Trinity University

Susie P. Gonzalez
susie.gonzalez@trinity.edu
210-999-8445
Jun. 26, 2012

Information Literacy Awards at Trinity University

Students research, master topics ranging from playing computer games to smoking in high school

SAN ANTONIO - Volunteers can get bored in their service to a nonprofit agency, but a Trinity University student discovered that computer games might help keep them engaged and on task.

Ya Chiang (Jon) Fu of Hong Kong, who graduated in May 2012 from Trinity with degrees in communication and business administration with an emphasis in marketing, explored The Game of Life: Designing a Gamification System to Increase Current Volunteer Participation and Retention in Volunteer-Based Nonprofit Organizations for his communication capstone.

He also won first place in an undergraduate research award sponsored by Trinity's Information Literacy Committee. The awards, funded by the university's Quality Enhancement Plan, recognize undergraduate students who exhibit outstanding use of library and information sources and demonstrate the goals of the QEP: Understand, Access, Evaluate, Use Ethically, and Create.

With a career interest in website development, Fu said he wanted to explore whether rewarding volunteers through computer games could sustain their interest in the job at hand. "Gamification does is provide a road map," he said. "It's a way to look at progress. The example is a volunteer planting trees with a parks and recreation department. The department could use games to outline how a volunteer can do a task, and after completing the task, they would get virtual points."

For his project, Fu worked with communication professors William Christ and Aaron Delwiche. His paper has been submitted to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for publication.

Other projects, conducted by students who graduated in May, were:

• Katie Leonard, Reproductive Rights in Latin America: A Rights-based
  Approach to Development.  Her project used regression modeling of United Nations data to define reproductive rights, contraceptives, legalities of abortion, and related  issues in19 Latin American countries over a span of 20 years. Adviser Katsuo Nishikawa, assistant professor of political science, said Leonard conducted a "very sophisticated analysis" that improved her ability to understand data. Originally from Denver, Leonard majored in economics, Spanish, and international studies, and after graduating, purchased a one-way ticket to Bogota, Colombia, to work with Planned Parenthood.

• Nicolas Pappas, The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the Legacy
  of the CIA's Covert War, who worked by Joy Rohde, assistant professor of history. The Los Angeles native received a history degree.

• Rachel Podd, La Grande Mortalitit: Florence and the Black Death. The Dallas resident also earned a history degree.

• Jerel Xaver San Gabriel, Public Policy and Smoking Prevalence in High Schools. The San Antonio native studied with economics professor John Huston to determine whether raising cigarette taxes would help reduce smoking rates and smoking in restaurants. A key finding was that high school students ignored public policy and would smoke anyway. After receiving a degree in economics with a mathematics minor, he is currently working at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C.

To read the essays or review eligibility requirements, click here.