Digital Commons Network^™

The Women Against Violence Experiment (W.A.V.E.): Social Journalism Solutions To Help Immigrant Women Protect Themselves Against Abuse, Isadora Varejao

Capstones

The Women Against Violence Experiment (W.A.V.E.) is the product of a yearlong investigation about information gaps in New York’s Latina immigrant community. I interviewed two Brazilian-American immigration attorneys serving the Brazilian community and several Brazilian women living in New York, including victims and survivors of domestic violence, and found that immigrant women have little or no knowledge about the different forms of abuse to which they are vulnerable. No matter who perpetrates the abuse -- a partner, a boss, a landlord -- women don’t know about the resources available to protect their rights, such as free services and U.S. legislation. …

The Case For Not Giving Birth, Amanda D'Ambrosio

Capstones

Racism in medicine and a broken healthcare system has led to a maternal mortality crisis in the United States, one that disproportionately harms Black mothers. Though lawmakers and medical professionals have introduced legislation to expand healthcare and combat discrimination in clinical settings, reproductive justice leaders encourage new mothers to lean on their communities as a solution to the crisis.

A Shot At Freedom: The Story Of Lance Sessoms, Trone L. Dowd, Rosemary Misdary

Capstones

Lance Sessoms has served 32 years in prison for a crime he committed. He has spent the entirety of his long term sentence turning his life around and helping any and everyone that he's crossed paths with. Now, Sessoms is hoping a life of servitude and being a model incarcerated person will afford him a second chance at life and with his family.


https://medium.com/@tljdowd/a-shot-at-freedom-the-story-of-lance-sessoms-d3f190e0b81a

One Salvadoran Mother Was Determined To Bring Her Son To The U.S. Legally— It Took 24 Years, Maggie Veatch

Capstones

Desperate for a better life, Daysi Perla fled violence in El Salvador to provide a better life for her ten-year-old son. She immediately received temporary legal status. But by the time the paperwork for her son was processed, he was 34 years old with a 5-year-old child of his own. This is a story of a broken immigration system, and shows why Salvadorans are now risking their children's lives by bringing them to the U.S.

Link: http://maggieveatch.com/Capstone/

Getting Out: Bruce Bryant’S Climb To Redemption Inside Prison, Rachel M. Rippetoe, Sean Sanders-Mills

Capstones

Bruce Bryant, 50, was convicted of the murder of 11-year-old Travis Lilley in June 1996. Bryant maintains he never fired a weapon that day in 1993. But he recognizes that his lifestyle as a young person — he started dealing drugs when he was 14 — contributed to an environment in which a stray bullet could take a young life. And for that reason, he’s spent most of his 25 years in prison working to help young people.

With at least 12 more years on his sentence, Bryant is now asking the governor for early release, with the hope that …

Insured And In Debt, Virginia Jeffries

Capstones

Many Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance are still going into debt to pay medical bills.

http://virginia-jeffries.com/cap/

Becoming His Own Boss, Reginald A. Blake Jr.

Capstones

Sports and Academics have long been linked. If an athlete's grades aren’t up to par they can’t play, but when an athlete practices in the morning and at night, travels for games, how much learning can they actually do? There are cases however when an athlete uses sports as their ticket for higher education because their grades wouldn’t cut it. 16-year-old Deon McLaughlin is one of those students. For all his success on the court he’s battled with maintaining his school’s rigid academic standards. As good as he is, he knows the NBA isn’t a possibility, for him basketball is …

Putting A Face To Cancer, Lenn Robbins

Capstones

About one month after I began my studies at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH). Three years and three relapses later, I have my MA, I defiant will to fight this disease and the hope that by chronicling my experience I might help others. If this project helps just one person, it's been worth the ride.

https://lennrobbins.wixsite.com/facetocancer

Nyc Is A Hotspot For Bedsores Among The Elderly And Immobile, Kara J. Brown

Capstones

New York City is a hotspot for bedsores in nursing homes, according to data provided by the federal government. The Big Apple is home to nine of the 10 nursing homes in the state with the highest rates of long-stay, high-risk patients suffering from bedsores. Nationwide, those 10 nursing homes are among the worst in the nation—the top 2%—for their high bedsore rates, the data shows. Residents considered high risk are, according to Medicare, those who are impaired in bed mobility or transfer, who are comatose, or who suffer from malnutrition.

