Search Courses
You may search for a Senior Capstone course by selecting a THEME or TERM from the menu at the left. You may also search by entering a part of the title or the instructors name in the box below. For concise listings of all 2021-2022 Capstone offerings, review our Capstone Capsule. If you need assistance, contact the Capstone Office/University Studies at 503.725.5890.
Please refer to the PSU Class Schedule regarding the days, hours, and meeting location. For information about when the new class schedule is available or when you can register for the new term, follow this link: When to Register.
NOTE: Due to the intensive nature of Capstones, students must receive permission from the course instructor prior to the first day of class if they are going to miss the first class session. For on-line Capstones, students must demonstrate active participation during the first week of the term. All Capstone courses factor in student attendance and participation into the final grade which is deeply impacted by missing the first week of the term.
NOTE: "Sustainability" tagged courses will NOT automatically count toward the Sustainability Minor. Students must seek approval from Joseph Maser, Ph.D. in the Environmental Science & Management department to count any Capstone toward that specific minor.
SEARCH BY Title or Instructor: Enter a single word from the title of a Capstone, "gardens", "justice", "literacy", etc., the Course Registration Number (CRN), or a professor's first or last name in the box below.
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 63549, 80911
It is estimated that 1 in 10 individuals identify as a sexual minority. Often an already challenging stage in identity development, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & questioning (LGBTQ) youth face a set of issues unique to their daily lives. We examine the paths sexual and gender minority youth navigate in society, exploring such questions as: What challenges do LGBTQ youth encounter? How do they cope, survive, find understanding & celebrate themselves amidst homophobia and...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Research Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Anmarie Trimble
CRN: 63520, 80931
In this Capstone we partner with the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) through hands-on community-based service. Capstone students participate in mentoring programs in NAYA's Learning Center or their College and Career Center, or support NAYA's food sovereignty community garden. There is some possibility that Capstones may also have the opportunity for other service at NAYA, such as advocating for state-wide school adoption of Oregon's new indigenous-created curriculum "Tribal...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education Education-Youth social work tutoring Mentoring social justice native american indigenous family NAYA trauma-informed trauma garden healing
Instructor Name: Robert Bremmer
CRN: 63541, 63542, 80905, 80906
Community issues and needs are addressed by developing online media. Students form teams, developing web pages, videos and other digital media to assist community partners achieve their goals, and to address community needs.
We are fully online, students may be remote anywhere in the world with good internet connection. Expect considerable communication between students in groups; the course is split between group work and individual work You must communicate and work as part of a...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Online Course Business-Engineering-Technology-Visual Design Sustainability Community Health Social Inequity Solutions
Instructor Name: Heather Petzold
CRN: 63513, 80914
This course focuses on the importance of community-based learning. As a class, we will have the opportunity to discover, evaluate, and reflect on the needs of our community by creating and facilitating educational workshops, mentoring, and exploring fundraising opportunities for the Boys and Girls Club. Students will promote teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills. Community issues to be addressed include: compassionate communication, trauma informed care, engaged listening, leadership...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Research Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Sally Eck
CRN: 63519, 80908
Women’s Oral Narratives In this course, we will be working with our community partner, the local non-profit organization; the IPRC, Independent Publishing Resource Center. Our project is to coordinate a series of *rap sessions* with local teen girls about current issues in their lives. We will use these group conversations to encourage the girls to become a part of our ZINE project - where they will write, edit, and publish a grassroots, mini-magazine with our class. In preparation for this...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Cindy Koonz
CRN: 63528, 80901
Linking the Generations, Communication, Aging and Society Students will engage with older adults to complete a variety of life history projects. Students will address their assumptions and stereotypes toward the aging population and will reflect upon personal barriers and successes in the intergenerational communication process. Communication issues will be addressed in the areas of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intercultural communication. In addition to the community work, the course...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Research Disabilities Community Health Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Catherine Howells
CRN: 63523
Portland's Water: History and Challenges. Water is life. Imagine, just for a moment, a world without your tap water. Picture Portland after seven days of empty taps and dry fountains—households struggling, communities in crisis, and daily life at a standstill.
