration.

Angela Lynn Eastman will receive the baccalaureate award in English.

Evelina Simanonyte will receive the baccalaureate award in Psychology.

from tHe

editorsSeeing as we are now at the end of yet another

year, it seems as this would be the best place

to thank everyone who has contributed to the

newsletter. Thank you to all the students and

faculty who submitted the articles that made the

newsletter so full of interesting information. A

special thank you goes to the seniors for their

last minute entries for this issue. I hope that

the senior issue of the newsletter becomes a

tradition. It is a great way for the seniors to

show off their hard work and to inform the

underclassmen of what lies ahead.

To all the students who will be returning next

year, please consider contributing an article.

This is a great forum for you to express yourself.

It is the goal of the editors to make this

newsletter something you all want to read, not

just an annoying piece of paper in your mail box.

It’s your voice, use it.

A final thank you to my co-editors Aubrey

Thomas and Megan Ruggiero. Thanks so much

for your help.

Good luck to the seniors! I look forward to

seeing you all again next year.

Elisabeth Ryan ‘09

Layout editor

April 21, 2008

Dear Honor Students,

We cannot tell you how thrilled we were to get all your beautiful postcards from Washington

DC telling us how much you had enjoyed the experience of visiting that wonderful city.

Seeing new places opens ones eyes to so many things, and it is enormously rewarding to us

that you are grasping the opportunities that are available to you. We do hope that you will

have a chance to see many more exciting places in the years ahead.

In the meantime we wish you well, and we are looking forward to seeing you all again, and

visiting your new “Honors Suite”. It is just terrific that you now have a place to call your

own.

With best wishes from us both.

Bill and Jan

Evelina Simanonyte Psychology major, Business Administration minor

2 Colby-sawyer College

quality of the capstone project and

inform it in a way that my major alone

would not allow me to. For my particular

study, I noticed that although the three

visual ads that I studied worked better

than the verbal ones, significantly fewer

people recalled Golf.com compared to the

other two. I started thinking about the

differences between the visual metaphors

shown in the three ads and I decided to

bring in cognitive linguistics to my study.

While doing research for my capstone, I

had learned that metaphors reside in our

thoughts and not just words and that it

is not language that shapes our thinking

but rather our cognitions that shape our

language. I became fascinated with the

idea of cognitive metaphors that are

inherent in the way we think, e.g. life is a

journey or happy is up. We use cognitive

metaphors each day without even realizing

it, and they allow information to be

grasped intuitively without any conscious

processing, as occurred with the visual ads

in my study.

So the outcome of my Honors

component was an analytical research

paper, “Conceptual Metaphors in Visual

Advertising,” focusing on visual rhetoric

and how cognitive metaphors permeate

both language and imagery allowing

for implicit communication. I ended up

looking at the visual elements of the ads

from my study with the primary goal

of reading them as “text composed of

signs,” recognizing conceptual metaphors

inherent in them and ultimately

connecting them to the psychology side

of the equation, i.e. through conceptual

metaphors explaining the differences

found in the recognition of the three ads.

The Honors component helped to enrich

my study by allowing me to not only

look at what the differences between

the three visual ads were, but also to

try to explain why those differences were

there by employing the perspective of

cognitive linguistics.

my Colby-saWyer exPerienCe

elisabeth novakMy Wesson honors experience enriched

my time at Colby Sawyer by widening the

variety of classes I took and expanding

my knowledge of a wide range of subjects.

Some of my favorite classes I took were

honors classes because of an intellectually

elevated subject matter and classroom

environment.

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

tea tree oil

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

strategic management

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

sport marketing and women

my Colby-saWyer exPerienCe

sarah heaney

my Colby-saWyer exPerienCe

allyson newell

(continued from page 1)

the effects of visual presentation

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

a study of fantasy literature

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

a cultural survey of ceramicsMy Strategic Management Business Capstone included managing

a corporation in the airline industry by understanding and applying

the various theories of strategic planning, problem solving, analysis, and decision

implementation. I took this capstone further, however, by conducting additional research

to understand different management metaphors of organizations and by creating a new

metaphor that is more applicable and fitting to the contemporary business environment.

My capstone was titled “Desiring Dragons: A Study of the Appeal and

Importance of Fantasy Literature.” Through it I looked at three series

of fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, and A Song of Ice and Fire, to

see what about the genre is appealing to readers, and also ways that reading and escaping

through the genre is important for those who read it.

For the honors component to my Capstone, I researched a style or

technique of ceramics from each continent (excluding Antarctica).

Then I put together a PowerPoint and made a lesson plan and

example for each. These are meant to only be a starting point for a lesson that could be

taught in an elementary or middle school as they could be adapted or added to depending

on the grade level and resources of the school.

