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 2019-2020 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: Nariyo Kono
CRN: 63997
Grant Writing for Indigenous Sustainability In the online Capstone course Indigenous Grant Writing, students work collaboratively in teams to research and write grants, and to understand the issues of Indigenous communities. Students gain an understanding of collaborative work and the importance of equal participation from every team member. Students examine the role of non-profit organizations in addressing social, ethical, and political issues. They also consider the role of funding and...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020
Sustainability Grantwriting Global Perspectives Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Cynthia Carmina Gomez
CRN: 81132
Since 2009, GREENSPACES - LATINO YOUTH has offered students the opportunity to explore the outdoors with at-risk and gang-involved Latino youth enrolled in Latino Network's Summer Academia.
:: COVID-19 UPDATE ::
I have been in close communication with our partners to carefully design our summer course in light of COVID-19. Students will be given the option to work on several remote service-learning projects:
1) Work with adjudicated youth and their families participating...
Summer 2020
Online or Hybrid Courses Social Sustainability Community Development Community Health Criminal Justice Sociology Business Gender Race and Nation Studies Chicano Latino Studies Aging Services Black Studies Indigenous Nations Studies
Instructor Name: Vicki Reitenauer
CRN: 81670
In this course, each student will explore what it means to work for community change by engaging in a committed community service experience of at least 3 hours per week with a community partner of her/his choice and exploring the meaning of that work through reflection, dialogue, readings, activities, and collaborative projects. This course is intended to allow students with longstanding volunteer commitments to continue those commitments in the fulfillment of their Capstone requirement,...
Community Health Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert
CRN: 64139
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...
Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Sam Gioia
CRN: 44199
Through community experience and classroom, education capstone students will learn about the academic needs and cultural adjustment of African refugee youth. Students will either support the children in a classroom setting 3-4 hours per week, or lead an after school homework club from 3-5:15 either Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays starting the second week of class. PSU classroom education will address the historical and cultural dynamics of African refugees, contemporary...
Global Perspectives Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Cindy Koonz
CRN: 63991, 81189
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 2019Fall 2020Spring 2018Spring 2019Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2018Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2021
Research Disabilities Community Health Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Patrice Morris Ball
CRN: 64005
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 2020Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
Research Global Perspectives Community Health Hybrid or Fully online Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Anna Alsufieva
CRN: 63987, 64009
Effecting Change: Russian International Capstone requires a 3 term committment (2 credits fall, 2 credits winter and 2 credits spring term). This Capstone is restricted to RUSSIAN FLAGSHIP PROGRAM. Only students who are enrolled in PSU Russian Flagship program can take this course; and the course is conducted totally in Russian.
Intercultural competence is an important skill that one needs to acquire to be a successful and contributing member of modern global society. This course is the...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
Global Perspectives International Capstones Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Kate Kangas
CRN: 15188
Reporting Live
Reporting Live is a capstone course designed for PSU study abroad students and connects them with Oregon middle school classrooms via interactive blogs. The course is grounded in peace journalism, engaged pedagogy, and intercultural competence theory, and consists of four main components: a pre-term orientation, ten weeks of blogging, online coursework, and a final celebration in which students visit their assigned classroom in person upon re-entry (or online if still abroad...
Fall 2019Spring 2020
Global Perspectives Education-Youth International Capstones Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Ann McClanan
CRN: 64028
The Medieval Portland capstone is a great fit if you love research, for in this class each student undertakes--with mentoring from the Professor--an individual research project about either a locally housed medieval object or a Portland building with influence from medieval architecture. Students from many different majors have done well in the capstone, as long as they work hard doing the detective work involved in original research. The community partner varies depending on the term, but...
Spring 2020
Research Arts Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Kimberly Mukobi
CRN: 63988, 81183, 81178
Grant Writing for Animals: Shelter Pets
Lotus Banner.jpg
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 of...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2019Winter 2020Winter 2021
Animals Shelter Pets Pets Grant Writing Online or Hybrid Courses Grantwriting Hybrid or Fully online
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: Kate Kangas
In this fully online course we will be exploring how to be effective change agents through volunteer work and by producing a series of radio shorts. Each student will be expected to arrange a project with a community organization before the Capstone begins. This project may be an existing relationship or one sought for the purpose of this class. A minimum of thirty hours of volunteer work is required over the course of the term. As a culminating group project, we will be writing, recording and...
Education-Youth Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Katherine Kangas
CRN: 63994
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...
Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 63998
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...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Spring 2020Spring 2021
Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Andy Reed
CRN: 64006, 81193
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 2019Fall 2020Spring 2018Spring 2019Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2018Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2021
Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Jenna Padbury
CRN: 64062
During this course students will grow in their cross-cultural skills and understanding. They will learn about refugee resettlement and the systemic educational obstacles that English learners face and overcome.Students completing this capstone will have a well developed sense of their civic identity as it relates to newcomers in their local communities.
Capstone students will serve as homework helpers and classroom assistants for about 3 hours a week. They will serve 1 day a week at one of two...
Fall 2019Spring 2020Winter 2020
Online or Hybrid Courses Education-Youth Global Perspectives
Instructor Name: Nariyo Kono
The goal of this course is to provide students professional skills for grant proposal writing in the field of language diversity and sustainability. Along with the proposal writing skills, the students will learn 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 one of the endangered language communities in the Northwest, specifically, the Warm Springs...
Sustainability Grantwriting Education Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Sarah Liebman
CRN: 65642
Students will collaborate to write grants to support local Jewish education and culture non-profit organizations. Students will develop grant research and grant-writing skills and learn about the challenges facing non-profits and the community. All programs supported by the grants will be open to Jews and non-Jews. No prior knowledge of Judaism or prior grant-writing experience is required. Partner organizations may include Oregon Holocaust Resource Center, Portland Hillel, Morasha Jewish...
Grant Writing Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Lisa Jo Frech
CRN: 63989, 81182
Environmentalism is a philosophy and social movement (some 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...
Fall 2020Spring 2021Summer 2021Winter 2021
Grantwriting Ecology Online or Hybrid Courses Sustainability Ecology or Sustainability Advocacy Hybrid or Fully online