Summer of Math! REU in Geneva NY

Ray Ibrahim, Verrazzano Class of 2019, completed a major in Mathematics. 

It was a cloudy, damp Wednesday morning. I had just packed my bags and threw any loose items in the back of my car that may be useful. I was going to spend two months in Geneva, New York participating in a mathematics Research for Undergraduates (REU) program. Before embarking on my three-hundred-mile journey, I swung by my friend Bing’s house. Equipped with only a quarter of a tank, Bing’s Costco membership card was my ticket to that sweet, cheap fossil fuel. After promptly filling up my tank and returning my one eye closed one eye opened friend to his humble abode, I set forth on the I-81 to Geneva.

With the sun ablaze, I arrived at Geneva at around three in the afternoon, perfectly late for the campus tour with all the other participating students. This gave me time to unload my soccer mom Mazda and get situated in my super humid room. After sweating my butt off moving stuff from my car to the third floor of a house built in the 1800s, which I had thoroughly convinced myself was a wooden oven at this point, another student came by to pick me up and bring me to the group. From then on, I was part of the Summer 2018 Math REU group at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Throughout that summer, I was able to work alongside another student and mentor on a problem in Graph Theory. It was an incredibly useful experience to come up with original ideas and present them, as well as argue our positions to convince others of our results. I was able to visit two universities, namely Rochester Institute of Technology and Cornell University, to get a feel of what graduate programs are like and talk to current graduate students. The most amazing experience by far was flying to Denver, Colorado to present our research results at MathFest 2018. It was awesome going to a huge conference, seeing wonderful talks from all kinds of mathematicians, and of course all the free promo merchandise given out was a bonus.

In the end of the program, I left with a near complete paper with my REU partner and mentor. After working on this paper further with incredibly helpful reviews and suggestions from Professor Kevin O’Bryant, I was able to find critical errors and apply fixes as well as flesh out some other parts. All in all, the REU has been a wonderful academic experience for me and I have come out a better person.
 

May Shinto Be with You: Examining Japanese History’s Influence on George Lucas’ Star Wars

Jesse Jordan, Verrazano Class of 2019, earned a degree in History with a concentration in adolescent education. 

Not so long ago, in a galaxy not so far away, Star Wars (1977) shocked American audiences and inspired a myriad of filmmakers to pursue a career in Hollywood, causing a paradigm shift in America’s film industry. The importance of George Lucas’ Star Wars and its subsequent prequels and sequels on American popular culture cannot be overestimated. Neither can Japanese history’s influence on Lucas’ storytelling be overlooked, which is a relationship not many Americans recognize.

Jesse hitting the books!

Yet, this relationship serves as a perfect reminder of syncretism in American culture despite the general assertion that Star Wars is known as an original American film franchise. As my paper argues, I learned that this assertion is not true; Lucas was inspired by several facets of Japanese history including its religion, social classes, and even its film industry in the twentieth century. I wanted to highlight this similarity to show how Star Wars is a perfect metaphor for American culture, a mixture of different ideas and customs that ultimately creates a work of art.    

            I was fortunate enough to create a Capstone project based off my two favorite topics—Star Wars and history. Although the two topics may not be synonymous with one another, I discovered that the two had striking similarities, especially in relation to Japanese history. Luckily my advisor, Professor Richard Lufrano, encouraged me to research the Sengoku period of Japanese history to emphasize its influence on Lucas’ film franchise. I learned that the most important part of academic research is the work’s evidence. Therefore, I set out to find as much primary source material as I could to strengthen the claims made in my paper. Even though secondary sources were helpful, I noticed that documents written during the historical time period under analysis greatly bolstered the comparisons I was making between Star Wars and Japanese history. In other words, nothing surpasses using the words of an eighteenth-century Japanese scholar writing about Shintoism to compare Jedi Master Yoda’s teachings of the force. Luckily, I was already familiar with the research process since I studied history as an undergraduate student. However, the most difficult part about my Capstone project was conducting research across multiple disciplines. At times, I felt like I was both a History and a Communications major, but that made the experience more interesting for me. Fortunately, I could recite all of the Star Wars films word-for-word and I took a course on Japanese history prior to writing this paper, which made the execution of the process less-daunting of a task.