My capstone was titled “Tea Tree Oil as

an Alternative Anti-infective.” Tea Tree

Oil is a natural essential oil with innate

antimicrobial properties. I looked at the

broadband antimicrobial properties of TTO

in its ability to be a commercial/household

disinfectant for use on hard surfaces

such as bathrooms, etc.. I compared the

effectiveness of this natural oil to that of

a traditional chemical disinfectant. My test

results showed that TTO oil is just as, if not

more, effective than a chemical cleaner to

disinfect surfaces. The difference is TTO is

generally harmless to humans when used

or even ingested, while chemical cleaners

are extremely toxic and even carcinogenic

in some cases. The interdisciplinary

component I incorporated into my

experiment was a cost analysis of the use

of TTO versus a chemical cleaner. This

analysis unfortunately showed that TTO is

generally more expensive to use instead of

a chemical cleaner but in the long run your

health is definitely worth it!

Capstone: Sport Marketing Advertisements

Used to Target Women--My group and

I chose this topic because we thought it

would be interesting to see not just how

women are portrayed via mediums such as

television programming and the internet,

but to see how the female “sport”

audience is targeted (if at all). As I am in

the Wesson Honors Program, I also added

an additional component to the study by

going further and looking at the amount

of sport marketing advertisements used

to target African American women versus

white women.

Our group performed a content analysis

on ESPN, the TV network, and ESPN.

com looking at both the commercials and

the website front page. This consisted of

several weeks of analysis (4 hours a week

for 4 weeks for commercial analysis and

1 web site front page analysis per week)

in which each “researcher” filled out a

content analysis form (that we created) for

each commercial.

After conducting our study, our results

supported our hypotheses, as we found

that there is an extremely insignificant

amount of advertisement marketing used

to target women, and African American

women especially.

I have loved my CSC experience and

the Wesson Honors Program. Because

of the Wesson Weekends, I’ve had two

opportunities to travel to cities I would

have never been able to see on my own.

The classes that I have taken for the

program have always been different and

interesting - they were always on topics

that I would have never expected to have

for a class. My favorite was the Honors

Mountains class; we got to read great

books, go hiking and snowshoeing, and

use the climbing wall - it was awesome!

Exercise and Sport Sciences with a focus

in Sport Management (Minor in Sociology)

Hometown: Bethlehem, NH

CSC Teams, Clubs, etc.: Captain of

women’s Alpine Ski Team, SAAC

member, Alpha Chi member, Wesson

Honors Program participant

Elisabeth Novak Biology major

Christelle Kamaliza

Business major

Alyson Newell Exercise and Sport Sciences majorfocus in Sport Management

I would like to thank Ann Page for her

tremendous support, patience and

unfailing ability to stretch my thinking in

many unexpected ways throughout the

four years at CSC. Also, I would like to thank

my faculty sponsor, Dr. Todd Coy, for his

help and support with my capstone study.

Angela Eastman

English major

Sarah Heaney

Studio Art major

certificate in education

2 Colby-sawyer College

quality of the capstone project and

inform it in a way that my major alone

would not allow me to. For my particular

study, I noticed that although the three

visual ads that I studied worked better

than the verbal ones, significantly fewer

people recalled Golf.com compared to the

other two. I started thinking about the

differences between the visual metaphors

shown in the three ads and I decided to

bring in cognitive linguistics to my study.

While doing research for my capstone, I

had learned that metaphors reside in our

thoughts and not just words and that it

is not language that shapes our thinking

but rather our cognitions that shape our

language. I became fascinated with the

idea of cognitive metaphors that are

inherent in the way we think, e.g. life is a

journey or happy is up. We use cognitive

metaphors each day without even realizing

it, and they allow information to be

grasped intuitively without any conscious

processing, as occurred with the visual ads

in my study.

So the outcome of my Honors

component was an analytical research

paper, “Conceptual Metaphors in Visual

Advertising,” focusing on visual rhetoric

and how cognitive metaphors permeate

both language and imagery allowing

for implicit communication. I ended up

looking at the visual elements of the ads

from my study with the primary goal

of reading them as “text composed of

signs,” recognizing conceptual metaphors

inherent in them and ultimately

connecting them to the psychology side

of the equation, i.e. through conceptual

metaphors explaining the differences

found in the recognition of the three ads.

The Honors component helped to enrich

my study by allowing me to not only

look at what the differences between

the three visual ads were, but also to

try to explain why those differences were

there by employing the perspective of

cognitive linguistics.

my Colby-saWyer exPerienCe

elisabeth novakMy Wesson honors experience enriched

my time at Colby Sawyer by widening the

variety of classes I took and expanding

my knowledge of a wide range of subjects.

