2021/2022
Scholarship Recipients
Adam Ramirez
"I particularly proud of being able to continue doing research for a second year at the Office for Student Research and Creativity at John Jay. During my second year, I was able to take on a mentoring role and learn how to listen and lead. Additionally, my friendships with Bettina, Yan, Yareli, Mina, and Kimberly grew, and it was enjoyable to converse with and assist my fellow OSRC peers. Furthermore, it was a pleasure to have another year with Professor Pittman. I could say many wonderful things about Professor Pittman, but his commitment to students and the larger college community stands above all. I definitely grew as a student and as a person under his tutelage. Lastly, I’d like to mention that the opportunity to shift focus and pursue new subject material during this second year was great. The OSRC program gave me the freedom to be myself and grow organically without the pressure of meeting requirements. Our conversations were always substantive and thought-provoking; whether we were discussing school, politics,
current events, or anything else, you were able to provide me with valuable insight. I always enjoyed just catching up. Moreover, the program provided me with the additional tools I needed to perform well in class. Journal entries, for example, helped me in developing confidence in my writing. As a result of my role as an OSRC peer mentor this year, I also improved my leadership skills. In short, I’m grateful for my time as an OSRC scholar and would strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested and eligible."
Ariana Padilla
"From the beginning of the application process, this mentorship program allowed me to explore and expand my skills by exposing me to a setting that embraced creative work and continued to build upon my experience in formal academic research. The process, which included the need to find a mentor that reinforced my topic of interest, also drove me to connect with like-minded people like Dr. Martinez, who was just as interested in doing research for the Latinx community at John Jay, which was my primary intent. Overall, this mentorship opportunity has helped me expand on my skills and, most importantly, has allowed me to make critical and exciting connections with people on campus. By attending my peers' presentations and learning what their projects are about, I was able to experience and gain back that sense of community that I had lost during Covid."
Arjanita Elezaj
"My mentor, Prof Anila Duro, was the one who helped me sail through these troubled times. She has been a ray of sunshine in my life to overcome the obstacles this difficult pandemic situation brought upon us. Her kind words, wise advice, empathy, and care motivated me to learn new skills and thrive with my research project. Our overall goal is to promote healthier relationships inside the Albanian American community by empowering people to recognize potential signs of domestic violence. Although it’s my first time conducting research, being part of this research scholarship recipient cohort has given a different meaning to my experience as a student and a lifetime learner. I have enjoyed every moment of it, from growing and gaining academic knowledge on conducting empirical research, sharpening my thinking skills to polishing my writing. For the rest of my time at John Jay, and even after I graduate, I hope to continue working in research in some capacity. Having Bettina by our side at every step of the process has also been an uplifting experience for me. Her persistence and kind, comforting words empowered me to find the best within me. I wouldn’t have been the writer I am today if it wasn’t for Bettina’s constructive and precious feedback and her encouragement to try and write my journals."
Britania Walters
"Being a part of the OSRC 2021-2022 cohort has been an amazing experience. I have been under the mentorship of Dr. Diaczuk since the summer of 2020. Throughout that time, I have learned immeasurable knowledge and experience. He gave me guidance throughout our project and gave me room to tackle some of the tasks myself. It always felt like a partnership. It has also been an amazing learning experience since he knows so much and shares his knowledge. I also got a lot of hands-on experience even though we were, and still are, in a pandemic, so I was grateful for that. All in all, I have cherished and valued my time spent being a part of the OSRC 2021-2022 cohort. I have met some amazing people, including the other members of the cohort and the OSRC staff. This program has been nothing but supportive and I'm glad that I got to be part of it."
Brocha Frankel
"A key takeaway from this project has been that it is in my best interest to take initiative and embrace the unknown. The IRB application was a particular part of the project that Dr. Kassin has little knowledge of, and therefore decided to introduce me to other researchers who could provide guidance through the process. The connection was an opportunity to gain experience collaborating with other researchers in the field and make valuable professional contacts. I am proud of my ability to navigate the IRB process despite having no prior experience. I feel grateful to be able to work on a project from beginning to end. I love that the project requirements were spaced out over the school year and that each task built upon another to prepare students for the final presentation. As anxiety-provoking as they were, these experiences were great opportunities that helped me improve my presentation skills with gradually increasing stakes."
Dawoon Lee
"I started my thesis with the opportunity of getting a scholarship from the Office for Student Research & Creativity. I have been working on my thesis with Professor Keith A. Markus. He is a great mentor that gives me important feedback. He sees the big pictures and the details at the same time. He gives me the guideline for the timeline and makes sure that I can keep up with it. I am proud of doing my thesis. The individual meeting with BM was helpful to reflect on my research process and keep up with my research on time. I could have time to write about what I have experienced and how I felt during the experience. Also, I could ask questions that I have and use the time to prepare the presentation. This experience made me understand the process of research and receive the resources I need to conduct my own research."
Hadja Bah
"This research project has been an insightful and fascinating opportunity that I am
grateful to have been given the chance to take part in. I developed my research to
reflect my diverse interests and as an analysis of the compelling work of authors I highly
respect. Not only was this an opportunity to think critically about topics commenting on
the various states of differing cultures but it also represented the true power of literature.
