A Capstone at the Intersection of Marketing and Psychology

Leeza Gillies, Class of 2018, completed a double major in Business Marketing and Psychology. 

I changed my mind on what I wanted to do my Capstone project on several times over the my college career. I wanted it to really reflect my education and compile the things I’ve learned into one component. While doing research for my project and collecting ideas I wanted to include I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do that. It’s very difficult to reflect 4 years of education into one presentation. So I decided to focus on one thing I learned that really stuck with me.

I started college as a Psychology major because I wanted to eventually go into therapy. A few semesters in, when it came time to declare a major, I took a different route and ended up a business major with a concentration in Marketing. I kept Psychology as a minor, and with each marketing class I took, I noticed just how much the two topics tied in together. They go hand and hand, so by my senior year I decided to double major. 

Leeza presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference

Apart from noticing how marketing and psychology tie together, what I’ve learned has also shown me how marketing ties into everyday life. I started to notice just how big of an impact marketing has on our perception of everyday occurrences. The most subtle, unnoticeable things impact our decisions and the way we perceive things, and we may not be aware of them but marketers are. 

Reflecting on the work I produced from my research, I thought I was going to have to condense a lot of information. But after organizing it I realized I had to cut a lot of information out. As I mentioned earlier, there’s no way to reflect 4 years of education in one project. So many concepts are relevant and can significantly contribute to the message I was trying to send, but in the end all I could compile was a summary. A summary on how marketing effects every individual’s life every single day. Hopefully after viewing my project people will be able to detect the subtle exposure they have to marketing strategies every single day. 

Breaking the Pain: Implementing a “No-Lift Policy”

Kasey Reems, Verrazano Class of 2018, completed a degree in Nursing

I graduated with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing in May of 2018.  I knew what I wanted to do my Capstone Project on after my first day of nursing clinical.  I left the hospital that day feeling exhausted and in pain because of having to maneuver numerous patients.  Upon further research to this problem I encountered, I decided to do my Capstone on implementing a  “No-Lift Policy” for nurses and all over healthcare providers. 

A “No-Lift Policy” means there is no manually lifting, moving, turning, or positioning a patient.  Instead, using ergonomic and assistive devices to do so.  During my Capstone, I worked with Dr. Griffiths, who helped me immensely!  Dr. Griffiths provided me with a lot of information and recent studies that were done using a “No-Lift Policy”.  I was surprised while I was doing my research.  It turns out, the most common reason for healthcare workers, especially nurses, call out of work is injury due to physical interaction with a patient.  This includes, lifting or moving a patient without any devices.

I used a change model by Rosswurm and Larrabee (1999) to implement my new policy.  This model guides the transition from traditional-driven practice to evidence-based practice.  Following this change model truly made it feel like my new policy can be implemented.  I found really interesting studies performed to determine the effectiveness of a “No-Lift Policy”, which will definitely change the way I handle maneuvering patients as a nurse.  This Capstone was a great learning experience.  It was really nice to work with such an educated mentor who guided me along the way. 

Eric Yang Looks at Foreign Direct Investments

Eric Yang, Verrazano Class of 2018, earned a degree in Economics and a minor in Political Science.

My capstone experience about FDI (foreign direct investments)'s effects on developing nations enables me to improve my skills as a researcher and writer. One important practice I picked up during this project came directly from Professor Vachadze, who showed me how to use a rating scale to determine the impact factor of a journal. The impact factor of a journal demonstrates how influential a journal it is. As a result, I learned to determine the quality of an article simply by looking at the impact factor of the journal. In addition, my faculty advisor also showed me an example of a well-organized research paper. Understanding the structure of the research paper allows me to organize my thoughts into producing a great research paper.  

Eric presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference

My capstone experience met my expectations in many ways. The creation of a twelve-page research paper with twelve sources required weeks to complete. Likewise, my paper had to be reviewed by a faculty advisor for approval. Meeting and discussing my faculty advisor was the final step for my capstone project. I was able to discuss ideas with my faculty advisor who offered me valuable suggestions and incredible feedback. Looking forward to the undergraduate conference, I picture it as an essential process that teaches me how to communicate my ideas and a practice in presenting through both PowerPoint and poster board. 

The completion of my capstone project encourages me to do future projects related to ending poverty. My research topic about FDI's effects on the developing world gives way to finding solutions to improve the lives of people in low-income nations. As an economics major and political science minor, I seek to understand the interaction between economics and politics in eradicating world suffering. The economic and political conditions within a nation can influence the amount of FDI inflows. The development of my research paper is essential in my personal and professional development into a better researcher and writer.  

Experience from the Eye of a Chemistry Major: One Molecule at a Time

Nicole Zubrich, Verrazano Class of 2018, earned a degree in Chemistry.

