Tag Archives: student work

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Raise the Age!

By Ken Francis

It’s October, and a group of students are lined up against a fence outside their school, bundled up against the unexpected frost. Hoodies are pulled taut, hands are gloved and beanies with bright pom-poms are pulled low. These students, aged 10 through 15, are waiting to shake their principal’s hand before they enter the school building. Afterward, they’ll bound into the building and bounce against each other like so many marbles in a bowl. They are disorderly, they are playful, they are children. Or are they?

How much will any of them mature in the next year? At 16, could they appropriately be considered adults? And, if one of them makes a mistake and commits a crime, should s/he be prosecuted as an adult? Continue reading Raise the Age! →

Home, Student Work, Urban Studies

NYCHA, Representation & Service Provision: A Student’s Perspective

Featured photo via Urban Upbound

By Paula Bonfatti

For the past three months, I have interned in the research department of Urban Upbound, a nonprofit organization that provides services to public housing residents in Queens, New York. Urban Upbound supplies this community with tools and resources needed to achieve economic mobility and self-sufficiency; their vision is to help residents break cycles of poverty. They primarily serve the Queensbridge Housing Development, which — with its 3,142 apartments — is known as America’s largest operating public housing project.

Master of Arts in Urban Studies Candidate Paula Bonfatti Lima
Master of Arts in Urban Studies Candidate Paula Bonfatti Lima

In New York City, there are over 607,000 people living in public housing developments under the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). 110,000 (18.1%) of these residents are children under 18 years old. Historically, public housing developments have been criticized by the mainstream as isolated, low-income urban population. Some critics contend that this housing creates vertical structural poverty in socioeconomically depressed neighborhoods. In addition, critics charge that these concentrated pockets of poverty are subject to high crime rates, unemployment and low turnover. However, NYCHA has 328 public housing units throughout the City’s five boroughs and serves 175,747 families, and has committed itself to playing an important role in fighting urban poverty and leveraging economically vulnerable communities. Continue reading NYCHA, Representation & Service Provision: A Student’s Perspective →

Home, Murphy News, Urban Studies

2015 Urban Studies Capstone Presentations

Congratulations to our spring 2015 Capstone students in our Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies! With the guidance of Dr. Michael Fortner, these graduate candidates presented the following research papers on Tuesday, May 12, 2015:

The effects on the Poverty Rate in New York’s Congressional District 15 since the War on Poverty
Leonel Baez

Service Needs of the Chronically Homeless in New York City
Marisa Butler

Tba
Renee Charles

What Impacts the Success of a Small Business?
Triscia Gill

Are We Making a Difference? Determining the Relationship between Employee Service Quality and Client Satisfaction
Nicholas Gurico

Moving Bogotá: Passengers’ Perception of El Sistema TransMilenio
Alix Hoechster

“Raising Consciousness”: How the CUNY Community Supports 21st Century Learners Find Agency in NYC
Crystal Joseph

African-American Men and HIV CARE in Urban Settings: Myths or Facts
Donald La Huffman

Home Schooling and Socialization: Problem Solved?
Keith March

How Can Faith-Based Mentoring Programs and Services Impact Youths’ Lives?
Ruth S. McFarlan-Felder

Workforce Development Programs and Socioeconomic Outcomes
Luz Mino

Building Tomorrow’s Leaders: Educating African American Men
Carlos Rivera

New York City: Pushing People Out?
Brittney-Rae Ramsay

The Effect of the Managed Care Transition on Homecare Organizations
Eric Tew

Parent and Child Language Differences and Child Delinquency in NYC’s Haitian Immigrant Community
Joseph Tulce

What You Earn and Who You Are Impacts the Healthcare You Receive: The Relationship between Income Inequality, Race and Health Outcomes in the United States
Suzana Vale