Program Requirements

Verrazzano Honors offers honors sections for its students which are smaller than the average section at CSI, are taught by experienced faculty, and offer unique learning experiences.  Honors sections are designated on your transcript as honors. We encourage you to fulfill as many general education and pre-major requirements as possible by taking Verrazzano Honors sections. It is great to be surrounded by motivated people, who also happen to be your Verrazzano friends.

Here is a list of Verrazzano courses offered in the upcoming semester.

You are required to successfully complete at least 3 Verrazzano Honors courses (in addition to those taken as part of a Verrazzano freshman learning community) to graduate with the Verrazzano Honors Distinction.

Verrazzano freshmen are required to take honors English and at least one honors math class (related to your major). 

For science-based courses with labs and lectures, the Verrazzano honors lecture section and Verrazzano honors lab section must be taken concurrently to be counted as one of the three required Verrazzano courses unless otherwise stated. 

Honors Credit for SLS 301, 302, and 303

Students may take any section of SLS 301, 302, or 303 and convert them toward a Verrazzano course by writing a reflective piece for the Verrazzano Voyager, our blog. This is not part of your SLS grade, but must be approved by the Verrazzano Honors Program to receive honors credit. You are permitted to take the SLS courses out of sequence, but you are required to meet the other prerequisites.

• SLS Reflective Blog Assignment for Honors Credit

Honors Contract

Students unable to complete the Verrazzano course requirement by taking Verrazzano-designated courses may propose an Honors Contract to substitute for one of the required courses. Honors Contracts must be completed with full-time faculty members unless otherwise approved by Verrazzano Honors. Course substitutions may not be done in the final semester before graduation. 

Honors Contract Option 1

Students enroll in any course, then participate in agreed-upon enrichment activities to earn Honors credit. Enrichment activities might include conducting an individual research project or assisting with faculty research, in-class presentation of research conducted under faculty guidance, writing a research paper, applying information gained from the course to community outreach (service-learning), or involvement in special events such as conferences, lectures, and performances. Proposed activities must be in addition to requirements that are part of the regular class as indicated on the course syllabus or assigned by the professor.

Honors Contract Option 2

Students can submit a proposal for an independent study project with a full-time faculty member.

To receive Verrazzano course credit, students must:

1. Submit a completed proposal to the Verrazzano office.
2. Submit the final paper/project/etc. signed by the faculty mentor to the Verrazzano office.
3. Email a 1-page reflection paper to the Verrazzano office. This reflection paper will be used as a blog entry for the Verrazzano Voyager. Pictures and illustrations are encouraged.

An honors contract through independent study is not designed to produce a capstone. Students may use it to explore topics, to begin research, to participate in service learning, or to work out the details of a project/line of inquiry/creative endeavor, but the capstone itself must be completed outside the honors contract independent study. A paper produced for the honors contract can be expanded to become, or serve as the basis for, the capstone, but by itself is not sufficient.

Deadlines

Proposals are due by 5 pm two weeks before the beginning of the term in which you plan to complete your Contract.

The final Paper and Blog Entry are due on December 1 (for the fall semester) or May 1 (for the spring semester).

• Honors Contract Application Form

Verrazzano professional development workshops and activities help students become better prepared to apply for internships, scholarships, fellowships, job opportunities, and graduate school.

You must:

• attend a Professional Communication Workshop in the fall of your first semester (you will be emailed about what Professional Communication Workshop you must attend)
• develop a professional résumé and have it approved by a Career Coach in the Center for Career and Professional Development

Failure to fulfill professional development requirements will result in dismissal from the Verrazzano Program.

• Verrazzano Community Service Guidelines
• Verrazzano Community Service Verification Form (please submit completed forms to Cheryl Craddock or drop off in 1A-304).

Verrazzano students are required to participate in community service each academic year. This provides support and outreach to organizations and areas of need within the local community and helps you explore your areas of interest, develop your resume, build professional and social networks, gain new perspectives, and much more.

You must complete a minimum of 40 total hours with a non-profit organization or organization and document these hours by completing a Verrazzano Community Service Verification Form. You must have at least 10 hours after your first academic year in the program, 20 by the second, and so on. You are permitted to complete your hours before your senior year. Final approval of all service hours will be determined by the Verrazzano administrators. Failure to fulfill the community service requirement will result in dismissal from The Verrazzano School.

What counts as community service, and where can I volunteer?

• For detailed information on what counts as community service and what does not, review the Verrazzano Community Service Guidelines.
• Here are some links for Community Service Opportunities in NYC, but any non-profit can work.
  • http://www.nycservice.org
  • New York Cares
  • CSI Civic Engagement and Volunteering Facebook Group
  • Staten Island Non-For-Profit Association Membership List

When do I turn in my hours?

• If you are participating in ongoing service at the same organization throughout the year, submit the verification form at the end of each semester (December 15th, May 15th) and at the end of each summer (if applicable).
• If you are doing a one-time service event, submit the documented hours within one month of the service date.
• In the year you graduate, you must turn in hours sooner. January graduates must submit community service hours by December 1st and June and August graduates must submit them by May 15th.

What if I started the program late or am graduating early/late?

• Everyone has to complete 40 hours of community service.
• Students who graduate late must complete five additional hours of service for each extra semester.

Failure to fulfill the community service requirement will result in dismissal from The Verrazzano School.

As a Verrazzano student, you participate in Verrazzano Extracurricular Learning Activities (VELAs) that enrich your undergraduate experience through academic, social, and cultural learning opportunities outside the classroom.  VELAs expose you to new ideas and opportunities outside of your majors and encourage broader interests and exploration.  VELAs can help you connect with opportunities on and off campus and become more fully engaged in your CSI college experience. 