Some of my favorite classes I took were

honors classes because of an intellectually

elevated subject matter and classroom

environment.

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

tea tree oil

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

strategic management

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

sport marketing and women

my Colby-saWyer exPerienCe

sarah heaney

my Colby-saWyer exPerienCe

allyson newell

(continued from page 1)

the effects of visual presentation

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

a study of fantasy literature

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

a cultural survey of ceramicsMy Strategic Management Business Capstone included managing

a corporation in the airline industry by understanding and applying

the various theories of strategic planning, problem solving, analysis, and decision

implementation. I took this capstone further, however, by conducting additional research

to understand different management metaphors of organizations and by creating a new

metaphor that is more applicable and fitting to the contemporary business environment.

My capstone was titled “Desiring Dragons: A Study of the Appeal and

Importance of Fantasy Literature.” Through it I looked at three series

of fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, and A Song of Ice and Fire, to

see what about the genre is appealing to readers, and also ways that reading and escaping

through the genre is important for those who read it.

For the honors component to my Capstone, I researched a style or

technique of ceramics from each continent (excluding Antarctica).

Then I put together a PowerPoint and made a lesson plan and

example for each. These are meant to only be a starting point for a lesson that could be

taught in an elementary or middle school as they could be adapted or added to depending

on the grade level and resources of the school.

My capstone was titled “Tea Tree Oil as

an Alternative Anti-infective.” Tea Tree

Oil is a natural essential oil with innate

antimicrobial properties. I looked at the

broadband antimicrobial properties of TTO

in its ability to be a commercial/household

disinfectant for use on hard surfaces

such as bathrooms, etc.. I compared the

effectiveness of this natural oil to that of

a traditional chemical disinfectant. My test

results showed that TTO oil is just as, if not

more, effective than a chemical cleaner to

disinfect surfaces. The difference is TTO is

generally harmless to humans when used

or even ingested, while chemical cleaners

are extremely toxic and even carcinogenic

in some cases. The interdisciplinary

component I incorporated into my

experiment was a cost analysis of the use

of TTO versus a chemical cleaner. This

analysis unfortunately showed that TTO is

generally more expensive to use instead of

a chemical cleaner but in the long run your

health is definitely worth it!

Capstone: Sport Marketing Advertisements

Used to Target Women--My group and

I chose this topic because we thought it

would be interesting to see not just how

women are portrayed via mediums such as

television programming and the internet,

but to see how the female “sport”

audience is targeted (if at all). As I am in

the Wesson Honors Program, I also added

an additional component to the study by

going further and looking at the amount

of sport marketing advertisements used

to target African American women versus

white women.

Our group performed a content analysis

on ESPN, the TV network, and ESPN.

com looking at both the commercials and

the website front page. This consisted of

several weeks of analysis (4 hours a week

for 4 weeks for commercial analysis and

1 web site front page analysis per week)

in which each “researcher” filled out a

content analysis form (that we created) for

each commercial.

After conducting our study, our results

supported our hypotheses, as we found

that there is an extremely insignificant

amount of advertisement marketing used

to target women, and African American

women especially.

I have loved my CSC experience and

the Wesson Honors Program. Because

of the Wesson Weekends, I’ve had two

opportunities to travel to cities I would

have never been able to see on my own.

The classes that I have taken for the

program have always been different and

interesting - they were always on topics

that I would have never expected to have

for a class. My favorite was the Honors

Mountains class; we got to read great

books, go hiking and snowshoeing, and

use the climbing wall - it was awesome!

Exercise and Sport Sciences with a focus

in Sport Management (Minor in Sociology)

Hometown: Bethlehem, NH

CSC Teams, Clubs, etc.: Captain of

women’s Alpine Ski Team, SAAC

member, Alpha Chi member, Wesson

Honors Program participant

Elisabeth Novak Biology major

Christelle Kamaliza

Business major

Alyson Newell Exercise and Sport Sciences majorfocus in Sport Management

I would like to thank Ann Page for her

tremendous support, patience and

unfailing ability to stretch my thinking in

many unexpected ways throughout the

four years at CSC. Also, I would like to thank

my faculty sponsor, Dr. Todd Coy, for his

help and support with my capstone study.

