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: Yoko Sakurauchi
CRN: 43649, 63505
Japanese & Chinese Language Program for Youth
This Capstone takes place over the winter and spring terms. Over two terms, Winter and Spring, Capstone students will work with elementary school programs in the Portland area by assisting the classroom teachers. They will also engage in activities to promote foreign language education for young children. The class addresses various issues concerning language learning and teaching, learning styles, language policies, Japanese/Chinese culture...
Spring 2023Spring 2024Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024Winter 2020
Global Perspectives Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Sergio Palleroni
Cities harbor significant natural systems, though they are often culturally miscast as the antithesis of nature. The trend in city building over the last couple of millennia has increasingly focused on making our cities more efficient machines to support human habitation. New trends and a study of alternative historical models show us, though, that cities have the potential to contribute to the planet's capacity to support humans as well as other species. To promote a greener city, we must...
Sustainability Education-Youth Community Health Retired-course
Instructor Name: Sabina Haque
CRN: 64123
Scott SUN and Portland State University (PSU) coordinate the "Art & Community Mapping" after-school program. PSU Fine Arts professor Sabina Haque leads the class of 20 Scott students (gr. 4-8) and 20 volunteers from her PSU capstone class. PSU and Scott students are matched for individual mentorship. PSU students will learn about local and national issues in Arts education, and the role of community based Art to support child and youth achievement.The class meets once a week at the school...
Research Education-Youth Arts
Instructor Name:
Asset mapping methods combined with geographic information systems (GIS) technology have proven to be effective ways to help citizens and organizations identify, analyze, describe, and mobilize around assets and issues of concern to them.The Community Geography Project of the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies has a history of training PSU students, community groups, and middle and high school students in asset mapping and GIS technology to enable them to ask new questions and better...
Business-Engineering-Technology Education-Youth Community Health Research
Instructor Name: Rick Hugo
CRN: 63498
Your course project will be to create a Virtual Field Environment (VFE) which will be used by K-12 classroom teachers and community educators to "visit" local field sites with their students. You can find a list of our VFEs here. Our challenge is to take a VFE beyond the typical virtual tour and create a rich, engaging learning environment that facilitates student-centered inquiry. You must also strive to engage learners from different cultural backgrounds and with different learning...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024
Education-Youth Science Outdoors Ecology Sustainability Education
Instructor Name: Brenna Wood, Shay Snyder, Leann Horrocks, Nathalie Wollmann, Joe Wightman
CRN: 63506, 63507, 63508, 63509, 80967, 80918, 80968, 80919, 80969, 80907, 80922, 80970
An application is required prior to registration. See our website for more information or to apply: https://www.pdx.edu/education/kiwanis
Since 1972, PSU has teamed up with Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp (MHKC), a nonprofit organization, to help make camp activities accessible to kids and adults with developmental disabilities. In 1995, PSU’s Special Education program and University Studies department partnered with the camp to create one of PSU’s very first capstone courses. Since then,...
Spring 2024Summer 2024
Education-Youth Disabilities Community Health
Instructor Name: Mark Oldani
CRN: 14635
Popular media and advertising have a profound impact on society. Marketing and media scholars believe the values and knowledge held and presented by popular media and advertising rival those of other important institutions in U.S Society. Navigating in a media-saturated society presents many challenges and opportunities for middle and high school students. Students in the Media Literacy Capstone will investigate popular media and advertising: including the effect media have on individuals...
Education-Youth Business-Engineering-Technology Media Education Media Literacy.
Instructor Name: Heather Petzold
CRN: 63550
Already volunteering and want to get credit? Have an internship and want to combine that with your capstone? Curious about what is possible? This course is designed for students to to develop their own community projects and work in partnership with them to effect change. This project may be an existing relationship or one sought for the purposes of this class. A minimum of 30 working hours with the organization or project is required and can be flexibly designed by you and your community...