The field of science has a great variety of knowledge to offer whether it is biological sciences, the theory of gravity and the solar systems in physics, to explained phenomena by mathematical equations or the realm of microscopic atomical entities in chemistry. Oddly all these subjects work together to form some of the greatest discoveries in medicine and various other domains. The College of Staten Island is the starting ground for young scientists including me a transfer student from Hunter College who choose Chemistry as her major, and passion. The 6S building holds some of the most interesting laboratories with professors dedicated to their research guiding students curiosity everyday. My research in Dr. Krishnaswami Raja’s laboratory is on Chemical gardens that are created by seeding water-soluble salts of multivalent cations of many of the elements in the periodic table into a highly concentrated solution of sodium silicate. They can also be produced by injecting concentrated salt solutions into sodium silicate. 
The mechanism of formation of these constructs is driven by osmotic pressure and buoyancy. Structures that resemble chemical gardens exist in nature as seen in hydrothermal vent systems at the ocean floor in the form of mineral assemblies. These assembles closely resemble the scaffolds of natural sponges which are considered as the first animal life form. These constructs then are used to adhere mammalian cell lines, and test their viability in this new environment. The cells were able to adhere to the constructs, continuing to grow for over two weeks until testing was finished. This was an amazing breakthrough considering it can be further explored in tissue engineering creating coronary capillaries. I write this statement in almost every paper of mine because it holds a very important meaning. The fact that prehistoric sponge morphology found in deep-sea hydrothermal vents was used, and recreated in the lab to apply in the adhesion of cells, proliferating growth for something beneficial to the medical world. This research encompasses the old, the present, and the future, which is outstanding. 

Nicole in the lab

As an undergraduate student in college, studying chemistry, and being involved in research helped teach me important skills such as communication with my peers, and working together. Collaborating with a team of students, and professors instilled in me a sense of leadership, and how to incorporate different ideas into my research experiments.  My research on recreation of blood capillaries using laboratory grown tubules, and cancer cells, helped generate thoughts on different dental breakthroughs that I could address in the future, as an applicant to dental school currently.  Our laboratories breakthrough encouraged me to exam more about the study on semi-liquid bone grafts for jaw lines, sparking an interest in conducting future research involving tooth regeneration. Research has made me become conscious about pursuing a research career in dentistry as well as caring for patients as a practicing dentist.

My future is to pursue a medical career in Dentistry where the realm of chemistry is heavily applied for the upbringing of new research. This specific research is very detailed, and contains delicate application of samples such as mammalian cell adhesions. Accuracy in properly conducting complex research is an insight into future procedures in maxillofacial surgery completed as a dentist. Laboratory studies symbolize the foundation of problem solving necessary in any field of study especially science, and medicine.  The cultured sponge- mimetic tubules (SMTs) are relevant for future dental studies due to its significance to bone regeneration, and use as an implant from a dental perspective. My research under the supervision of Dr. Krishnaswami Raja, and Yan Pevtsov has shined light on a different realm of chemistry pertaining to studies of my future career. My undergraduate experience, was one of a kind, and highly beneficial. I am beyond grateful to have been a part of a team of scientists, and motivational scholars that always said, “the sky’s the limit”.

The Power of Positive Management on Employee Productivity

Nicholas Esposito, Verrazano Class of 2018, earned a degree in Accounting

I was given the opportunity to conduct research on a topic of my choice, with guidance from my mentor, Patricia Galletta. Since I was able to choose any topic, I decided to research the effects that management has on employee productivity, and how management can improve it. I was very interested in researching this idea because of how horrible the management is at my job. I have been working retail for my entire college career, and anyone who knows me knows I always complain about my job, especially the management, feeling like they impacting how productive I could be, so I felt that I could truly relate to my research topic. Thus, I decided that for my research, I would determine the primary causes of decreased productivity in the workplace, and the responses management can make for each situation in order to increase their workers’ productiveness.

Writing my paper and doing research

Through my research, I was able to find information on four prominent reasons for what hinders productivity for employees, those being: poor management, employee dissatisfaction, social media usage, and usage of outdated technology. Poor management stands out especially, due to a style of managing known as micromanaging. This is when managers look at every little detail and are right on top of their employees, and unfortunately, it has a massive negative impact on employees’ productiveness. One of the studies I researched displayed how under micromanaging, a large percentage of employees they surveyed actually felt that being micromanaged interfered with their job performance, while an even larger percent felt their morale was negatively impacted. I realized that this is an issue occurring in my workplace, and I have actually felt the same way as the respondents on multiple occasions.

Using my phone while on the clock, not being productive

In regards to how management can improve productivity, I was able to determine through my research, that there were four ways management can increase it, those being: keeping a positive atmosphere in the workplace, keeping employees proactive and encouraging communication, installing policies for social media usage, and updating technology systems. Positivity especially correlates with productivity. One study I researched focused on the effects of positive to negative encounters in the workplace, and discovered that when positive encounters outweigh negative encounters by a ratio of 3:1 or more, productivity increased exponentially. This increase capped out at 12:1, as too much positivity can also do more harm than good. Thus, I learned it’s best for management to keep a positive work atmosphere for its employees to allow them to be more productive.

I felt accomplished when I completed this project. The primary reason why I wanted to explore this topic was to have a better understanding of what has been occurring all these years at my job, and what routes management can take to make the workplace more productive, not just for my job, but in any field of work. I feel this topic is vital for management to acknowledge, since it will allow for not just their overall productivity to grow, but also their profitability, allowing their business to expand and stay competitive. Overall, I enjoyed doing research on this issue, and I would like to be able to share my findings, as it would allow more companies to understand how they can prosper under good management.