Using Twitter to Assess Attitudes in the US

Christina Daquino, Verrazano Honors Class of 2018, was one of CSI's first graduates in Information Systems and Informatics

My capstone experience has offered me more than I had ever anticipated. When I was first hit with the term capstone, I had no idea what I was going to do. My major had offered me such a wide range of specialties and I did not even think about what I really wanted to do. This capstone made me look into my major and see the career options. It made me really think about how I wanted to continue with my degree. Once I had a couple of ideas, the second hardest part was finding a mentor.

Christina presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference

 My mentor showed me how working in the industry really is. She helped me develop my idea further into a research topic. After the topic was finalized she sent me on my way. It was my job to think about how I can accomplish this and what methods I need to use. It was not an easy semester I have to say, but again after college will not be easy after either.

          My idea for the capstone had changed multiple times after starting, but after two months of back and forth I had an official research topic. Using the language R, I wanted to find the sentiment of the USA. I used R to stream tweets from Twitter in real time to get an accurate measurement for a state’s sentiment. After finding these sentiments, I plotted them on a map and wanted to locate specific locations of tweets. This idea was influenced by marketing of businesses. How emotion and marketing relate to its target audience and area. Also incorporating a map of Census results to better see that target audience.

 Going further with my project, I would like to eventually get city sentiment. These sentiments can not only help businesses but even government officials to improve areas where people need it the most. I would like to plot specific tweets in an area based on highest sentiment. For example, if Staten Island has an overall negative sentiment it will show the most common negative topic everyone is talking about.

 I have learned valuable skills thought out my capstone project. This includes work related skills and life skills. This capstone gave me realistic expectations of project management and how working with others will be continuing my career. Also it gave me a better understanding of the developing ideas and the purpose for them. I hope to continue building these skills and using the new ones I just developed.

I Made a Home: CUNY Service Corps--Puerto Rico

Jacqueline Torralba, Verrazano Honors Class of 2021, is pursuing a Biology degree en route to medical school. She described her experience in CUNY Service Corps - Puerto Rico.



*BEEP BEEP* as my alarm clock continues to ring at six o’clock in the morning.  My eyes open, my body rises, and I begin to get dressed work shirt, check, pants, check, work boots, check.  Eleven months after Hurricane Maria hits Puerto Rico, and I am finally standing on Puerto Rican land.  A look in the mirror and off I go.  My heart begins to race at a pace faster than normal, one where I am both thrilled and afraid.  I am thrilled to finally take action, to get to work, to lift a tool.  I am however, afraid, for what my eyes are about to witness. During the drives to the worksite I always sit by the window.  Even though majority of the drives are through the same route, I constantly take in all the beauty that I possibly can.  I’m able to ignore  the view of the wrecked homes and the garbage on the streets because at the end, it’s all masked by something truly beautiful.  There is something about the people's smiles that always get to me.  Through the trauma and fight, people are still able to put on a smile.  It’s the hope and faith that keeps everyone united: The strength they all have has kept them together.  

Jacqueline and fellow CUNY students in Puerto Rico

The first homeowner I worked with, was Ramon.  He would cook everyday for my team and I. The food was delicious, very delicious.  I never thought that one day I would ever feel guilty for eating a plate of food, but I did.  I felt guilty for eating because Ramon had no home when he cooked for us.  Much less did he have a kitchen.  He had no home for a whole eleven months straight.  Ramon cooked in his neighbors house, everyday I was there.  I felt for Ramon, I felt for Jesus which was another homeowner.  I felt for every single person living in this struggle, I felt for the people of Puerto Rico.  Majority of the work that I performed in Puerto Rico was repairing roofs and mold removal.  I certainly sweated a ton, received a tan and most importantly grew a huge heart.  This experience did not only give the people of Puerto Rico an opportunity of a home, but also gave me an opportunity of becoming a better person.  By simply talking to someone and hearing their story, my question was answered: Why am I here?  Yes, organizations sent money, sent care packages, but what they failed to realize is that people were robbed.  They failed to understand that not everyone was even helped.  I came to understand that there are many locations that are not even on the map.  Therefore how can these people even be helped?  People don’t even know they exist.  From observing different areas of Puerto Rico, I learned that if no one will help these people, its okay, because these people will help each other — something that I fail to see in New York.  The people of Puerto Rico united, and still remain together for the well being of each other.  These people would greet everyone who would walk by, they would smile, they would acknowledge the presence of someone else, myself included.  A smile can and will change someone's day.  Within a smile comes a thousand words.  These people worked together.  Instead of causing another battle, they choose to unite.  Neighbors treated each other as neighbors.  They are friendly, they share, and they all smile.  Their smile is what I miss about Puerto Rico.  As I reflect on these two weeks, to where people live in conditions no one should ever live in, I vow to not complain again.  How can I complain when I have a roof over my head?  I do not live in fear, I sleep in the comfort of my own home. Knowing that I was able to fix a total of four homes, I did not just fix a roof, stop a leak, or remove mold, I made a home.  A home to which someone can go to everyday.  A place where they can feel comfort just as anyone else can.  I will forever be grateful for this experience. 

