Two international students won Maris awards this year for their outstanding oral presentations. Congratulations to Shadia Muñoz-Najar ’23 from Peru and Evans Asuboah ’24 from Ghana!
Black Home Schoolers of Central Florida provides support for families who chose to home-school their children. They depend on donations to provide these essential services. Evans reviewed their website and realized they needed a modern, streamlined look, more intuitive navigation and increased speed. Many parents were complaining about how difficult it was to find information.
After much research, Evans used the insights to address the pain points and meet the evolving needs of the community. After 100 hours of writing over 5,000 lines of code, a new, refreshing website emerged. Evans tested his new website among users and it was clear by the feedback that he made drastic improvements.
Last but not least, everyone who tested the new website said they would donate to the organization! Check out the new website here: https://www.blackhomeschoolerscfl.com/
Meanwhile, Shadia tackled a perplexing Latin America resource “curse”: why do some countries with plenty of resources struggle with long-term economic growth? She examined several variables, such as resource dependence, economic inequality and political instability and their effects on different countries. Country policies and political management seemed to be a significant determinant.
Congratulations Shadia and Evans for winning a Maris Award for this excellent work. For those of you who don’t know, this award recognizes quality scholarship at the University’s Undergraduate Scholarship Day.