Kendall Sandhop
KENDALL SANDHOP Class of 2024. Kendall is an undergraduate student studying Biology and Environmental Science at Whitworth university. Her graduating plan is to take a
April 29, 2024
Video made with the assistance of Samuel Ortega ’25
All George Whitworth Honors students complete an individual project as part of their Honors Curriculum, cultivating skills of problem-solving, project proposals, and project management.
Projects may be academic or applied but in some way reflect the Honors Program’s Mission:
“The Whitworth Honors Program challenges talented and motivated scholars to pursue excellence of mind and heart, to cultivate leadership qualities and skills, and to commit to lives of service. The Honors Program does more than guide scholars to navigate the world as it is; it equips them to solve problems and to develop the world as it should be.”
KENDALL SANDHOP Class of 2024. Kendall is an undergraduate student studying Biology and Environmental Science at Whitworth university. Her graduating plan is to take a
One of the main reasons that kids quit sports is because of poor coaching. When coaches are hired, they are often not properly trained. This project aims to fill a gap in the research when it comes to youth sports coaching and training and can be a valuable piece for coaching journals and local athletic associations. This project also sheds light on how youth sports coaches could be more comprehensively trained and can be valuable to any parent seeking a better athletic experience for their child. This project does not only focus on the basic skills needed for youth sports coaches, like CPR and first aid, but also on more complex skills like emotional control and creating an inclusive space for young athletes.
MICHAEL ST. MARIE Class of 2024. Theology Major, English Minor. Next stop: attending Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI next fall to pursue an M.Div.
CASEY PROCIW Class of 2024. Casey is a graduating senior with an English major and a Medieval/Early Modern Minor. He is a member of Sigma
Immigration has long been a contentious issue in the U.S., but recent years have seen increasingly negative public attitudes shaped by race, religion, politics, and nationalism. Notably, research shows that white evangelical Christians often support restrictive immigration policies—despite professing compassion and a biblical call to welcome the stranger. This study explores how those contradictions play out locally in Spokane, Washington, by centering the voices of immigrants and refugees and examining how race, religion, and legal status shape their resettlement experiences.
My project exists to bring glory to God and honor His creative design for men and women by mirroring the literary structure of Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies. In this piece of creative nonfiction, the symbolic building of a Protestant church—beautiful, unadorned, and rooted in Scripture—serves as the framework for showcasing the biblical femininity of six extraordinary women from the Protestant Reformation.
My honors project addresses this gap by developing a sign language translator application, functioning similarly to Google Translate. The app features a keyboard that displays ASL signs as images, allowing users to either select signs directly to communicate in sign language or type words normally and have them translated into the corresponding signs. This application is built with one goal in mind: to ensure that every person, regardless of hearing ability, can communicate effectively and with dignity.
HAILEY NASS Class of 2025. Elementary Education Major. I come from a family of teachers and have always been drawn to helping people. I am
I have always had a passion for understanding learning styles and differentiating instruction based on those styles. Throughout my own education, I have been aware that I am a visual learner, which has helped me choose learning and study habits best suited for me. As a future elementary school teacher, I wanted to explore how teachers can better teach to various learning styles in their classrooms. I believe that we can increase the success of our students when we plan our classrooms and lessons with their learning styles in mind. Building differentiation for learning styles into lesson plans can allow students to engage in the content in the way that best suits them. When I came up with the idea for this project, I wanted to learn more about the improvements teachers can make and why they should make them. One conclusion that I have come upon is that this can be a time-consuming process, though a worthwhile one. When lessons are planned around learning styles, students are more engaged because the content feels more accessible to them. Students also become more able to grasp complex concepts because the information is presented in multiple ways. Among the many other benefits, learning style modifications are a great way to support diverse learners. My project aims to inform my future teaching and educate others on the importance of planning a classroom with learning styles in mind.
Aging Americans and their caregivers should have easy access to dignifying end-of-life care. The rapid increase in the 65+ population requires policy innovation in current Medicare regulation concerning hospice. Coordinated, intentional efforts between government and private sector providers, insurance navigators, community organizations, and houses of worship are also needed to change public attitudes towards hospice care, encourage referrals, increase uptake, and offer emotional, psychological, and spiritual support.
Trilights is an interactive video game that focuses on character and storytelling, aiming to present a new synthesis between the literary and the ludomechanical (game-playing). As an interdisciplinary project, Trilights allows a further exploration of the possibilities of creative writing, acoustic arts, artistic expression, and well-designed programming.