This project represents the beginning of my journey into the field of narrative design,
impact and empowerment. Working with Dr. Jessica Gordan Nembhard was an experience I'm grateful for. Her knowledge of the literature diaspora served as guidance for the direction I wished to take my research in. She helped me through the process of creating a taxonomy of terms and piecing together my project."
Joie Ning
"This past year has been a big year of changes for my project and my relationship with the research process. I feel as though I faced a lot of struggles with getting over certain parts of the project and maintaining the motivation and momentum for the project; however, the faculty mentorship played a huge role in helping me to get through the process. Specifically, faculty mentoring did two things; it provided the guidance that I needed to keep on task with such a long-term endeavor, and it provided me with a different and more nuanced perspective of my research that helped it to evolve into something better. My experience doing a long-term research project has always been one of great challenges because of the fact that I typically have difficult setting and keeping to the smaller, self-set deadlines. My faculty mentor caught on to this pretty quickly and helped to rectify the situation by helping me set more goals and to remind me of these deadlines at each meeting."
Julia Bolotovsky
"Over the past year, I have had the pleasure of working alongside my faculty mentor, Dr. Yuliya Zabyelina. Having Dr. Zabyelina walk me through my research process from day one has enabled me to gain an understanding of the various research components, including brainstorming, developing a research question, gaining IRB approval, and analyzing my data. Additionally, Dr. Zabyelina also assisted me with my work for the Honors Capstone and motivated me to submit my research to the collection of CUNY Academic Works. Throughout the year, I have also had the opportunity to attend cohort meetings and presentation trainings. The initial cohort meeting was a great way to connect with the other scholarship recipients and meet new people. I especially enjoyed this opportunity given the disconnect that emerged within the student population as a result of COVID-19."
Kimberlee Lalane
"Regarding my research topic, my understanding of paraphilias changed as I did not previously know how disorganized individuals with exhibitionistic and fetishistic disorders are within their crime-scene behaviors. This finding demonstrates that it will be challenging to track their crime-scene behaviors as they are not uniquely tied to a broader category of violence, pseudo-intimacy, and criminal organization like other paraphilias (i.e., sexual sadism and voyeurism). I feel accomplished by how much progress I made with my thesis and my acceptance into a couple of doctoral programs. I benefited significantly from my meetings with Bettina, as she assisted me with my research process, noted possible solutions to certain statistical obstacles I endured, and was of great emotional and technical support while working on my doctoral applications. Overall, I am grateful for the OSRC Undergraduate Research/Creativity Scholarship, as it gave me a research foundation and training that will be transferable for my doctoral studies and beyond."
Kimberly Jaramillo
"The Office for Student Research and Creativity (OSRC) Scholarship has taught me so much in the past two years. This program allowed me to grow and understand my work ethic. One of my biggest accomplishments was finishing the project and being able to see it on a poster board. My research was for two years, and being able to see my work and having others compliment me was one of the best feelings. This experience has taught me a lot about the migration of Venezuelans to Colombia. Focusing on laws and regulations enacted by the Colombian government taught me a lot about where my family is from. Not only did this experience teach me about immigration laws and international relations, but it also allowed me to feel closer to Colombia. This topic is very important to me, and having this experience allowed me to explore it."
Laura Alarcon
"The cohort meetings were fun because I was able to meet new people and see my friends. The presentation trainings were very helpful because it was a time to practice our presentations which proved helpful in finding out what needed to be worked on and what we had done well. I benefited from the individual meeting with Bettina because I appreciated the honest and clear feedback that she gave me and because I loved the atmosphere of her office and the energy that she just generally put off. Beyond that, I also really appreciated it when she would commend me for things I had done well, either in the written journal assignments or in the presentations. I also appreciated the fact that I felt safe enough to open up during a journal assignment."
Lillian Steedman
"Meeting and discussing my project, both with Bettina privately, as well as with others in the cohort, was also something missing before my involvement with the OSRC. I have learned that having even casual conversations with others about one's work can help work through ideas and uncover issues that had not been thought of independently. While painful at times, I appreciated the opportunity to practice presenting them in person. While it was a much different relationship in its basic format, I also feel that I benefited greatly through the mentorship I received from Dr. Jeglic. Dr. Jeglic is so intelligent, but more importantly she is also so kind, easygoing, and communicative. I never felt intimidated, underprepared, or anxious with Dr. Jeglic. Instead, I felt the freedom to not know things. I felt the freedom to ask any question and never feared that I was expected to already be at a certain level."
Matthew Calma
"The Office of Student Research and Creativity presented me with the opportunity to finally take my ideas, knowledge, and passion, and put it on paper. My faculty mentor, Professor Jessica Gordan-Nembhard, made me feel that my work was truly in my own hands rather than stuck within the confines that I am usually stuck with in the academic-setting. The Professor made me feel that I was capable of doing the work and not have my hand held through the research and writing process. My meetings with Bettina helped me understand how complex homelessness actually is and how crucial the kind of work that I am doing is. The students also helped me feel that the research I was doing was important in their responses to how interactive my presentation was. In addition, Bettina expressed that the narrative storytelling that I did was quite important to telling the ideas of the homelessness crisis."