COM Senior Projects
Each year, seniors in the Communication Department’s year-long multimedia convergence project select a theme and collect video, audio, creative writing, photography, and more into a website.
Addiction and Substance Abuse in America: FixForAddiction.com
This senior capstone class project explores the complexity of drug addiction and substance abuse in America.
Premiered in 2017, this student site, developed by 11 Cabrini University Communication Department seniors, won an international Gold Davey Award in the Activism category. Systemic societal contributors to and root causes of the addiction epidemic are examined. There is an easy-to-understand explanation of the brain science of addiction. Interviews with individuals, families, and communities affected by addiction explain the issue from the inside. Finally, the site proposes solutions to the American addiction epidemic.
Wealth Inequality in America: AmericanWealthInequality.com
As the American income and wealth gap widened, a class of Cabrini University Communication Department seniors wanted to explore the systemic reasons behind this inequity. They created an animated, informative web site that explores the systemic issues perpetuating inequality: education, jobs, the justice system, and social safety nets. Their conclusions include exploring ethics, voting, and social status. Thirteen Cabrini University Communication Department majors found a unique and creative way to communicate. This website premiered in 2016.
Solving Hunger in America: ServingFoodSolutions.com
This web project looks at food insecurity from three directions: a description of why so many Americans go hungry, the consequences of being food insecure, and innovative solutions to this national issue.
The story of hunger is told through the eyes of people personally affected by food insecurity, advocates for the hungry, policy experts, food businesses, medical professionals, and more.
This site was assembled by 14 Communication seniors who conducted more than 60 research interviews and created almost 90 pieces of media, including videos, podcasts, infographics, photo galleries, and text articles.
Seniors created IncreasingThePeace.com based on more than 60 interviews conducted with individuals and peacebuilding organizations worldwide.
They chose to focus specifically on peacebuilding initiatives in Syria, Guatemala, Bosnia-Herzegovina, El Salvador, Haiti, Israel/Palestine, and Colombia.
After studying the processes involved in rebuilding civil society, the students found that building peace involves three phases and they created media related to each.
- First is the recognition that human rights have been violated.
- Resistance to the oppression or deprivation follows, often turning violent, spiraling out of control.
- For many, peacebuilding is the process of resolution, an alternative to the hurt, pain, and disruption.
Emerging from this urgency to find peace are the activists, organizations, and engaged citizens profiled.
The students worked for eight months to create this multimedia website, launched at the end of April 2014, which examinines issues of social and political evolution surrounding peacebuilding.
Youth Voices Rise is based on interviews with young people, political scientists, and journalists involved in the Arab Spring.
Through a unique partnership with The American University in Cairo, Cabrini students communicated with graduate political-science students in Egypt as events were happening in Tahrir Square during 2012.
Using social media, Cabrini students also connected with journalists and photographers.
This site tells stories of discontent caused by decades of political autocracy, documents the political awakening as young people revolted, and presents their hopes for lives in the aftermath of political upheaval.
- Visit the site at cabrini.edu/ArabSpring.
- Also available as a free e-book on iTunes, Arab Awakening: A View From The Inside
The project has received several awards and been highlighted by Catholic Relief Services and even PBS.
Seniors in the Communication Department created an interactive website designed to inform elementary school teachers about domestic violence.
- Explore the site at cabrini.edu/DomesticViolence.
The website shows teachers warning signs in student behavior, ways to approach children about the topic, steps teachers can take in the classroom to help their students, and services available to children.
It also discusses ways that school districts can develop a safety plan for students involved in situations of domestic violence.
Cabrini students, faculty, and President Marie A. George traveled to Guatemala in February 2009 to observe and document extraordinary partnerships.
This project helped lay the groundwork for future international study trips in the Justice Matters core curriculum.
Participants witnessed the “Power of Partnerships” and explored how Cabrini’s two international partners worked with Guatemalan communities to promote “integral human development.”
The students documented what they learned.
- Visit the site at cabrini.edu/Guatemala.
The 2009 convergence project is called Breaking the Chains: Linking to End Poverty.
The website focuses on partnerships that are working together to fight global poverty in its many forms. It also covers fair trade, microfinancing, health care, education, immigration, and more.
- Visit the site at cabrini.edu/Poverty.
The 2008 convergence project website, “Faces of Change,” focuses on student activism.
The site was created by eight seniors and tells the stories of young people who are motivated by causes that matter.
- Visit the site at cabrini.edu/Activism.
The 2007 Convergence Project, WAR, is a website with stories about surviving war, public reactions to war, and the effects of war told through personal accounts.
Students collected video interviews, archived photography and footage, and created the interactive website.
- Visit the site at cabrini.edu/WAR.
In response to the debate over immigration reform in 2006, 12 Cabrini students launched “Philly Fusion.”
This groundbreaking convergence website focuses on immigration and global awareness.
The website uses video, audio, digital photography, creative writing, and print media.
- Visit the site at cabrini.edu/PhillyFusion.