The Portland Water Bureau (PWB) ensures this does not happen by providing safe, clean water to all of our taps 24/7. Join our class for an exclusive tour of the pristine Bull Run watershed and learn from PWB's water infrastructure experts...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Sustainability Research Community Health Business-Engineering-Technology
Instructor Name: Amy Minato
CRN: 63529, 80916
In light of looming environmental crises, what can individuals do to change direction? In this course we collectively examine our society to determine which cultural and personal values support, and which inhibit, sustainability. This course includes study, research, reflective writing and class discussion on the first book in the Ecochallenge series, Choices For Sustainable Living. Students participate in weekly minor “green" activities at home and report their accomplishments online at ...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Instructor Name: Kimberly Mukobi
CRN: 80920, 80917
Grant Writing for Animals: Shelter Pets
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Approximately 2.7 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs - about one every 11 seconds - are euthanized in U.S. shelters each year. This class partners with a local no-kill animal shelter to further its goals of eliminating the unnecessary euthanasia of healthy or treatable companion animals in the community and finding them permanent, loving homes.
Students will participate in the various aspects...
Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Animals Shelter Pets Pets Grant Writing Online or Hybrid Courses Grantwriting Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Andy Reed
CRN: 63545
The class will work alongside The Water Project, a non-profit that is focused on providing clean water to communities in Africa. Students will address needs affecting the field of water scarcity. Students may participate in the following forms of service-learning, which depends solely on the priorities of the non-profit in any given term:
• Research cultural practices and country dynamics to assist NGOs transition into new markets;
• Provide critical feedback to...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert
CRN: 63538, 80903
The “achievement gap” has been at the forefront of discussions about the U.S. education system since the implementation of NCLB in 2001. The public has been tuned into this so-called “achievement gap” alongside high dropout rates, lack of access to equitable early childhood education, public disinvestment in the education system, disparities in access to higher education, and more. According to the Children’s Defense Fund’s State of America’s Children Report, the gaps (more accurately and...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education social justice Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Joseph Wightman
CRN: 63514, 80924
Leadership Through Mentoring in K-5 Schools - 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,...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education-Youth Education Leadership social justice Mentoring
Instructor Name: Lindsey Schuhmacher
CRN: 63503, 80926, 80928
Welcome to "Embracing Size Diversity!" This course focuses on weight stigma as a social and cultural construction, examining the relationship between discrimination caused by body size and gender, race, ability, and social class. Students use social justice and healthcare perspectives to question weight bias and explore ways in which we can resist sizeism individually and collectively. Emphasis is placed on the Health at Every Size™ (HAES) approach to wellness as well as advocating for size...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Community Health social justice Activism Gender social movements Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online social change Sociology Disabilities
Instructor Name: Laura Mulas
CRN: 80927
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...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education - Youth Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Megan Kupko
CRN: 63495, 80913
The time is ripe to be part of the growing sustainable food movement! This class addresses the current food issues that face urban citizens by holistically engaging students in the many layers of Portland's local food and farm culture. Students will critically analyze the state of our current food systems while being engaged in positive solutions to agricultural-related issues. The community partner and classroom is the Learning Gardens Lab, where students will gain hands-on farming...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 80909
This fully-online Capstone will examine the issues relevant to the lived experiences of transgender and nonbinary individuals and the associated socio-political climate for this population in the U.S. Students will collaborate digitally with the Trans Oral History Project at the New York Public Library to transcribe recorded oral histories to increase access to the archives as well as deepen awareness and solidarity with those who are transgender and/or nonbinary.
Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Instructor Name: Deborah Rutt
CRN: 63531, 80910
Drawing on personal narratives, political theory, sociological texts, and film, this course will offer an introduction to the experience of incarceration for women, and engage students in collaborative work in support of PSU’s Higher Education in Prison Program and Project Rebound
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Criminal & Juvenile Justice
Instructor Name: Deborah Burke
This Capstone course introduces oral history as a method for documenting, preserving, and amplifying the diverse histories and voices of Portland’s LGBTQ+ communities. Our community partner for this course is the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN).
Through listening to interviews with queer elders and exploring related primary source materials, we will learn about local queer history. Topics will include political activism of the 1970s, the anti-gay backlash and ballot...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Summer 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
LGBTQ