CRSPNewsletterC U N Y R E S E A R C H S C H O L A R S P R O G R A M • c u n y . e d u / r e s e a r c h

SUMMER 2016

This newsletter cele-brates the accomplish-ments of the students and the faculty mentors who participated in the CUNY Research Scholars Program. Our program, funded by the Office of the Mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, is at the end of its second year and has engaged more than 320 students and 200 faculty mentors. The program is located at the seven com-munity colleges and three comprehensive schools across CUNY.

The co-directors of the program, Avrom Caplan and Ron Nerio thank all the faculty mentors and college administrators who have made the Research Scholars Program a suc-cess for their students. We know that each of you have made a substantial commitment to mentor-ing and teaching the skills and techniques of your re-search. We are also proud of our students who have engaged in research proj-ects across the disciplines and who are presenting today at our annual sym-posium.

WELCOME!

Student poster presenter (right) at the 2015 CUNY Research Scholars Symposium held at John Jay College.

Vita Rabinowitz, Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost

Meet four research scholars, and learn what a former CRSP awardee (2015) has done since completing the program.

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Congratulations to all of the 2016 CUNY Research Scholars and a special “thank you” to the directors and mentors!

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A glimpse at a few student achievements.

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

The CUNY Research Scholars program provides associate degree students with unparalleled opportunities to participate in authentic scientific research, to gain experience in a laboratory environment, and to engage with faculty mentors and learn about their disciplines and career paths. These are some of the highest-impact and most transformative out-of-classroom experiences that students can have in their undergraduate careers. Often times, students don’t encounter this type of hands-on, serious research and mentorship experience until they reach a graduate level of study, but our Research Scholars are learning about research practices and the world of scientific inquiry much earlier in their academic careers. This is a tremendous advantage, making it possible for students to discover interests and acquire skills that will shape the trajectory of their college education and their professional goals.

For Medgar Evers College student Claythia Nicholas, working in an HIV immunology lab has opened her eyes to the complex mechanics of the human body. Alongside her mentor, Dr. Wil-liam Carr, she has been working with clinical samples to examine the expression of adenosine receptors on human lymphocytes. The value of her experience as a CRSP scholar doesn’t begin and end in the lab; she has also grown as an individual and started to visualize her future in new ways. “My mindset has been rewired and my goals have expanded,” she explains, noting that she has a clearer understanding of how the path to medical school works and what it will take to get there. After finishing her Associate degree in biology this summer, she will begin her bachelor’s degree as part of Medgar Evers’ RISE program, with an eventual goal of pursuing a MD/Ph.D.

The anthropological research that Shenice Greene is doing as a Guttman Community College student is already attracting attention in the research world. While attending the Society for Visual Anthropology Conference in Denver with her mentor and anthropology professor at Guttman, Dr. Kristina Baines, Shenice had the opportunity to speak with funders from the Wenner-Gren foundation about her work (conducting textual analyses of media sources and police logs to un-derstand microaggressions among police officers and stereotypes related to the Columbine High School shootings). As a result, Shenice and Dr. Baines were awarded a $20,000 grant to con-tinue developing shiftingstereotypes.com, an interactive documentary website. Now, Shenice is working to design her own research project for next year, which will focus on microaggressions in hospitals and address questions about the effects of ethnic background on access to healthcare.

Before joining the CRSP program at LaGuardia Community College, Anastasios Tzanidakis thought that college was just about showing up to class. But when he joined the research team of his mentor, astronomy professor Allyson Sheffield, he became more engaged with his research and started to see new possibilities. This spring, he traveled to the MDM Observatory in Arizona with Dr. Sheffield to collect raw data for 150 stars using a 2.4-m Hilter telescope, in order to track their velocity and examine the atoms inside the stars. After returning from the trip, he has spent four to five days per week working alongside Professor Sheffield and two other CRSP students to prepare a paper for publication. The data they collected will help them answer questions about diffuse stellar clouds. Looking ahead, Anastasios envisions a career that combines scientific re-search with public outreach and teaching. He will transfer to Columbia University B.S. program in astrophysics in the fall of 2016.

