Nicholls holds Honors Thesis Symposium for graduating seniors

Graduating honors students presented their research at the Honors Thesis Symposium on Dec. 2.
Students picked their topics and gathered information for about one year.

Courtney Mistretta, allied health science pre-professional major from Paulina, presented her research
on the correlation between owning an activity tracker, reaching a goal and how it relates to personality.

Logan Dougherty, English major with a concentration literary studies and film from Ponchatoula, did his
research on “A Comparative Study of the works of Graham Greene and the Representation of Religion in
Cinema”.

Christina Lavin, culinary arts major from Luling, presented her research on how oil affects different
aspects of running a kitchen.

Mistretta said that in order to prepare for this event she had to put in a tremendous amount of work.
She received almost 500 responses to a survey that she sent out and began to collect and analyze the
data. She was also able to present at Expeaux ’17.

She said that her research would be “beneficial to activity tracker companies.”

Dougherty said that had a tremendous amount of work as well. He spent most of his time using
techniques that he learned in classes and watching many movies.

Lavin said that she believes the data she collected is very beneficial. She said hopes that it sparks some
interest because people are emotionally attached to their food. She also said that she was interested in
this topic because “oil is [the] lifeblood of the south”.

Mistretta said that she got the inspiration from her research when she was training for a marathon and
purchased an apple watch.

Dougherty said that he was interested in where movies mess up on representing religion.

Dougherty, Mistretta and Lavin said that the process had its good and bad parts.

Mistretta said that the best part for her was meeting people and the worst part was that there was “no
correlation” in her research.

Dougherty said that he liked being able to choose any topic, and overall it was “hard to come up with a
negative experience.”

For Lavin the feeling of accomplishment was the best part of the project. She said its downfall was
digging through all of the archives in order to collect the data she needed.

The students were extremely excited to present their research. Dougherty stated that it’s a “nice gem
for [his] time at Nicholls”.