The Animal Empathy Project: Creating Compassion Through Art 

Students will support in sharing stories of local, socially engaged artists by creating podcasts in collaboration with McDaniel Highschool students. Art Talk Bus Stop is a public art education program and monthly podcast interview series about how artists do their work and make a living. Students learn about arts and cultural work and careers, and get hands-on experience producing alive interview, learning the technology, research and storytelling skills.

Grant Writing for Environmental Education: This Capstone will partner with the Sauvie Island Center (sauvieislandcenter.org). The mission of the Sauvie Island Center is to “equitably educate elementary school-aged children about food, farming, and the land.”  The center runs place-based farm education trips and events at Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island and creates food systems learning content for grade-school classrooms.  Capstone students in this course will participate in the various aspects of grant writing, including locating appropriate funders and identifying the needs of our community partner, as well as writing and reviewing grant proposals. No previous work with grants or grant writing is needed. The class also involves reading and discussions about environmental and outdoor education, equity in education, and sustainable food systems and farming practices.  Students in this course will develop skills in storytelling to help transform the relationship between humans and their environment. The Capstone project will be a presentation and portfolio of grant proposals addressing the current needs of the Sauvie Island Center. 

Farm Ed for Youth: Growing Stories

This Capstone will partner with the Sauvie Island Center (sauvieislandcenter.org). The mission of the Sauvie Island Center is “educating youth about food, farming, and the land.”  Students will work collaboratively with the Sauvie Island Center staff to develop curriculum for school age children, help the Center to share the stories of Pacific Northwest Indigenous lands and people, Oregon farmers, and farm education, and support Center staff in developing the organization’s field trip site at Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island. Capstone students will learn about sustainable food systems and the impact of farm education; they will also develop skills in educating and storytelling to help transform the relationship between humans and their environment and thus enact social change.

This Capstone will partner with the Learning Gardens Laboratory (LGL), a 12-acre garden education site on Portland’s southeast side. Students work collaboratively to gather stories of community gardeners, teachers, and community partners who regularly gather at LGL to learn and farm. Capstone students will gain skills in interviewing, storytelling, and using narrative as a means for social change, in addition to learning about sustainable food systems and the impact of learning gardens. 

Curriculum and Material Development for Heritage/Indigenous Language (INDIGENOUS LANG ACTIVISM) 

The goal of this course is to give students a solid background in historical and societal issues that influence language diversity through hands-on collaboration with current language sustainability efforts. This capstone partners with endangered language communities in the Northwest (tribal language programs in general and the Warm Springs Tribal Language Program, specifically) to work together to support those programs by giving students “on-the-ground” skills to accompany class studies. Capstone students will develop language and/or pedagogical materials that will support the endangered language programs/teachers in their work to offer language classes in their communities. General class instruction will be exclusively online or hybrid and those students who can meet at the PSU campus may be able to participate in a visit to the language communities to increase students’ practical understanding of the language and community issues for their final work. All students who are interested in Indigenous and/or language activism are welcome to this capstone (regardless of any prior familiarity with Indigenous languages or history), and especially those who are interested in supporting our community partner’s fund-raising efforts and curriculum/teaching activities.  Students in this capstone are strongly encouraged, as a class goal, to foster a healthy online community and collaborate with peers through group work. Members from our community partner and other guest speakers will also join online (likely using Zoom), and other online meeting times will be determined by class and community participants’ availability and schedule.

This capstone is similar to the Gender and Violence capstone but includes more emphasis on international issues.

Brief description   

Pathways to Health Equity (Formerly called Health Professionals as Agents of Change)

Description: This course introduces students to collaborative approaches for addressing the complex factors that influence health and equity, also referred to as the social determinants of health. Students will reflect on their current or future role as agents of change and the various sectors and pathways to promoting positive social change. Before the course begins, in consultation with the instructor,
students will choose a community-based organization according to their interests.

Leadership and Mentoring 

The mentoring of young people takes many forms. Some young people grow up with a sibling, relative or another adult ally who serves as a mentor to them. Some benefit from formal mentoring programs in schools or from community organizations. Not everyone enjoys access to regular mentoring, yet research shows that mentoring has tremendous benefits for both the mentor and the mentee. These benefits include the development of leadership skills, increased interpersonal communication, improved relationship-building skills, and increased self-awareness. Armed with these skills, a young person has greater potential for success in many settings.