Queensborough Community College student Joangela Nouel spent the past year characterizing microbial communities from different soil samples under the direction of Dr. Monica Trujillo, a professor of biology. In order to understand how bacterial cells interact with each other and respond to environmental changes, they gathered samples from three different New York City lo-cations: the New York Botanical Gardens as a pristine environment; Newtown Creek as a heavily polluted environment; and Central Park as an environment somewhere in between. Using 16S rRNA primers, they amplified the 16S ribosomal RNA gene for each sample, in order to com-pare the sequences with those in the database for 16s rRNA. They found that the more heavily polluted sites have a higher proportion of Actinobacteria. Joangela has presented her work at the American Chemical Society Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting 2016 (Riverdale, NY) and will present at the ABRCMS conference in November 2016. She has won a MARC Honors Program scholarship that will enable her to transfer to City College in the fall.

CLAYTHIA NICHOLAS, MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE

SHENICE GREENE, GUTTMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

ANASTASIOS TZANIDAKIS, LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

JOANGELA NOUEL, QUEENBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE

StudentProfiles

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For City Tech student Joyce Tam, participating in the 2014-2015 CRSP cohort was just the beginning of her interest in laboratory research and involvement with the scientific community at her college. Since completing her year as a Research Scholar, she has continued working with mechanical engineering professor Dr. Ozlem Yasar, earning impressive accolades and traveling to conferences to present her work. As first author on a poster entitled “Effects of Lindenmayer System Parameters on Engineered Tissue Designs,” Joyce gave presentations at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting and Exhibit in Boston, MA and the 6th International Conference on Mechanics of Biomaterials and Tissues in Waikoloa, HI in late 2015, and also twice attended the International Conference on Solid Waste Management and Technology (ICSW) in Philadelphia, PA. Beyond her scholarly achievements, Joyce has also become passionate about promoting student research opportunities at City Tech—she has become involved with planning SEEK workshops, chairing a committee that hosted a student-organized symposium, and mentoring other female STEM students in her department. Now on track to complete her Associate’s degree, Joyce plans to finish her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology at City Tech and aspires to pursue a Master’s or Ph.D. For now, she continues to explore the many different fields of mechanical engineering through her courses and lab work.

JOYCE TAM, CITY TECH

RESEARCH SCHOLAR HIGHLIGHTS

City Tech research scholars pose for a photo after debuting a bionic hand.The trio plan to buid a small-er version suitable for children.

A group of LAGCC scholars collected water samples from various NYC locations to test them for enterococcus and lead. They mixed the samples with a solution, which caused the bacte-ria to glow under an LED light, to see how much each sample contained.

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2016CRSPParticipants

BORROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGECaperna, MollyCollison, MarkColon, LionelDelgado, EmmanuelDragani, AurelaElakramine, FatineFarhana, RahmanGarcia, HilarioGarriga, ImaniGuliyeva, DinaraHadges, TedKim, Jeong HeonLi, YouxiPalinko, DominikaSarkar, SheilaSugrim, ShivronTsering, NorbuVijayalakshman, MadhyamaZiu Wing, Michelle LoZou, Huang

BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGEArmah, MichaelBakere, Abd- ManaafBasheer, RafatBonsu, CalebDiaz-Perez, EllianaJosman, RobertKontoh, SamuelLonesome, KenyaMensah, Stephen Rahman, KhalilurRivas, RaulSabi, MoussadatouTsagli, BrightValentino, AngelWillis, Ika

COLLEGE OF STATEN ISLANDAlmonte, JoharryAbdel, AminahAnsah-Boachie, AlexandriaChyat, SoukainaDundua, AkakiGarcia, DenisseGranville, HakeimLai, Jiahao (Kevin)Lewis, MalikMansro, TeiMartin, JadaRisbrook, ShannonRubin, SamSampson, BriannaShittu, AbisolaSobi, NorhamSothylingam, MathuraStoute, JusticeTataru, AnastasiaWilliams, NigelYoussef, Samuel

GUTTMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGEBurgan, MelisaCobbinah, LawrenciaDeleon, JaslineEstevez, RegisLezama, JovanniMartinez, MiguelissaMcDermott, Mikaelia Miles, SadeOrtiz, CitlaliParada, Maria IsabelVega, OmairaVittini, EddyYangtso, Kalsang