More than one out of every four residents at …

A New Breed Of Cop: Keeping Kids On The Straight And Narrow, Michael Tashji

Capstones

Policing kids in America today has changed—the ‘tough on crime’ days are over. Public scrutiny of police is at an all-time high, five years after the unrest in Ferguson. Officers Camacho, Charles and Romano serve the town of Bloomfield, New Jersey, and work specifically with kids in the community. They’ve adapted to these changes. But they’ve also banded together to support each other behind the thin blue line.

https://michaeltashji.com

Turismo Estético, Un Riesgoso Viaje Que Puede Convertirse En Una Pesadilla Legal, Michael Krumholtz

Capstones

Plastic surgery tourism has grown into a lucrative, international industry as patients travel from the US to Latin American countries for cheaper surgeries with more exaggerated results. Through our reporting, we’ve found that patients are at risk when entering a limbo between countries where insurance policies are vague or non-existent and surgeons guilty of malpractice are rarely held accountable. Complications from plastic surgeries abroad that include diseases and disfigurations leave patients

Link: https://medium.com/@michael.krumholtz/turismo-est%C3%A9tico-un-riesgoso-viaje-que-puede-convertirse-en-una-pesadilla-legal-f7d32ef3326a

Ransomware Is Quietly Devastating American Healthcare Facilities, Benjamin Powers

Capstones

The patient didn’t attract any attention initially. They were just one more cog moving through the system that was the massive hospital complex on your average day. That was, until they were shown to a room, and left alone. At that point, they removed a flash drive from their pocket and tried to insert it into a computer — with the goal of accessing the hospitals computer systems.

This is according to the Chief Information Security Officer at a major Northwest university hospital system, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitive nature of such attacks.

The imposter patient was …

Aging Intimately, Niamh Mcdonnell, Giulia Hjort

Capstones

We’re both familiar with grief after the loss of family members over 75. This project is our way of giving back in a small way by listening, but also as a way of remembering the people we unexpectedly lost. Each person we’ve met on this journey has inspired us in their own way, with their stories of resilience through grief and aging. All of our collaborators on this project are constantly learning, taking risks, and moving forward through loss and pain. They aren’t defined by their age. Rather, they embrace it with a willingness to reinvent their approach to romance …

Dangerous Drivers Still On City Streets Despite Thousands Of Speeding Tickets, Liam Quigley

Capstones

A months-long investigation of a vehicle in New York City with many speeding tickets led to a Nassau County address and a man who claims his employer paid all the tickets. It’s one of a limited number of cases where thousands of dollars in fines have proven ineffective at changing behavior and highlights a blind spot of the city’s Vision Zero initiative. This article explores a bill that lawmakers are hoping to use to get the worst drivers off the road and into a safety course.

Link: https://medium.com/@lquigley/dangerous-drivers-still-on-city-streets-despite-thousands-of-speeding-tickets-2cfda50883d7

The Body. The Art. The Psyche, Anushtha Agrawal

Capstones

The Body. The Art. The Psyche is a series that delves into the psyche behind doing body art. What drives an artist to manipulate another's body whether permanently or impermanently. What drives them? What they gain out of it? What are they seeking? The series has two artists; A tattoo artist who is driven by the demons of the human mind and macabre things around him; another is a henna artist who is driven by the mystical properties of henna and is inspired by the celebration of life. I have tried to draw a contrast between permanence and impermanence in …

The Price Of Regulating The Self-Storage Industry In New York City, Modou Nyang

Capstones

In December 2017, New York City Council passed a regulation that curtailed the growth of self-storage facilities in the city’s Industrial Business Zones. As a result, major self-storage developers in the city diverted their investments to other business portfolios. But the demand for storage in New York City is high. And due to high population density coupled with small living quarters, peoples need for extra space in the city is huge. In contrast, studies show that peoples need for storage in the city is underserved. In this article, i spoke to policy makers, activists and developers in the self-storage industry …

Voter, Jefferson S. Arak

Capstones

Ron Pierce, on parole in New Jersey, fights for a state bill that would re-enfranchise himself and 100,000 other New Jerseyans with criminal convictions.