Angela Eastman

English major

Sarah Heaney

Studio Art major

certificate in education

honorificabilitudinitatibusWesson Honors Program neWslettermay 2008 Vol. 5 no. 5

1Colby-sawyer College

Honoring tHe Class of 2008

6 Colby-sawyer College

featuresThis issue of the Honors Newsletter is dedicated to the members of the program who will be graduating this May with the Class of 2008. They are scholars, athletes, mentors, artists, friends, and a part of the college community. Their contributions to the program have helped shape what it is today. In this issue, they share their capstone studies as well as their experi-ences at Colby-Sawyer. Congratulations

and good luck, Seniors!

neWsletter

contributorsediting and layout Design

Writers

Elisabeth RyanMegan Ruggiero

Evelina Simanoyte Sarah HeaneyElisabeth NovakAllyson Newell Christelle KamalizaAngela Eastman Bill and Jan WessonProf. Ann Page Stecker

tHe CaPstone exPerienCe

the effects of visual presentation

For my senior psychology capstone project

I conducted an experimental study, “The

Effects of Visual Presentation in Divided

Attention Situations.” The purpose of

this experiment was to test whether in

divided attention situations visual brand

advertising is retained in memory better

than primarily verbal advertising. 44 Colby-

Sawyer students were divided into two

equal groups, one of which was exposed

to visual advertising while the other saw

verbal advertising for the same brands

embedded in three magazine articles.

Divided attention situation was created by

having the participants read the articles

and simultaneously count the number of

bell sounds heard. There was no instruction

to look at the brand advertising, which

helped conceal the true nature of the study

and allowed me to later see how well the

participants remembered the advertising

without having paid any attention to it.

Statistical analyses yielded support for the

hypothesis: visual advertising images were

significantly better recognized than verbal

ad cues, which in turn supported the idea

that a lot of our learning occurs implicitly,

i.e. we learn from our environment without

having to consciously pay attention to

it. Visual images seem to be particularly

effective in connecting with the viewer on

an implicit level.

Adding the honors component to this

study was a little challenging, because I had

not included it in the design of my study,

therefore I had to expand the study after

it had already been done. However, the

idea of the honors component is to view

the topic of study from an interdisciplinary

perspective, so the possibilities of enriching

the capstone project are endless. A good

question to ask is how do I improve the

(continued on page 3)

CoorDinator’s

nanosecond As I think of our seniors’ individual and collective successes, and as I think of saying

goodbye, the old 1960’s me keeps hearing the Beatles lyric:

“Why why why why why why do you say goodbye goodbye, oh no?

You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello hello

I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Hello hello

I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”

Fare-the- well, Sonya, Angela, Sarah, Christelle, Allyson, Elisabeth, and Evelina! Send us a

postcard from your new life.

Professor Ann Page Stecker

a letter to tHe Honors stuDents

bill and jan wesson

aWarDs anD reCognition

the class of 2008The following members of the Honors Program will receive awards and recognition during

the 2008 commencement ceremony:

Sarah Heaney will receive the Alpha Chi Award for exemplifying the Alpha Chi National

College Honor Society’s ideals of truth and character.

Christelle Kamaliza will receive the baccalaureate award in Business Administration.

Angela Lynn Eastman will receive the baccalaureate award in English.

Evelina Simanonyte will receive the baccalaureate award in Psychology.

from tHe

editorsSeeing as we are now at the end of yet another

year, it seems as this would be the best place

to thank everyone who has contributed to the

newsletter. Thank you to all the students and

faculty who submitted the articles that made the

newsletter so full of interesting information. A

special thank you goes to the seniors for their

last minute entries for this issue. I hope that

the senior issue of the newsletter becomes a

tradition. It is a great way for the seniors to

show off their hard work and to inform the

underclassmen of what lies ahead.

To all the students who will be returning next

year, please consider contributing an article.

This is a great forum for you to express yourself.

It is the goal of the editors to make this

newsletter something you all want to read, not

just an annoying piece of paper in your mail box.

It’s your voice, use it.

A final thank you to my co-editors Aubrey

Thomas and Megan Ruggiero. Thanks so much

for your help.

Good luck to the seniors! I look forward to

seeing you all again next year.

Elisabeth Ryan ‘09

Layout editor

April 21, 2008

Dear Honor Students,

We cannot tell you how thrilled we were to get all your beautiful postcards from Washington

DC telling us how much you had enjoyed the experience of visiting that wonderful city.

Seeing new places opens ones eyes to so many things, and it is enormously rewarding to us

that you are grasping the opportunities that are available to you. We do hope that you will

have a chance to see many more exciting places in the years ahead.

In the meantime we wish you well, and we are looking forward to seeing you all again, and

visiting your new “Honors Suite”. It is just terrific that you now have a place to call your

own.

With best wishes from us both.

Bill and Jan

Evelina Simanonyte Psychology major, Business Administration minor