Shinto + Star Wars = Scholarship

            If I were to continue this work in the future, I would add a section in my paper on World War II’s influence on the Star Wars films. I originally planned on writing about the allegory between the “Death Star” and the atomic bomb, and the similarities between the cinematography of World War II serial films and the actual cinematography of Star Wars. However, I wanted to keep the focus simple, discussing the three most important reoccurring comparisons I found across my research. Overall, I found the Capstone project to be a valuable academic experience. I was fortunate enough to work on topics that I am deeply passionate about, and I would like to acknowledge the support of my mentor and my advisors for this project. Specifically, I would like to thank Richard Lufrano, Gerry Milligan, Cheryl Craddock, and Cynthia Palumbo for their help on this project and for their help with numerous other academic matters throughout my career as an undergraduate student.     

Overcoming anxiety to study anxiety!

 Nardeen Soliman, Verrazano Class of 2019, completed a degree in Psychology with minors in biology and chemistry.

Looking back 4 years ago during my freshmen year and seeing my senior friends doing their capstone for Verrazano was quite intimidating. I remember thinking repeatedly about my capstone project and how I would manage to start mine. After my first semester in freshmen year, I was confident that I wanted to major in psychology. I always knew I wanted to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant and I admired how psychology and biology always intertwined. During my sophomore year I started working in Dr. Cohen’s social psychology lab, I was fortunate to witness and help with various projects throughout the time I spent in the lab.

                                                          Nardeen at the Undergraduate Research Conference

Besides concentrating on my academics, since my freshmen year I have been actively involved with student life on campus, which gave me a good exposure to different types of students around campus. Through my experience in the past 3 years, I have continuously heard stories from many students about how they did worse than expected because of having test anxiety.

I decided that I wanted my capstone to relate to the students of this college and the struggles they face during their undergraduate years. Research supported the fact that test anxiety leads to declining grades, especially with college students. Therefore, I wanted to concentrate on one of the factors I hypothesized would increase test anxiety. I wanted to see the effect of time pressure during standardized exams, specifically questions from the GRE and if it influences test anxiety. Indeed, after running the experiment on 100 students of the College of Staten Island; time pressure showed a significant impact on increasing test anxiety. As my results suggested, most standardized exams do not provide enough time for students to finish each section which increases their test anxiety. 

Overall, this capstone experience was challenging, yet very rewarding. It taught me valuable skills as well as gave me a better understanding of developing ideas and expanding them. In addition, being part of the Verrazano program pushed me into getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things, which I am confident that I will use as I start my journey in Physician Assistant school.

Welcome from the Director

Dear Verrazano students-- Welcome or Welcome back!

I'm settling into my second year as the Director of Honors, and I have seen dazzling accomplishments by the students in Verrazano. Let's remind ourselves just how great we are!

In 2019,  we celebrated the graduation of 50 seniors. Our graduates are headed to PhD and Masters programs in the US and abroad, and they have been been placed in jobs such as computer/software engineers, teachers, and medical professionals. Not to be outdone, our continuing students have been busy all summer. Several were studying abroad in countries such as Italy, Rwanda, Denmark, and Morocco. And 3 Verrazano students were in Puerto Rico as volunteers with CUNY Service Corps to help the island’s rebuilding efforts.

This fall, there are 72 incoming Freshmen and 48 students transferring into the Verrazano school. These 120 students will be the largest class in recent history. This means, I have quite a lot to people to meet! In order to get to know all of you better, I will be holding “Lounge Hours” twice per semester where we will discuss topics that are central to you.  The first topic is “The Capstone Project" -- September 24, 2:30-3:30
If you have any other burning questions, let us know. We'll try to put it on the Lounge Agenda.

I have one last request. We are making the transition from just email communications to social media. In order for this to work, you’ve got to follow Verrazano. So click on our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages. We’ll need help managing the accounts, so if you’re looking for some volunteer social media intern experience, let us know. Help us tell all of these great Verrazano stories!

Looking forward to another wonderful year,

Gerry