Taught at a young age that voting is a duty to one's community, Ron works tirelessly to make sure that the fundamental right to vote does not leave New Jersey's neediest without a voice.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers may need to compromise their efforts to restore the right to vote in the face of political opposition.

Latinx Millennials Won’T Surrender To Tech-Industry Bias, Josefina F. Bruni

Capstones

Organizations like Techqueria, which seek to improve the odds of Latinx in the tech labor market, have been popping up since 2014 among minorities and other marginalized social groups, with names like LGTBQ in Tech, Blacks in Technology, Latinas in Tech and Lesbians Who Tech. They’re free, fluid and informal, with members constantly exchanging information and support. While they offer many opportunities for face-to-face gatherings, they are powered by social media.

Some of these collective efforts are no more than Slack workspaces. Others cross multiple platforms or even have web pages. Some have even incorporated. But all …

Coming Home: Veterans Leaving Service Face A Deadly Identity Crisis, Alexandria M. Hammond

Capstones

Many veterans are not adequately prepared for the psychological challenges they will face when leaving the military and transitioning to civilian life. Researchers, advocates and veterans themselves are beginning to realize how this "transition stress" is contributing to the high rates of veteran suicide in the United States.

Link to Capstone: http://monroehammond.com/uncategorized/coming-home-veterans-leaving-service-face-a-deadly-identity-crisis/

Rural America Faces Roadblocks In Joining The Internet Highway, Spencer C. Lee

Capstones

In the span of just a few decades, broadband – or high-speed – internet has become a standard 21st-century tool both in the workplace and at home. Yet a surprising number of rural communities in the U.S. currently lack access to speeds fast enough to complete regular household or school tasks, with some areas forced to go without wired connections altogether. The holes in internet connectivity across the country are placing barriers to career and educational growth, suppressing rural incomes and home values and causing population declines. Without faster technology, the future survival of many rural towns is at risk. …

More Than A Century After Problem Emerged, Manhole Explosions Still Injuring Dozens In New York City, Gaspard Le Dem, Gabriel Sandoval

Capstones

Since the early days of electrification, New York City has been rattled by manhole explosions –– underground blasts that injure residents, damage buildings, force evacuations, cause power outages and traffic disruptions.

Consolidated Edison, the city's largest electric provider, has for decades blamed manhole issues on bad weather and road salt that erodes underground wires. But some experts and former utility workers say lack of maintenance is at the root of the problem.

Meanwhile, city and state officials have failed to rein in the problem through weak laws and loose oversight. As a result, unsuspecting drivers and pedestrians continue to be …

Shahar's Producing Capstone, Shahar Golan

Capstones

The series of videos below were all produced between Sep-Nov 2019. They were part of 219 West, a news magazine TV show, airing on CUNY-TV and produced by the graduate students at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism.

While the videos might not have an obvious common thread, I saw them all as attempts to show New Yorkers who were challanging societal norms by centering their hobbies in life while surviving in the big apple.

The stories show a soccer player, a visual artists, and a skater, that either for pleasure, or to make a living, spend much of their …

219 West Editing Reel, Karina Meier

Capstones

This is a collection of broadcast pieces that I edited and either shot/produced during the fall semester for 219 West on CUNY TV. There is a total of 3 short segments and the whole January program.

