CITY TECH WRITER Volume 12 2017 Outstanding Student Writing From All Disciplines Suzanne Miller & Megan Behrent Editors Cover by: Kacper Zawadzki Art Director: Lloyd Carr About the Cover: I've always been fascinated with shape, color and movement. In composing this piece, my goal was to experiment with these visual design elements to create a piece that captures the community of City Tech and its various writing disciplines. Our diverse community is constantly in motion and being shaped with each passing semester. These are the works of the students who shape our school. —Kacper Zawadzki New York City College of Technology City University of New York Preface Welcome to City Tech Writer, Volume 12! Once again, our students have given us a range of experiences and ideas to contemplate. Chock full of intense and passionate pieces, this volume comprises essays that peer into the past, wrestle with the present, and glimpse the future: a human face is put on the refugee, the struggle of the PTSD victim is illuminated, and the Dreamer’s journey is considered. Fake news, the rise of computerized sportswear, the struggle of the honey bee, and the accidental creation of a sci-fi kitten are just some of the ideas in store… As we go to press, there are many people to thank: the faculty throughout the College who submitted extraordinary writing from their courses; Communication Design Department Chair Mary Ann Biehl for her support; Professor Peter Fikaris, whose communication design students produced many creative cover designs; Kacper Zawadzki, who designed the intriguing cover for this volume; and Ninoshka Mason and Vladimir Pinis, who were finalists for the cover art. We’d also like to thank all the design students who worked on posters for City Tech Writer’s “Call for Submissions.” A big thank you goes to Professor Lloyd Carr, the journal’s Art Director since its inception, who coordinated the graphics and prepared the cover for production, and whose talent and guidance are deeply appreciated; the Reprographics Center’s Lubosh Stepanek, who did a wonderful job of printing the cover, and Myrlene Dieudonne, Assistant Director of Campus Services, who coordinated this support. In addition, a special thanks goes to printers George Pompilio and Peter Pompilio, who produced the volume with skill and care and to Professor Steve Caputo, who helped with various aspects of the journal’s production. We are grateful to President Russell Hotzler, Provost Bonne August, Associate Provost Pamela Brown, Dean Vazquez-Poritz, and Dr. Stephen Soiffer for their invaluable support and encouragement. A special thanks goes to the President’s Executive Assistant Marilyn Morrison, to the Assistant to the Provost Imelda Perez, and to Administrative Coordinator Chioma Okoye for their help and guidance. We also want to thank the Literary Arts Festival staff (Rob Ostrom, Lucas Kwong, and Jennifer Sears), Patrick Corbett, and English Department Chair Nina Bannett for their support and assistance. Julia Jordan, Rodlyn Daniels, and Marlon Palmer in the Faculty Commons have been extremely helpful with various tasks, including the distribution of the volume. As always, we are grateful to English Department Office Assistants Lily Lam and Laura Kodet for being so generous with their time. Finally, we would like to give a hearty thanks to Professor Jane Mushabac, the founder of City Tech Writer. We hope you enjoy this volume! Suzanne Miller and Megan Behrent Editors TABLE OF CONTENTS Each listing provides the title and author of the work, and the professor and course (or program) for which it was written. My Hero’s Journey 1 Anastasia Haxhillari Prof. Miller, English 1101 Fake News Goes Viral 3 Michael Barkagan Prof. Berger, Communication 1330 Our Era’s Shadows 6 Edison Sanchez Prof. Park, Philosophy 2106 The Pledge on the Verge of Lawfulness 9 Jaroslav Eliah Sýkora Prof. Mushabac, English 1101 CRISPR Kitty 14 Andre Dorf Prof. Fraad First Year Learning Community (English & Biology) The Relationship Between Smoking and 16 Periodontal Disease Hoi Fai Lam Prof. Davide, Dental Hygiene 1100 How Much is a Smile Worth? 