Hybrid or Fully online
Students are invited to respond to the critical need of developing a culturally responsive fundraising strategy for the Barbie’s Village tiny home project with a local nonprofit, The Future Generations Collaborative. Students will learn more about the county's ninth largest urban Native population, and the impact colonization has had on the community, specifically access to housing.
In this course, students have the opportunity to learn the basics of grant writing. A much sought-after skill in many sectors, grant writing helps a variety of nonprofits and government agencies obtain funds for various projects they are interested in pursuing. For this class, our community partner will be JOIN. As they describe on their website, JOIN exists to support the efforts of homeless individuals and families to transition out of homelessness into permanent housing.
Creating Global Citizens
Global citizenship is of utmost importance as our societies are increasingly becoming more connected through media and technology. There is a growing disparity in the American school system that allows only the privileged students to participate in meaningful and engaging cultural learning. Schools that receive funding and support are able to facilitate cultural exchanges in person for students and faculty, while the majority of students in the public system receive little financial support and are left without any type of cultural exchange or enrichment program. This capstone will provide this needed and valuable cultural exchange.
This hybrid online course is for students who are interested in creating and facilitating a community event. This Capstone partners with Portland Parks & Recreation Adaptive Inclusion Program. Each term, students will plan and facilitate a community event that has already been arranged with the community partner prior to the start of each term. You can expect the in person event to be during the last 2 weeks of the term (event date and time will be announced in the first week of classes, and is a requirement of this course). Students will be challenged to develop skills in: event planning, speaking, listening, building community relationships, and affecting social change. This course will not be addressing fundraising or grant writing as part of event planning.
Grantwriting for Environmental Defense
Environmentalism is a philosophy and social movement (come call it a revolution) involving both protection and improvement of the health of our natural environment. Environmentalism is an attempt to achieve sustainability so that both humans and the Earth thrive without compromising future generations. The movement in this country is credited as starting with Rachel Carson and her extremely popular book Silent Spring published in 1962, when it fact it was spawned in 1945 with the return of soldiers from World War II and the creation of suburbs that caused issues with sewage, storm water runoff, nonpoint source pollution, and inefficient energy sources.
You will be writing real-world grants (or coming as close to that goal as possible given our short 10-weeks together) in order to enhance your professional development.
Water Scarcity (online)
The project will work alongside Water4 Foundations, a non-profit that is focused on water scarcity issues. Students will address needs affecting the field of water scarcity. Students may participate in the following service-learning:
Research cultural practices and country dynamics to assist NGOs transition into new markets;
• Research water technologies, benefits/drawbacks of each, identify best practices; and
• Survey water scarcity activities, map out industry trends, and conduct gap analysis.
Older Americans have been witness to great social and political changes in the lives and acceptance of LGBT people in American society. As the Stonewall generation of boomers near their later life, is estimated that as many as 7 million older adults will identify as LGBT by 2030. These seniors face unique challenges in accessing the care and rights that enable them to age with dignity and stability. For many LGBT seniors, recent research has marked a disconcerting trend of going "back into the closet" for fear of intolerance and survival in senior housing, assistance and care facilities.
Story, Portraits, and Civic Action
This online course explores how civic action, and the process of story finding and telling through the medium of digital portraiture, as inspired by Humans of New York, can effect change in our community. Each student is expected to volunteer thirty hours with a community organization of their choice over the duration of the term. Positions must be arranged before the term begins.
Over the course of the term, students will be expected to photograph and interview three to four people with whom they come in contact while volunteering at their respective sites. Students will submit a portfolio of their favorite portraits, paired with compelling excerpts of their interviews, as inspired by Brandon Stanton’s ongoing Humans of New York project. These will then be published on a course Instagram account, and made available to our community and the public at large. Not only will the project showcase the great spectrum of volunteer work and civic action that our students are participating in and contributing to, but importantly, this work will be humanized with particular stories, voices, and faces.