A core part of the Honors Program here at Whitworth is our final capstone project.
My honors capstone project investigates how systemic marginalization affects the political participation and lived experiences of religious minorities in Pakistan, focusing particularly on Christian communities in Karachi. Through qualitative research involving semi-structured interviews, I examined how fear, discrimination, and historical shifts in state ideology contribute to political disengagement. Participants expressed deep frustration with exclusionary practices, legal discrimination through blasphemy laws, and socio-economic disenfranchisement. Yet, I also uncovered stories of remarkable resilience such as communities leveraging civil society, clustering in safe neighborhoods, and using social media as new platforms for political expression.
IRENE RACHARLA Class of 2024. Majoring in Computer Science on Business Track with minors in Sociology and G.W. Honors. Hosanna leader and member of Forest
A good magazine thrives off of good writing, good design, good photos, and good direction. However, in addition to the talent required to pull off these difficult qualifiers, a good magazine requires consistent policy to ensure the quality and consistency of its work. Additionally, written policy is important for providing transparency, which is a vital element of journalistic writing.
TRICIA CEBOTARI Class of 2024. Hello! I’m an undergraduate student at Whitworth University pursuing my B.A. in Computer Science International Project Management and Spanish Language/Literature,
Ultimately, my project seeks to foster a more informed healthcare environment. One in which researchers, healthcare professionals, and patients are better equipped to navigate the unique complexities of women’s health.
DELANEY WOODS Class of 2024. Health Sciences Major. Breaking the Cycle: Redefining healthcare through overprescription awareness In a healthcare system reliant on pharmacological interventions, patient
My research is specifically looking at Whitworth and how they treat sexual violence on campus. I looked into what resources and programs there are for sexual violence survivors on this campus or any education about what sexual violence is for the rest of the student body. What I found was scarce, not only the research around Christian colleges and sexual assault, but also the resources on this campus for students.
KERI RONEY & CORINNE VASILOFF Keri: Class of 2024: I am a wife and a mother of two amazing children. After 15 years of being
AUBREY PARKINSON Class of 2024. History Major, Medieval and Early Modern Studies Minor. My career goal is to be a librarian. A Beginner’s Guide
Jade Truong, a senior who is majoring in health sciences, is using Honors to connect with the community by hosting an teaching event about personal nutrition and exercise.
Since going through the Education Department here at Whitworth, I have become increasingly interested in the academic achievement of our students here in Washinton. Education has changed so drastically over the years, and the hope is that we are still meeting the needs of our students in an ever-shifting society. Since Covid, state testing has dropped and has continued to do so which raises concern; how can our children get the best education when standards are so demanding? Is the education we are providing right now the education our students need? I wanted to study the effects that state standards have on primary children and whether or not an increase in academic performance is happening in our schools. The reason for this project is to study the impact of our state standards on the growth and development of our students.
Broadly speaking, our world tends to see religion as a sort of ‘meaning-making’ device. In faith, one is able to carve divine order into the chaos and fragmentation of the human experience. This makes faith a vehicle for hope—for settling the existential realization that nothing in our lives makes sense. The premise of this project, however, challenges that assumption: What if grasping after order and unity is not a source, but an obstruction to our ability to embrace life?
Grace Pedersen, a senior majoring in psychology, used HN 400 as a platform to launch her future. HN 400 gives students the ability to complete an individual project with faculty support and guidance.
Small businesses operate under constant time pressure, often leading to missed calls. Data shows that 62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered, and 85% of those callers will not try to contact the business again. This translates to an average loss of over $126,000 in annual revenue per business. While large corporations have the budget for advanced AI communication tools, small business owners are often left behind due to high costs and technical complexity. My project aims to bridge this “tech gap” by creating a functional prototype of an AI onboarding process and dashboard tailored specifically for small business needs. My research focused on how to make sophisticated technology user-friendly; I developed an onboarding system that allows a business owner to set up a custom AI agent through simple, non-technical steps. Additionally, I built a dashboard that visualizes critical metrics such as response times, booking rates, and engagement patterns in a clear, accessible format. By simplifying the configuration and monitoring of AI, this project demonstrates how automation can reduce friction, save time, and help small businesses capture opportunities that would otherwise be lost. My goal is to prove that with the right design, cutting-edge AI can be a tool for every entrepreneur, not just those with enterprise-level budgets.