Participant Selection

One important question that I had to answer when designing my research project was who was going to participate. Since I was going to have to interview the subject after I received their pictures, I wanted people that I knew I could easily get a hold of. This led me to gravitate towards my friends. At the same time, I realized that since they are my friends, they have a lot in common with me and with each other. I thought that this may not encompass the entire campus, but just a subsection of the student body. To try to create an accurate picture of "School Spirit" I was very selective in the people I chose. For example, I chose and even amount of males and females from a variety of majors. These majors included Criminal Justice, English, Education, Pre-Med, Aerospace Engineering, Flight Science, and a Law student. In addition to a variety of majors, these students had a wide range of extracurricular activities and interests. My study included a D-1 volleyball player, intercollegiate athletes, pep band members, APO leaders, RA's, and oriflamme members. After selecting the students, I sent emails asking for pictures which were responded to quickly. In total, I recieved approximately 60 photos. This was a great group of students who was eager to particpate and help me in my research. Looking back on the project, I believe that I painted a fairly accurate portrayal of the students body through students I would easily be able to comminicate with. These students provided me a great understanding of what students feel school spirit is, and I have learned that school spirit is dependant on the person, not necessarily a group a whole. Each person's own personal expiernces formulate what they view school spirit as.