Engineering Internships Prove Enlightening

Michael Pataffi, Verrazano Class of 2019, earned a degree in Engineering and a mathematics minor.

Michael (right) with fellow interns

I had the opportunity to intern with R.G. Vanderweil Engineers and it was very beneficial to me. I learned a lot and experienced even more. 

My internship was helpful twofold. On one hand, the concepts I learned through school helped me at my internship, as I would understand what to do work-wise in my internship. On the other hand, working with things firsthand at the internship helped me understand concepts I would learn in upcoming semesters in school. So, not only did school help me throughout my internship, but my internship also helped me with school. 

Understanding the working environment of my future field was probably the most important thing I have learned throughout the summer. I would advise students of any other major to intern for a company or business in their selective field. Not only will you learn much more about your major, but you will also learn much about the industry as a whole, and the experience you get is more beneficial than any class you can take. 

 

History of the portrayal of women in comic book-based films

Cassandra Lofaro, Verrazano Class of 2019, earned a degree in Communications with an emphasis on media studies.


For my capstone project, I decided to focus on the gender portrayal of superheros. I became interested in superheroes when I was in high school, and noticed that within cinematic universes (Marvel and DC, specifically), that there had been a lack of female-led films. Just a few years later, it was time for me to choose a topic for my capstone, and only two movies had been released by that point that featured females in the titular role; Wonder Woman in 2017 and Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018. I was interested in both on the historic portrayal of women in comic books and the role of women in comic book-based films, so I decided to focus on gender roles and how superheroes are portrayed within those barriers. While working on my capstone, a third female-led movie was released; Captain Marvel in March 2019.

Women superheroes are few and far between

With the help and support of my faculty mentor, Professor Edward D. Miller, I was able to find a lot more information than I had originally anticipated. Overall, the research that I did for this project met my expectations; while some of the information was disappointing in terms of the portrayal of women vs men in comics, the general outlook for the future is hopeful. I was both able to learn new things, and to confirm some of my predictions upon doing research. From adapting costumes from illustrations to functional, real-life versions for film, and understanding how the hair and makeup of a particular character may be chosen, to understanding how characters have changed and developed over the past several years. Researching this topic has broadened how I view the portrayal of superheroes; while my love of superheroes started as a hobby, I was able to turn something fun into something I could study.

Cassandra investigated gender roles in comic book-based movies

I definitely think that this is a topic that could be further developed, so long as film studios continue to diversify their leading characters, and if more women become involved in the illustration and authorship of comic books. I will continue to pay close attention to how men and women are portrayed in comic book-based films, as I’m anticipating many changes and generally enjoy seeing how studios explore new characters. I’m excited and hopeful for what the future holds, and am thrilled that I was given the choice to perform this research in the first place. 

Battling the Stigma of Mental Illness

Gabriella Clemente, Verrazano class of 2018, earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

The title of my Capstone is the “Stigma of Bipolar Disorder.” When given the task of choosing what topic to write about, I immediately knew I wanted to discuss mental illness and the stigma surrounding it. Being a healthcare professional, I saw first-hand the struggles clients faced with managing different disorders and the effects it had on their overall well-being and quality of life. I felt it was my duty as a registered professional nurse to educate the public and challenge misconceptions surrounding the disorder by providing a number of interventions to decrease stigma. Furthermore, I felt this topic was necessary because there are a large number of people who suffer from mental illness and are not seeking necessary treatment for fear of judgement and labeling. 

Gabriella earned her RN

Before starting my research, I was not exactly sure what I wanted to include in my capstone or how I wanted to go about it, but after meeting with my mentor Barbara Schiano, I was put on the right track! Professor Schiano helped me in identifying the main topics of my paper and provided helpful advice when looking for topics to research. Working with a mentor was a truly great experience and is something that I will always remember. It was both encouraging and enlightening to work with someone who was passionate about my topic and helped me achieve a great outcome. 

In the future, I hope to continue my research and gain more insight and knowledge on mental health, so I can incorporate it into the care of my patients and help them in achieving their goals. 

Becoming a Political Scientist

Haneen Hegazi is a Verrazano graduate, class of 2019. She earned a degree in Political Science with a minor in Sociology/Anthropology.

I studied American foreign policy in the Middle East. Since my project was mainly concentrated around politics and foreign relations between countries, it opened my eyes to a lot of things. I realized that international relations are a lot more complicated than the general public like to think. There were a lot of things I questioned before starting this project, mainly questions about why the United States make the decisions that they make in regards to dealing with other nations and how these decisions can have an impact on the U.S. and the world as a whole. As my project developed, my questions started to change and I started to grasp the concept a little more. As a political scientist, and hopefully a future lawyer, this project taught me to take a step outside of my thinking box, and learn new perspectives and many forms of critical analysis. Furthermore, getting indulged in the world of politics, I decided that I will attend Law School and with that degree my goal is to become politically involved in the government in regards to international relations, change happens one step at a time. 

Haneen presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference

One major problem that has occurred during my research was being able to connect all the different theories, analyze them and develop my own theory to explain the inconsistencies that occur in American foreign policy. Many theories contradicted themselves, or would explain one part of the problem but not the other. In addition to this, I had a problem fully understanding foreign policy towards the Middle East, it just did not make sense to me because one minute I am reading about how the U.S promotes democracy and human rights and the next minute I am reading about how they have strong alliances with authoritarian regimes. The Offensive realist theory helped me connect all of this because at the end of it all, states just want to maximize power at any cost. Thankfully, with the assistance of my mentor, I was able to critically analyze and form my own explanations for the matter, thus developing the supply and demand concept. 

Even though, my thinking has evolved through this process, I strongly believe that my research can help future decision making in foreign policy and can help students learning about this topic to grasp it and understand it further and maybe even develop other foreign policy theories to help reduce future poor decision making. 

Exploring Paths to Treatment of Alzheimer's

Daniel Krichavets is a Verrazano graduate class of 2019. He earned a degree in biology with a concentration in neuroscience.


Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, characterized by the progressive loss of memory. Learning about the pathology on a molecular level allowed me to further empathize with individuals that struggle with AD. The main culprits of AD are intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs ), composed of abnormally hyperphosphorylated Tau protein and extracellular senile plaques, consisting of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides. The results of the disease are truly debilitating and eventually lethal.
Working with Dr. Shen ultimately taught me how to conduct and review elaborate research utilizing immunohistological staining methods to illustrate drug efficacy. If I continued to pursue the study, I would focus on the mechanism responsible for activation of passive immunization with monoclonal antibody 43D to gain a better understanding of how microglial cells can aid in eradicating Aβ pathology. It is also essential to study the intracellular interaction among Tau against 43D antibody so that the possible mechanism by which Tau pathology affects Aβ pathology may be further explained. Studies indicate that hyperphosphorylated Tau enhances the Aβ plaque load via a prion-like mechanism. Other research states that Aβ plaque load induces intracellular Tau accumulation. The study of extracellular Tau provides a conceivable treatment as well as a means to explore the mechanism behind inhibiting pathogenesis in AD.

Possible future work can also run similar experiments, ideally using more mice along with collecting and analyzing cerebrospinal-fluid to speculate whether the inhibition of Tau pathology observed by immunization with 43D was due to clearance of only extracellular or both intracellular and extracellular Tau. Ultimately, immunization with 43D prevents the seeding and propagation of Tau pathology as well as inhibits the promotion of Aβ pathology in 3 × Tg-AD mice.