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: 44168
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 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Global Perspectives Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Sarah Loose
CRN: 44294
Learn about local queer history from the folks who paved the way and help preserve their stories. Our community partner is the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN). Help GLAPN save our history by doing an oral history/interview of an elder member of the community. GLAPN selects the folks students will interview. Students will work in pairs for the interview. Before the interview, students will learn about local queer history including anti-gay ballot initiatives,...
Spring 2020Winter 2020Winter 2021
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Rick Hugo
CRN: 14628
During the pandemic: we will work on bringing the outdoors to K-12 students. 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. (See a Spring 2020 example here). Your challenge will be to go beyond the typical virtual tour and create a rich, engaging learning environment that facilitates student-centered inquiry. You must also strive to engage learners...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021
Education-Youth Science Outdoors Ecology Sustainability Education
Instructor Name: Heather Petzold
CRN: 44133
Being an Effective Change Agent in Portland This course is for students interested in being effective change agents for the public good. Each student (individually or with others) will take the initiative before the Capstone begins to arrange a project with a community organization. This project may be an existing relationship or one sought for the purpose of this class. A minimum of three working hours per week with the organization is required. During the course, students will be supported ...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Community Health Education-Youth Research
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 44147
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Research Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Anmarie Trimble
CRN: 44142
This class is an opportunity to explore hands-on the complexity surrounding education, equity, and empowerment, with a specific focus on collaborative peer mentoring, which often includes academic tutoring. Our community partner is the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA). At NAYA, students will have the opportunity to interact with bright youth from diverse cultures and work with them on improving their academics and future prospects. Capstones will collaborate with their Capstone...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Education Education-Youth social work tutoring Mentoring social justice native american indigenous family NAYA trauma-informed
Instructor Name: Deborah Arthur, Matthew Ross (Winter 2022)
CRN: 44146
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2018Spring 2019Spring 2020Summer 2018Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2021Winter 2022
Education-Youth Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
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 2020Spring 2020Summer 2019Summer 2020
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science Culture
Instructor Name: Sarah A. Bunton, PhD
CRN: 64019
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 2021Winter 2020
educational equity Education-Youth Leadership social change
Instructor Name: Sally Eck
CRN: 44134
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Patrice Morris Ball
CRN: 44153
Design and Edit Organ Donation Outreach Materials
Students will work with the nonprofit agency Donate Life Northwest (DLNW) while learning about their mission to save/enhance lives through the promotion of organ, eye, and tissue donation. Students will design/edit promotional documents (digital, video, electronic or for print), while integrating knowledge from their own field of study, familiarity with today's popular culture, and the community partner’s mission to increase registration of...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Research Global Perspectives Community Health Hybrid or Fully online Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Eva Thanheiser
CRN: 64067
Do you want to have fun and satisfy the University Studies Capstone requirement? If you have completed the 300-level math major/minor requirements, you have the background to appreciate how mathematics lives in the real world: number theory and ATM's, groups used to solve differential equations, ring theory in geometry, algebra in physics-the possibilities are endless!!
Ironically, you live in a society where mathematics is at the foundation of many aspects of your lifestyle, but it is...
Spring 2020
Education-Youth Community Health
Instructor Name: Marylin (Katie) Kissinger
CRN: 63990
Strengthening Headstart: Health, Growth And Justice Head Start is this nation's largest investment in young children to date. It is also one of the few remaining efforts from the 1960's "War on Poverty".
Students will:
review data and documentation of the historical successes and challenges of Head Start;
analyze and reflect on the impact it has had in communities;
engage in a qualitative/participatory research project;
design a collective action project in conjunction with Head Start...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
Research Education-Youth Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Deborah Arthur
CRN: 64484, 44169
How do I transform my own life? How do I transform my community and the world? This course provides an opportunity for a small group of students from PSU and a small group of students incarcerated at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility (MYCF) to work together in a structured peer and collaborative learning environment to address these questions. Each week, a small group of PSU students and incarcerated young men will meet at MYCF in Woodburn. Students (both outside PSU and inside students)...
Spring 2020Winter 2020
Education-Youth Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert
CRN: 44151
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Education social justice Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Joseph Wightman
CRN: 44143
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022
Education-Youth Education Leadership social justice Mentoring
Instructor Name: Megan Kupko
CRN: 44132
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2021Winter 2022
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science