HOSTOS COMMUNITY COLLEGEAchiok, PhillipBelemkoabga, Assita

De Los Santos, OvisDiallo, MariamaDiop, MariemeEider, RaniaFernandez, WendyFragoso, YanicelGarrido, IsamarGenao, BrianKaba, MohamedKiffouly, MaximeKonate, SeydouKoudougnon, EmmanuelleLega, MariamMahir, RafiMendez, AnaliliaOuedraogo, CynthiaOuedraogo, IbrahimPaucar, LesleyRafi, MahirRegtoumbda, BoukariSaleb, RaniaSangare, IbrahimSeyiti, MoussaSharaf, RamahTchabana, AoussiThera, AlassaneTiemtore, MoussaTraore, FeissalWilfred, IviZoungrana, Bedyada

KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGEAbbas, SyedaAli, Syed MukarramBarrie, MichelleBest, Candy-LynnChen, CalvinDean, AlexGao, ChenGibson, BrandonJohnston, LuanaKhanam, ThaminaLim, AnnaLopez, JorgeMaly, Jan

Maziarz, KatarzynaMiller, JustinMohiuddin, Mir Perez, KiareixaPinkhasov, JonathanPowell, JustinRivera, JhanaiRomano, DanielShabain, SallamTsui, Mei WaiYang, Stanley

LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGEAbadi, ThuriahAhmad, AbedalroufAkther, LubnaAngulo, KarenChang, VictoriaDelacruz, DerrickDoran, NathanFlores, KathyIdrizi, XufeLema, DamianLi, YixinMiller, JesseNdreu, ElvisNugent, AckeemOwens, Adayah Pfau, MeghanPorras, ChrisRodriguez, CrystalRosamilia, Cesia NSandoval, AngeliSherpa, NeemaTaveras, EricaTzanidakis, Anastasios Valbuena-Hernandez, Alison

MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGEAli, SumiahBrissett, FlorineCharles, JoelFlanders, Maria

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Gentles, PatrickGreene, Albena Ibrahim, ZainabJohnson, ChantelLennox, DuncanLeung, YickMcPherson, TajeraNicolas, ClaythiaOlla, MaryOvril, SophonieSamuels, CarlosSaul, DamarWallace, Michelena

NEW YORK CITY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGYAhmad, EhabAkujobi, JonathanAmeen, MuhammedAmegavie, DavidBarreto, HaroldColon, JustinCuff, ZianneCumma, CherisheDelgado, AndresFeliz, HectorGarcia, EddyHe, AndyHiguera, GabrielJiang, YiKhan, IkrashKoiner, RobinMamun, IbrahimMoumni, RachidOrton, WilliamPham, YenPrashad, Ramesh Sanderson, JarrenShah, Vinay KumarStabler, EzraTsfmur, MalevichVanishvili, GeorgeWilliams, Xavier

QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGEArgandwall, NajwaBong, SiCaban, FranciscoChen, YueliChou, JasonDewanamuni, UdyaHwang, JeanJiang, YiJoseph, MarieKim, Ha EunLara, LilianaLeung, Yick T. (Edmund)Liu, YananMartinez, AdolfoMunoz, DannyNouel, JoangelaSingh, HarpreetSmith, ThomasSun, IreneUlloa, LorenaZhang, Xin

CRSP DIRECTORSAlona Bach, Ph.D.Stanley Bazile, Ph.D.Felix Cardona, Ph.D.Mercedes Franco, Ph.D.Chulsung Kim, Ph.D.Alfred Levine, Ph.D.Dionne Miller, Ph.D.Luis Montenegro, Ph.D.Caitlyn Nichols, Ph.D.Hamid Norouzi, Ph.D.Mohsin Patwary, Ph.D

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE MENTORS!

Aggarwal, AmitAlberts, IanAlcendor, RalphAlexander, JaneBaines, KristinaBarcena, HomarBenimoff, AlanBerhanu, DeborahBishop, JasonBrennan, ThomasBulley, HenryButtet, SebastienCalderon, OlgaCarmona, NayduChapman-Hilliard, ColletteDamas, M. ChantaleDas, SatyaprakashDehipawala, SunilDevany, EmralDorcely, ReginaldEl Idrissi, AbdeslemEntezari, MariaFernandez, FranciscoFerroglia, AndreaFlaris, VickiFuentes, LuciaGadura, NidhiGailani, GaffarGarbin, DanielGerarda, ShieldsGonzalez, JanetGreene, MariaHans, SunejHendrix, TonyaHillstrom, JeanHinkley, CraigHo, IvanJahangir, SarwarJayant, LalithaJiang, BiaoKarimi, SasanKeller, CharlesKezerashvili, RomanKim, ChulsungKim, Kwang HyunKolmakov, GermanKurt, LeventLang, Damaris-LoisLansiquot, RenetaLiang, JunLiu Sullivan, NancyLloyd, PatrickLovegreen, AlanLoverde, SharonMananga, EugeneMancini, Jay