18 Keisha A. Fraser Prof. Matthews, Dental Hygiene 1112 Illegal to Dream 22 Jing Wen Huang Prof. Berger, Communication 1330 Learning to be Fit 25 Asia Skye Bauland Prof. Rudden, English 1101 Promoting Physical Activity in 29 Jackson Heights, Queens: A Memo Gisela Morocho Prof. Rodriguez, Health Services Administration 3510 Queer Planet 31 Candice Powell & Olga Soloveychik Prof. Voza, Biological Sciences 1201-ID (Interdisciplinary) Learning to Read and Write: 33 Frederick Douglass’s Journey to Freedom Chen Xin Lin Prof. Harris, English 092W/1101 (Combination Course) To Combat Terror, We Also Need 37 Understanding and Compassion Daniel Fanning Prof. Iddings, English 1121 The Curse of the American Military: 41 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Alexey Kiriluk Prof. Iddings, English 1121 Topdog/Underdog 45 Dani D. Prof. Miller, English 2002 Becca McCharen-Tran for Chromat 48 MarVena M. Bhagratee & Isabel Lantigua Prof. Adomaitis, Marketing 2335 The Decline of the Honey Bee in a Struggling 53 Society: The Gruesome Reality Cynthia Ung Prof. Sala, English 1101 Breast is Best 57 Candice Powell Prof. Voza, Biological Sciences 1201-ID (Interdisciplinary) My Family’s Life Sentence 59 Jendayi Chambers-Bandele Prof. Fox, English 1101 The Analysis of Visual Perception 62 in Graphic Design Principles I Oscar Gonzalez Prof. Nicolaou, Communication Design 1100 Course Experience in Graphic Design Principles I 64 Irina Mashuryan Prof. Nicolaou, Communication Design 1100 A Formal Analysis of Auguste Rodin’s 65 The Hand of God Tashi Wangdu Prof. Chwalkowski, Art History 1106 Effective Ways of Teaching Bioinformatics 67 to Undergraduates Victor O. Adedara & Kabir D. Omolaja Prof. Giannopoulou, Bioinformatics 3352 One Man With a Gun Can Control 71 a Hundred Without One Krystal De Souza Prof. Berger, Communication 1330 Girlboys 75 Siera Whitaker Prof. Pope, English 1101 How "Eco" is the Ecotourist? 77 Peter De Temmerman Prof. Kim, Hospitality Management 3502 Meaningful Beginnings for the Mentally Disabled: 82 The Closing of Willowbrook Aaliyah Butler Prof. Siranian, English 1101 NP and P Packaged in Complexity 85 Byron Oswaldo Ullauri Prof. Singh, Math 2540 My Metaphorical Coney Island 87 Mariam Qayyum Prof. Fox, English 1101 The Secret 91 Victoria R. Lawrence Prof. Harris, English 2000 Writing from the CUNY Immersion Program (CLIP) Prof. Davis A New, White Landscape 94 Angie Portilla Unigarro Home 94 Qi I am an Only Child 95 Thanyamon Williams The Secret of Henna 95 Hetaf Alokam Binta Inspired Me 96 Thierno Issa Bah The Role of Women in 97 Six Degrees of Separation and Detroit Anderson Calderon Prof. Saddik, English 1121 The Cherry Orchard: Acting Analysis 101 Rafael Collado Prof. Vey, Theatre 2180 The Resistance: Book 1 103 Da'Sean D. Williams Prof. Boisvert, Entertainment Technology 1101 LULY Halal Cart 107 Irvin Gutierrez Prof. Mushabac, English 1101 Laura Polla Scanlon Award, Literary Arts Festival, 2016 Kitten, Tuna and the Pursuit of Happiness 109 Olga Gorokhovskiy Prof. Standing, Communication 1320 My Hero’s Journey Anastasia Haxhillari Waking up on April 3, 1999 felt quite different. There was a high-pitched voice coming from the living room. I sat next to my mom on the couch while she was watching the news. There was breaking news that morning about the war in Kosovo. It was an armed conflict between the Republic of Yugoslavia and a Kosovar Albanian rebel group that was supported by NATO. There were 800,000 people expelled from Kosovo and thousands of people killed by Serbian authorities. The images were really shocking and dramatic. I got dressed and decided to go out and get my friend to go to school. As we were walking to catch the school bus, all of a sudden I saw a big line of buses filled with families from Kosovo trying to escape the war. I asked a bystander what was going on, and he told me about the massacre that had recently happened in Kosovo. People were spread out throughout my country trying to find shelter, food, and support from the locals. I went to school that day feeling distressed and uneasy by the chaos that was present. When I went home after school, I found myself alone at home, thinking about the poor little kids who couldn’t find their families. I could hear the sound of wailing children through the window as I was lying down in my room. I could hear people asking: Have you seen my father? Have you seen my sister? Those voices and the images from the news that I saw in the morning kept running through my head. All of a sudden, I heard a knock on my door. I was scared for a moment and took a glance through the magic eye to see who it was. At that time, we lived in a small house on the main street of the city. I saw a little girl, pale-skinned, with blonde hair. She was wearing a jean jacket and had a teary look. I decided to open the door and she approached me with an empty bottle, asking, in a frightened voice, for water. I immediately ran to the kitchen and grabbed a gallon of water and some fruit. I went back and as I gave everything to her, she smiled and gave me a big hug. We started talking to each other and she told me about all the suffering that she had experienced during her entire journey from Kosovo to Albania. Her house was burned. Everything they owned had been destroyed and loaded into trucks and driven away. My mom and dad came home early from work that day. As I introduced them to the girl, they started asking her about her family. She had an older brother and a twin sister.