Spring 2024
Community Health Education-Youth Research
Instructor Name: Judith Patton
The Portland Actor's Ensemble Grant Writing Project Students in this Capstone course partner with the Portland Actors Ensemble (http://www.portlandactors.com/). Class uses an experiential approach: that is, students learn to write compelling grant proposals by engaging in the process of writing actual proposals to be used by PAE in its pursuit of funding.
The objectives of this Capstone address both course content and the University Studies goals of communication, critical thinking,...
Grantwriting Education-Youth Disabilities Arts
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: Deborah Arthur, Matthew Ross (Winter, Spring 2022)
CRN: 43665, 63500
This Capstone partners with the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, Juvenile Services Division. Students work together to facilitate a writing/art workshop in juvenile detention. Through your work in the detention facility, as well as through supportive academic activities, you will have the opportunity to deeply explore current issues in juvenile justice. Successful background checks and Department approval are required for participation in this Capstone; prior to...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2022Spring 2023Spring 2024Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023Winter 2024
Education-Youth Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Deborah Arthur
CRN: 81697
Educational Equity explores a variety of issues related to educational equity, including segregation, school funding, standardized testing, curriculum choices, language and bilingual education, among others. Through community-based learning opportunities, students will gain first-hand knowledge of of the problems and successes of public education.
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Shayna Snyder
CRN: 14166, 44152
This Capstone is spread out over two terms (3 credits each in Fall and Winter) and centers on two community-service components. First, students will volunteer as tutors/classroom aides in a bilingual Spanish/English dual immersion program at one of two local schools. In addition, students will design a classroom activity to share with the dual immersion teachers as well as participate in other projects as needed.
During the course, students will read and discuss material that complements...
Fall 2019Winter 2020
Education-Youth
Instructor Name:
Some of the essential questions driving the curriculum of this Capstone are: How can Art be a force for social change? How is it? What limits, if any, should there be? What are the differences between change and voice? What are the differences between protest and change?
This course is open to anyone intrigued with the questions raised by public art (and possibilities of Art) in our society. This capstone should be of particular value and interest to students who have a desire to teach, create...
Education-Youth Community Health Arts Retired-course
Instructor Name: Gabe Sheoships
CRN: 81166, 14129
Students will participate in interpretive programs facilitated within the Tryon Creek State Natural Area.
It is important to ground ourselves and acknowledge the people whose land we are utilizing; the
Clackamas Chinook, the Wasco-Wishram, the Willamette Tumwater, the Multnomah, and other
Chinookan peoples, as well as the Tualatin Kalapuya, the Cayuse, the Molalla and other tribes and bands
of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. It is important to acknowledge the original inhabitants of the...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Summer 2019Summer 2020Spring 2020
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science Culture
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert
CRN: 14044
The Enhancing Youth Literacy Capstone has been partnering with local schools and educational organizations since Fall 2002 to support literacy learning in Title I schools (K-8) and alternative school settings (grades 9-12) in the forms of math, science, reading, and critical thinking. The course is a forum for student learning on social responsibility and ethical reasoning in the context of the public education system (local and national) and the intersection between child development and...
Fall 2021
Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Sarah A. Bunton, PhD
CRN: 63933
Cultivating Leadership Capacity and Promoting Educational Equity
This interactive course explores the conceptual intersections of educational equity, social responsibility, and the development of leadership capacity. Using a tiered leadership model as a framework, and with a foundation emphasizing education as a key influence on an individual’s social and economic future and opportunities, this class partners with Portland Public Schools (PPS). Throughout the term, PSU students have...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022
educational equity Education-Youth Leadership social change
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: Jenna Padbury
This course will be offered Summer 2019. Rolling Deadline Application apply early to guarantee a spot. Final Deadline March1st During a 18-day international service-learning experience in Turrialba, Costa Rica you will learn about and be immersed in Costa Rica’s culture. In Turrialba, you will serve daily in a community-based setting such as a school, national park, or social service organization. Late afternoons will be spent studying Spanish and participating in critical reflection....
International Capstones Global Perspectives Education-Youth Gardens