Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Founded in 1908, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority continues to serve African-American women, men and children through national and local service programs. AKA’s national headquarters are in Chicago, and the city’s Beta chapter has a long history of reaching out to Black girls and women through health initiatives, educational outreach and social support. The sorority’s open motto, “By Merit, By Culture” has shaped how its national leadership promotes and conducts service, nationally and internationally. In 1927, AKA established a national program devoted to providing vocational guidance to young women in Chicago’s schools, particularly in high schools. The central goal of the program was to provide advice and ideas to “hundreds of young girls facing the necessity of making decisions regarding their life’s work.” In this paper, I will provide the history of the vocational guidance movement in the U.S. and its significance to African-American people, with an emphasis on women’s participation in these programs. I will also contextualize the Vocational Guidance projects in relationship to pre- and post-Depression era Chicago, as well as discuss the successes and limits of these programs.

(1)Pauline Sims-Puryear. “Address Delivered in University Hall, Ohio State University,” Ivy Leaf, December 28, 1926, 6.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: This presenation will reflect on the founders and similiar backgrounds and turn of the 20th century options that were available to them as young college graduates.

Publication Type: Session Presentation
Abstract: The National German Honorary Delta Phi Alpha recognizes academic achievement in German Studies at the post-secondary level. This session outlines the history of the Honorary, describes the process for becoming -- or revising -- a chapter, and provides ideas for successful programming. Details of scholarship opportunities included.

Publication Type: Extended Abstract
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This extended abstract shares emerging EEG (brain wave) data from a pilot study exploring information-processing differences between interactive and non-interactive news stories. On the one hand, interactivity can be seen as most other structural features of media—processed automatically. But, given that they constantly call for user action, interactive news segments compel greater user involvement and are therefore more likely to be processed consciously than automatically. Alpha-blocking data were collected from seven study participants while they read both interactive and non-interactive news stories on the website of The New York Times. A preliminary examination of the data appears to lend support to the former proposition. Although participants perceived interactive stories to be more interactive and interacted with it more, EEG data suggest that they paid more conscious attention to non-interactive stories, lending not only theoretical insights into the nature of information processing on the Web, but also practical advice for designers.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In recent years, an impressive body of research indicates that one neurobiological substrate of avoidance tendencies and anxiety proneness is asymmetry in the resting electrical activity in the anterior cortex. The present study was patterned after the extant research: Resting anterior alpha range electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry was correlated with PRCA-24 scores. The observed correlation, r= .51, p<.05, was consistent with expectations based on previous research in theory. Theoretical implications are discussed.