What Parents Think About When They Think About Immunizations

Nico Baylosis, Verrazano Honors Class of 2018, completed a degree in Nursing

As I found myself on the last laps of nursing school, I felt that I wanted to become more involved in Pediatric Nursing. The subject of my capstone research project revolved around the thought process of parents when it came to the administration of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This vaccine is usually given to children at 1- and 4-years old, with the permission of parents. Medical research has shown that if 95% of the population receives the vaccine then the disease would be considered eradicated in the community. Despite this there is still controversy and reluctance regarding the MMR vaccine and some parents decide not to vaccinate their children. Because of this, those in the population who are unable to receive this vaccine, such as immunocompromised or those allergic to the vaccine, are at risk for any of these diseases. I had spent my college summers working at a non-profit organization that established a summer camp that was meant for children with cancer and their siblings. As one of the medical staff, I had the privilege of getting to know these kids for nearly three years and have seen them grow. I thought of them as inspiration for this project. As oncology was not an area that I felt I could make progress in, in terms of pediatrics I saw the promotion of vaccine adherence in healthier children as indirectly providing protection against diseases for children with cancer.



I had initially intended to conduct an experiment for this project, however, I learned that the approval and creation process would have required me starting 2-3 years prior.  Instead I focused my attention towards understanding the refusal to a vaccine that seems necessary for a healthy community.  I felt that before I would be able to implement any intervention in a clinical setting, I would have to explore all the details of the basics. My research project led me to find more than 18 sources of studies that focused on the decisions and thought processes of parents when they refuse or accept the vaccines. My project took the form of an extensive literature review and comprised nearly all relevant research on parents and the MMR, including the original study published by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that virtually gave life to the belief of “vaccines causing autism.” I had also included studies of populations all over Europe, which looked for any correlation between receiving the vaccine and occurrence of autism. The results for these studies was that there was no correlation. 


Despite all this, there is still a significant amount of people who refuse this vaccine. A surprising find is that the majority of people who refuse the vaccine are not solely affected by the past idea of “the MMR vaccine causes autism.” While there were many factors affecting parents, the most common ones were vaccine safety, social media, lack of trust in health care professionals, and perceived risks of the diseases. While the overall end goal of this project is to increase awareness and promote the uptake of the vaccine, I went back to the basics so that we would better understand what goes through a parent’s mind when making these decisions. By acknowledging that these parents have concerns and addressing them individually, then there may be a better chance of improving the community vaccination rate. My results in this study only identified the main factors among parents. This capstone is only an introduction as I hope to take this study further myself and one day conduct my own experiment to improve community health in the future.

Research (and Yogurt!) have Unexpected Benefits

Nicole Dushkin, Class of 2018, earned a BS with a major in Biology, with a Health Science concentration


When I first started the College of Staten Island, and became a member of the Verrazano school, I had no idea where the exciting journey would take me. The one thing I never believed I would be able to accomplish is being successful in the sciences, especially in laboratory research. Fast forward four years, and here I am completing my Bachelors in Biology and am an active member doing research in a Molecular Biology Laboratory. Aspiring to become a physician one day, being a member in this research strongly influences the impact I hope to have on the community one day. Research in any lab, as well as working with patients, requires a great amount of patience. Sometimes, things do not go as planned, or the end results are the complete opposite of what was originally expected. Starting the pre-medical track seemed like a long, and excruciating process, but through the help of the biology department, getting involved never seemed so easy. I am so thankful for the opportunity that Dr. Shen gave me by allowing me to be part of his lab. Little did I know, that I would gain such a strong passion for working in the lab and conducting this research. 

Nicole in the lab

Our goal was to test two strains of bacteria that are commonly found as starter cultures in yogurt, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, and measuring the way they are absorbed. This is beneficial because the proposed thought was that small amounts of alcohol, combined with probiotics, can have very positive health benefits. During the fermentation process of producing yogurt from the starter cultures, ethanol is formed. We would like to see how the strains of yogurt will survive in different environments. When ingesting yogurt, there is a pathway that allows the yogurt to be broken down. Since absorption goes through the stomach and the small intestine, and both environments are in different pH levels, we are testing the growth of bacteria at pH levels of both places. We made specific media, that allows the specific bacteria to grow in, and then altered the pH to mimic the stomach and small intestine. This research is ongoing, and although we did obtain results for the growth of the bacteria, we will continue to research how it reacts under different conditions.  

Nicole presenting at the Undergraduate Research Conference

This process involved a lot of patience and repetition. It correlates back to what life as a physician will be like. Physicians don’t always have perfect and exact answers while seeing a patient. They have to perform several tests, over a period of time and sometimes their results are the opposite of what they would expect. Conducting this research provided me with a sense of passion to continue with the experiment regardless of the circumstances. By pursuing this part of my education, I learned about myself and how passionate I am about this subject.  After graduation, I plan to continue this research and gain even more knowledge through the tests we will perform. As I prepare to hopefully attend Medical School, research in Dr.Shen’s lab has provided me with a great foundation of what my future will hold.

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.