George F. Whitworth Honors Program

Honors Capstone Projects

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.”

Click the links below to get a sense of what students have been doing!
Class of 2023
Class of 2024
Class of 2025

Andrew Doughty

This project had two facets: one was working with the Books to Prisoners organization to put on a book drive. Through this drive we collected over 200 books which will be mailed to prisoners across the country as well as a grant for 500$ from the Sigma Tau Delta Honor society as a part of the Chapter service project to provide them with new shelving, postage, and specifically requested books. This meets a physical demand: access to the books prisoners want to read.
The other aspect of this project was volunteering in the Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Spokane where I was able to work with high school students in their English classes through creative writing workshops. I was able to connect with individual students who come from a variety of situations and use the tools I’ve learned about creative writing to help them to process and create though creative writing of their own.

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April 24, 2026

Vincent Inayat

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. 

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May 6, 2025

Aubrey Parkinson

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

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April 29, 2024

AJ Talley, Celeste Depew, Elijah Chapman, Nate Moody

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.

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April 23, 2026

Noran Khalil

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.

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April 23, 2026

Carlynn Casperson

Observing patterns within the current healthcare system sparked the foundation of this project. While many rural communities possess strong local support networks, these systems are not substitutes for trained healthcare professionals and are limited in the level of care they can provide. As a student preparing to enter a field directly connected to rural healthcare delivery in Southeast Alaska, I felt compelled to deepen my understanding of these challenges. By doing so, I hope to return home as an entry-level OT better equipped to contribute meaningfully to ongoing efforts to improve care.

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April 24, 2026

Emma Maple

EMMA MAPLE Class of 2024. Communication Studies and Political Science Major.  The Case of the Missing Context: Newspaper coverage of the Supreme Court’s decisions in

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April 29, 2024

Dylan Richardson

Our climate policy framework is largely built on two significant bills: the 2019 Clean Energy Transition Act, which commits the state to greenhouse gas emission-free electricity generation, and the Climate Commitment Act, which implements a carbon tax and emissions trading scheme. While the CCA and CETA are essential steps, any policy framework inevitably leaves out certain local concerns. My research explores one way that these policies leave out the Spokane area, particularly in the context of our unique geologic history. The Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is particularly vulnerable to contaminated runoff.

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May 1, 2025

Melinda Mullet

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.

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May 1, 2025

Research on the River

Hannah Neuberger, a senior majoring in biology, is researching the level of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s) in the Spokane River in her HN 400 class.

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April 13, 2023

Shelbe Nelson

Growing up, I’ve always had an affinity towards creativity, art-hobbying, and music. They bring me joy and personal flourishing outside of my every-day life. I think that it is a large part of being human. What inspired my work is the recent conflict between social media platforms and artists. Over the recent years, the content of visual and musical artists have been subjugated to constant thieving of their work by AI and being buried due to biased media algorithms. In a time where many careers are put under threat by replacement via AI, I want to make a change, even if it is a small one. My career of studying marketing and economic tactics has taught me how to be a voice for those who need it. So I have decided to put my skills to the test and bring light to my peers even in these uncertain times.

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April 22, 2026

Zachary Brooks

In an era where over 15,000 self-help books are published in the United States each year, everyone seems to have two cents to share about how we can improve our lives. Despite these countless publications, each quick-fix or new mindfulness appears ephemeral. Self-help needs help.

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May 1, 2025

Caleb Flegel

As the world increasingly deals with the presence of Climate Change, we will increasingly need quality research to understand how it will affect the ecosystems that surround us. For this reason, this project is a collaboration with an existing research team investigating the effects of a changing climate on small aquatic ecosystems such as ponds. In the past, the associated research project has focused primarily on the effects of increasing pond temperatures. But, water oxygen saturation is another key indicator of ecosystem health. Not only does oxygen saturation directly affect the well-being of pond flora and fauna, but it also is affected by a warming climate.

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May 2, 2025

Caleb McGever

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.

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April 29, 2025

Molly Fleagle

Access to affordable and preventive dental care remains a significant challenge in Spokane, Washington, particularly for children in low-income, minority, and non-English-speaking families. Many residents with Apple Health coverage, the dental care insurance for low-income families, still face barriers to treatment due to limited provider participation and low reimbursement rates. Compounding these disparities, Spokane is the largest city in Washington that has not implemented water fluoridation, contributing to higher rates of untreated tooth decay among children. This project seeks to address these oral health inequities by developing a proposal advocating for school-based preventive dental programs and curricula, specifically brushing techniques, the truth about cavities, and demonstrations in Spokane’s low-income elementary schools. Ultimately, this work seeks to improve equitable access to dental care for Spokane’s children and contribute to long-term community health outcomes.

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April 22, 2026

Megan Hirasaki

When I learned about bicultural perspectives in psychology at Massey University, I was asked to write a critical reflection about connecting the Māori concepts in psychology to my future career. As I researched previous studies and articles about Native Hawaiians for my critical reflection, I noticed that Native Hawaiian mental health research is limited, and some topics of current research include depression, health disparities, COVID, and the impacts cost of living; consequently, Native Hawaiians are often the most misrepresented in healthcare. According to McCubbin and Marsella (2009), Native Hawaiians have not only been excluded from health research but also have not been adequately supported financially when projects emphasize Native Hawaiians. Because of these systemic barriers behind research, Native Hawaiians deserve more attention in psychological research and need specific strategies on how to include their worldviews into the therapy room.

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April 27, 2026

Delaney Woods

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

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May 1, 2024

Casey Prociw

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

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May 1, 2024

Angela Wessel

ANGELA WESSEL Class of 2024. I am currently pursuing a B.B.A., with a management concentration. I also have theology and sociology minors, and career-wise I’m

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April 29, 2024

HN 400 as a Platform for the Future

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.

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April 21, 2023

Jaylee Graham

Gen Z is arguably the most politically outspoken generation in history. From social media activism to grassroots organizing, we aren’t afraid to use our voices to demand change. Yet, there’s a frustrating paradox at the heart of our democracy: despite being the most vocal, 18–24-year-olds consistently remain in the demographic with the lowest voter turnout. This project is driven by one central question: What do we actually need to do to increase young voter turnout?
I believe that education is at the root of many of the systemic problems we see in the world today. If we want to change the trajectory of our society, we have to look at where our civic identity is formed. For the vast majority of Americans, high school is the last time they will be part of a formal, universal educational environment. This makes the high school classroom our final and most critical opportunity to reach every future citizen. If we aren’t using that time to effectively teach the voting process and the importance of civic agency, we are leaving the health of our democracy to chance.

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April 28, 2026

Jude Ruetschle

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?

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May 1, 2025

Cassidy Franklin

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.

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April 29, 2025