You are required to attend at least two VELAs each academic year for a minimum total of eight prior to graduation. 

Nearly all VELAs are posted on CSI Connect in the Verrazzano Group section. 

You must register for these VELA events using CSI Connect. 

To receive VELA credit, you must sign the VELA attendance sheet (or CLUE attendance sheet where applicable) and fulfill any other requirements of the event as noted on the VELA event posting. 

Alternate VELA opportunities

From time to time, you may see an event that is not on our list of VELA opportunities, and you would like to propose that you be permitted to count it toward your VELA requirements. In this case, send a description of the event to Cheryl to have it preapproved. If approved, attend the event, then complete the Alternate VELA Form and email it to Cheryl Craddock or drop off in 1A-304 within a week of the event.

•   Alternate VELA Form

Failure to fulfill the VELA requirement each year will result in dismissal from The Verrazzano School.

• Capstone Proposal Form
• Capstone Final Submission Form
• Capstone Reflection Submission Form

All Verrazzano students must complete a Capstone Project in their junior or senior year. You will work closely with a professor on a scholarly project that builds on your knowledge and interest in a field, or fields, of study. You may synthesize information/ideas/images from what seem disparate sources to support a point of view, expose a weakness in an argument or view, or highlight novel avenues of inquiry.

Steps to Completing the Verrazzano Capstone (please use the deadlines, based on your graduation date, below):

1. Submit a general topic and the name of a full-time faculty member to supervise/advise your Verrazzano Capstone project. 
2. Submit a proposal and this Capstone Proposal Form signed by you faculty mentor.
3. Present Capstone work at the Undergraduate Conference (or approved substitute) during your junior or senior year. This event takes place in late April or early May each year and requires that you apply to present. January graduates will have the opportunity to present at a special mini-conference in December.
4. Submit a a reflection (no more than 750 words), using this Capstone Reflection Form, with photos. Special note for engineering students: in addition to the blog, you must also submit a 2-3 minute video describing and demoing your senior project.
5. Submit your capstone and the signed Capstone Submission Form.

Deadline

Students who have clinicals, student teaching, or other commitments during their last semester should try to complete the capstone prior to their last semester, and ask well in advance for time off to present at the conference.

Faculty Mentor

Your capstone MUST be supervised by a full-time, tenure-track faculty member with some experience/expertise in the field of study. Adjunct faculty with an established, continuing relationship with CSI can serve as mentors with the approval of the Verrazzano Honors Director. Mentors must commit to being available for the duration of the work.

Mentors have three main responsibilities:

(1) Help you narrow and focus your topic for the capstone and approve your capstone proposal.

(2) Point you to resources to read and explore as you develop your work.

(3) Read and comment on multiple drafts of the proposal and capstone (including the poster/demo/performance/exhibition for the conference) until they approve and sign off on those documents as being complete.

Students MUST meet with their mentor to review drafts of their work. Students may NOT just submit a paper to the mentor and expect them to sign off on it without being part of the drafting process.

Length and Format

ALL CAPSTONES MUST HAVE A WRITTEN COMPONENT.

Your capstone must be at least 12 double-spaced typed pages with standard margins, and font size no larger than 12. Total page count excludes the literature cited section and title page. You must include at least 12 relevant scholarly, peer-reviewed references and cite them according to the style guide appropriate to the discipline. Your mentor may determine that you may submit a shorter paper in keeping with the conventions of the field. Please communicate that with Cheryl.

Computer science students who do a programming project should talk with their mentor about what their written component will look like.

You are not permitted to use an existing class project or competed research project to complete your capstone, but your capstone can certainly derive from one of these. The capstone must be in addition to major, degree, and program requirements. The only exception is for engineering students who may use their senior project for their capstone.

Types of Capstone

Honors in the Major

Students who complete Honors in the major can submit their honors thesis to meet the capstone paper requirement. To learn about departmental honors in your major, visit the section listing your major requirements in the College Catalog and then speak with a full-time faculty member in that department.

Research Paper Capstone Expectations

A scientific research paper is a substantive investigation of a topic through scientific experimentation or observational study modeled after articles in peer-reviewed journals in the discipline. It should include an introduction, methods, results (with relevant graphs, tables, or figures) and accompanying narrative, and discussion. There should be a separate section for the literature cited, where all references must be properly formatted according to the conventions or style manual of your discipline.

Library-Based Research Paper

A library-based paper is an in-depth, extended investigation of a topic; the summary of current state of knowledge about an area; or the construction of arguments about a thesis. It is not your thoughts and feelings about a topic, but am argument supported by peer-reviewed literature and, in a more limited way, secondary sources. A research paper should be modeled after articles in peer-reviewed journals in the relevant discipline (i.e., introduction, headers for different sections, and a coherent discussion/conclusion. There should be a separate section for the literature cited, where all references must be properly formatted according to the conventions or style manual of your discipline.

Performance/Creative Arts Capstone Expectations

Student in the arts may opt to create art work/collection of stories/composition/etc. as part of their capstone. They are still required to submit a written component to the project,

The written component of a performing/creative arts capstone must

• document your creative process. You will keep a journal, blog, portfolio, etc. in which you discuss: what were your inspirations, what research you performed and how, what techniques you used, what were the stumbling blocks during the rehearsal/draft/sketching stages, if the process was collaborative how well you collaborated. There must be at least three entries per week.
• be grounded in academic study. You must submit an annotated bibliography of at least 12 citations that provides context and background information for your project.

Engineering Students

Engineering students will submit their senior project as their capstone. If they work collaboratively, the capstone must represent the students’ unique contribution to the project.