Link: https://medium.com/@karimeiers/219-west-editing-reel-bdefe8944c68

Rising Seas Are Coming For The Dead, Kristen Ancillotti

Capstones

When people think of preparing for a disaster, they focus on how to safeguard homes, prevent damage to roads, and create efficient flood drainage. But as sea levels rise, it’s not only the living that are affected. Coastal cemeteries are washing away or slowly turning into marshland, and in some instances, caskets can be seen floating in the streets after storms. Projections from NOAA indicate that the global mean sea level is likely to rise at least 12 inches by 2100, and in a worst case scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions are at their highest, as high as 8.2 …

Among America’S Oldest, Opioid Overdoses Are On The Rise, Emma Davis

Capstones

Often overlooked in coverage of the opioid crisis, American seniors have experienced a dramatic increase in addiction in the last two decades. Drug overdoses in adults ages 55-64 have risen six-fold since 1999, according to the Center for Disease Control, and emergency visits due to opioid misuse tripled among those over 65 from 2006-2014, a study from Towson University found. This print and video piece investigates how heroin and prescription opioid use among older adults in New York City has contributed to the overdose rate; the consequences of opioid restrictions for geriatric pain patients; and the treatment options for seniors …

South Bronx Waterfront, Noah Lewis

Capstones

The waterfronts of New York City have seen dramatic transformation and development over the past several decades. Developers have taken advantage of the coveted real estate space and constructed glass monoliths along Manhattan’s shores on the East and Hudson Rivers.

More recent developments in Long Island City and Williamsburg’s waterfront have seen waterfronts transform, and neighborhoods are unrecognizable from where they used to be. But as development continues in those areas, many developers are being priced out, and the Bronx is the logical next step in the process.

This project includes photos, videos, and animations of the South Bronx Waterfront. …

The Unsung History Of Prince Hall Freemasonry, Ann Seymour

Capstones

Historical review of the history of Prince Hall Freemasonry examined through the experiences of a modern-day member. Prince Hall Freemasonry, the African American branch of the organization, has faced marginalization from the mainstream version of the organization since its inception in the late 18^th century. Despite these struggles, members have remained committed to both the fraternal organization and to fighting for the rights of African Americans in the United States. However, this history has been largely overshadowed by the attention given to mainstream Freemasonry. By speaking with contemporary members of both Prince Hall and mainstream Freemasonry, I created a …

Feeding The Future Meat Doesn’T Come Cheap, Lukas C. Southard

Capstones

Cultured – or as it is referred to by companies innovating the technology clean – meat is expected to be the next innovation to change the way the world gets its animal protein. Meat from animal cells grown in a lab seems like science fiction but it is around the corner from hitting your supermarket shelves. The technology has been developed but how these companies intend on scaling up their production to meet retail demands remains a mystery. So far companies have relied on seed and early stage investment from venture capital companies and private sources to fund research. Predictions …

How New York City Is Failing Students With Special Needs—And Why Minority Kids Have It The Worst, Pamela Subizar

Capstones

Under federal law, children are guaranteed free, appropriate education, but reports have found failures at every level of the New York City special education system. Despite some improvements by the city in recent years, initial evaluations are still delayed, and mandated services go unprovided. Complaints filed against the city have multiplied. Thousands of parents have to sacrifice savings and time fighting for better services. This report describes the particular challenges faced by minority families using data analysis, interviews with experts, and stories.

Latino students depend on these public services the most—they represent half of NYC students in special education programs. …

Google Has A Labor Problem, And It’S Not Just Coming From Its Employees, Daniel Whateley

Capstones

For decades, technology companies have used temporary and contract workers to lower costs, creating a shadow workforce of thousands of indirect employees. That business model is now under threat.

In September 2019, 80 contract workers at Google’s Pittsburgh office voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers, the first time that white-collar tech workers in the U.S. have successfully organized with a union. These contractors are employees of HCL Technologies, an Indian multinational IT and consulting company that partners with Google around the world.

Tech and office workers face a different set of workplace issues from blue-collar and factory employees, which …