Ancient Greek Civilization and Gender Roles

Jenny Rong, Verrazzano Class of 2025, completing major in SLS (1-6)

During my SLS 301 humanities course, I recognized how similar Ancient Greek civilization is related to recent times and culture and how our society had progressed since then. For instance, in the book Greek Tragedy by Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, I came to realize how mistreated women were during the sixth century BCE, specifically when female characters in Greek tragedies were acted out by males. This was because it was normalized that women stayed at home to take care of her family and only existed in terms of her bonds with men as they did not have any freedom of belonging or independence.

In plays like Oresteia, Oedipus Tyrannus, and Medea, women were disdained, similar to their ancient times and culture where men were superior, as women were displayed as manipulative, unscrupulous, and dishonorable. I thought about today where even now, some women struggle to find gender equality and control of their own reproductive health in several countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Africa.

In the last Greek tragedy play we read, Medea by Euripides, I discovered that even though during the Ancient Greek times households had male heirs in contrast to present time, where most women are respected as the head of the house and have the ability to decide whether they want to stay at home or achieve her own career goals to financially support herself and her family. Thus, women do not need a guardian and/or a male figure in life that would represent her for all legal and financial decisions, unlike the women during Ancient Greek times.

Ultimately, based on Medea’s term philia, a reciprocal relationship of friendship and kinship, it reminded me of my culture where friends and families are tightly bound by ties of affection and oath, and we always help each other out when needed in terms of acceptance. Personally, I am grateful that our society has advanced because women are more included in the community and have the opportunity to conquer their individual challenges and dreams that shape them into a person of their own instead of fitting into social norms. 

 

Universal Design of Learning in the Classroom

Daniella Del Priore, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completed major in SLS (1-6)

My capstone centered around the Universal Design of Learning, which is also known as UDL. UDL is an approach to teaching and learning that gives all students equal opportunity to succeed. It should be used in all modern-day classrooms to help students prosper and reach their full potential.

This topic stood out to me when I learned about it in a Special Education course, as I hope to become a general or special education teacher. When I am a full-time teacher, I plan to introduce and use the Universal Design of Learning in my classroom, as I believe it would benefit my students greatly.

For my thesis, I wrote about why UDL is important in the classroom. When reflecting on this process of working on the project, it was not as tough as I expected it to be. As long as you manage your time, spread out your work, and remember your due dates, you should be okay. Do your best! I found myself working on my capstone early, which is your best bet, and would continue to work on it whenever I had any free time.

Working on this project was a pleasant experience. As a teacher, it was helpful to learn more about UDL, as I read about students’ varying learning styles and abilities. I was working on the project during my student teaching experience, and I was able to implement what I was learning through my research into my classroom, and to use what I was learning in real life. I also enjoyed working closely with my mentor, the professor of the Special Education course, as she sent me many interesting, detailed, and informative podcasts, videos, and research articles on the topic. This capstone also allowed me to obtain honors within my major, SLS 1-6 (Childhood Education) for graduation.

Overall, I enjoyed learning and writing about why UDL is important in the classroom. The entire process of working on the project taught me a lot of valuable information that is great to know as a future educator.

Effectiveness of Medications on Affective Disorders

Krystle Chapple, Verrazzano Honors Class of 2023, completed major in Medical Laboratory Science, with minors in ASL, Biochemistry, and Psychology

My capstone idea began when I took a spring 2018 class, Cognitive Psychology, taught by Dr. Daniel Kaplin. It was interesting and informative, and was and still is one of my favorite classes.
The timing happened to be at a crossroads when my partner was dealing with depression. He had been given many medications, but none of them worked. He wasn’t the only one. Many people I knew who took antidepressants shared with me how ineffective they were. I thought that was interesting as this happened to be one of the topics in my class at the time, and something clicked for me after learning the material. I mentioned it to my professor who was very excited by my idea and urged me to explore it.
With his help, I did some digging and we found that this idea had merit. I came up with a possible reason why antidepressants are not effective for so many people and my professor suggested it might make for a good research review. I held onto that idea for years and I was so glad that I got to do it for my capstone.
I learned so much about what goes into writing a research review, which involves a lot of reading. I must have read well over one hundred research papers. As a consequence, I learned a lot more about the topic I was writing about. It was very exciting to find that after all of my reading, my idea still held up.
I think one of the most valuable things my mentor taught me was how to organize. There were so many papers and so much information. They gave me a base to work off of and I also developed my own methods for keeping all the information organized. I used an Excel spreadsheet to track my papers and did the citations right away so that at the end I didn't have to go crazy hunting and creating citations. This was the best decision I could have made. This paper had more citations than any paper I’ve ever written but it took me the least amount of time.
My experience writing this research review has been an invaluable experience. One thing I’ve taken away from CSI is that I enjoy research and I want to continue doing research in my career. This was a great step in teaching me what goes into writing formal academic papers for this field and the skills I’ve learned here will continue to serve me.

Actions and Tactics of Al-Qaeda After 9/11

Nathan Tinovsky, Verrazzano Class of 2023, completed major in Political Science and minor in Business

My research on the impacts that the 9/11 attack had on the actions and tactics of Al-Qaeda began in the fall of 2021. When I first began my research, there was not a lot of primary source material available to help with this study and I relied mainly on secondary sources and other studies to reach my conclusion.

I originally concluded that Al Qaeda’s actions and tactics were not deterred due to the attacks on 9/11. I referred to studies that suggested that media coverage of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda was directly linked in spreading global fear, which made it more likely for organizations like Al-Qaeda to commence more attacks. I also found that when terrorist groups gain notoriety through the media, recruitment for these organizations increases, particularly followers who emerge from around the world, as we have seen with other organizations such as ISIS.

When I resumed my research in August 2022, primary source material and other new information was made available, which ultimately helped evolve my research. Based on this new information, my conclusion on how the impacts that the 9/11 attacks had on the actions and tactics of Al-Qaeda changed as well. This new information has given my research new perspectives, concluding that Al-Qaeda's actions and tactics were deterred post 9/11.