Mark, KevinMcCloskey, DanMulligan, ElizabethNakamura, MasatoNavarro, AbelNguyen, AndrewNieto-Wire, ClaraNiu, JinzhongNiyazov, RafaelNovak, NataliaOrtiz, MaryOzlem, YasarPinto, MarcoPorter-Morgan, HollyPriano, ChristinePrice, DianePrince, TanvirRadhakrishnan, PreethiRangel, Daniel TorresRice, EmilyRichards, DwightRodriguez, YoelRogers-Sirin, LaurenSarno, DavidScobell, SunnySheffield, AllysonShields, GerardaShin, JunShneyderman, TulliyaSideris, PaulSingh, SunainaSkaggs, SheldonSocha, AaronSoho, EdmeSt. Hilaire, DickensStark, JulianSteinberg, OlgaSturm, DeborahTamari, FarshadTang, HaoTembilla, JamesTherese, SoosairajTian, RujinTrujillo, MonicaTsiklauri, ShalvaTyner-Mullings, AliaUmmy, Muhammad AliVance, JenniferWallace, WilliamWei, Ching-SongWei, SujunWolf, LaurenXu, NaYasar, OzlemZaidi, Syed

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SelectedStudentAcheivementsSTUDENT: AURELA DRAGANI COLLEGE: BMCCDragani won the “Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship” and will begin class at Columbia the fall of 2016.

STUDENT: WENDY FERNANDEZCOLLEGE: HOSTOSFernandez, along with a fellow student, received an ABRCMS diploma for best presentations at the 2015 ABRCMS conference. Fernandez was also accepted to MIT’s 2016 Summer Program in Biology and Neuroscience.

STUDENT: DAMIAN LEMA COLLEGE: LAGCCLema presented at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society at the College of Mt. St. Vincent.

STUDENT: KATE MAZIARZ COLLEGE: KINGSBOROUGHMaziarz won a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship and will begin classes at Mt. Holyoke during the fall of 2016.

STUDENT: JESSE MILLER COLLEGE: LAGCCMiller presented a paper at the American Association of Geographers in San Francisco titled “Citizen Science and Enterococcus: a Geospatial Analysis of Water Contaminants and Land Use in New York City.”

STUDENT: WILSON NIEVES COLLEGE: CITY COLLEGENieves won 3rd place in the microbiology poster presentation competition at the 2015 ABRCMS conference for his paper, “Elucidation of the Role of Rhomboid Proteins in Streptomyces.”

STUDENT: SOPHONIE OVRIL COLLEGE: MEDGAR EVERSOvril presented at the African American Researchers in Mathematical Sciences Conference at Princeton University in June 2016.

STUDENT: RAMESH PRASHAD COLLEGE: CITY TECHPrashad presented at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers on June 30 at Virginia Tech.

STUDENT: LESLIE VAZQUEZCOLLEGE: HOSTOSVazquez, along with a fellow student, received an ABRCMS diploma for best presentations at the 2015 ABRCMS conference.

Memoir writing is not a traditional strategy for mentoring STEM research students. But psychology researcher James W. Pennebaker (Opening Up by Writing it Down) found that short-term, focused writing can have an impact on everyone, from better functioning of the immune system to better grades for college students. The benefits are greater for people who are able to construct a story or build a narrative over the course of their writing than for those who are not. Our experience with the CRSP

memoir writing series at Queensborough suggests that it affects students who participate in the following ways:• Stories are as diverse as our student body and the workshop structure facilitates an understanding of the challenges of

cross-cultural communication,• The workshops also facilitate community-building.• Participants deal with challenges in memoir writing similar to the communicating of research: putting themselves and

their work out there; writing for a specific purpose and audience; having a vision and being able to articulate it; making a compelling point.

• Non-native speakers report leaving their comfort zone (academic writing) and feeling more confident communicating in English.

Memoir writing as an approach to mentoring STEM students merits further investigation, especially now that students’ well-being and flourishing are central themes of a national initiative in higher education.

MEMOIR WRITING: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO MENTORING THE RESEARCH SCHOLARS

by Maria Mercedes Franco

CRSP Campus Director - Queensborough Community College

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