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: 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: Jack Corbet
Following three campus class sessions in July and August, students will spend two weeks in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico. This international capstone explores sustainability and environmental activism in Oaxaca, Mexico. Given the increasing interconnectedness between Mexico and the United States we want to understand how Mexican families and communities demonstrate environmental awareness and ultimately begin to make behavioral choices by opting for sustainable approaches to everyday...
Sustainability Global Perspectives Community Health International Capstones Retired-course
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 81188, 13704
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 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Research Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Anmarie Trimble
CRN: 81198, 13674
In this Capstone we partner with the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) through hands-on community-based service. Students will support youth programming in NAYA's after-school Learning Center (k-8) or College & Career Center (ages 14-21) and/ or support food sovereignty in NAYA's food and healing gardens. Students taking this course receive dual credit, fulfilling both their Senior Capstone requirement, and INS major/minor credit.
To support our work as allies to the...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
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: 13685
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 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
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: Robert Bremmer
CRN: 81179, 81180, 13700, 13701
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 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Online Course Business-Engineering-Technology-Visual Design Sustainability Community Health Social Inequity Solutions
Instructor Name:
Social marketing adopts the same marketing principles that are used to sell products to consumers to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors to benefit the target audience and the general community. Like commercial marketing, the primary focus is on the consumer--on learning what people want and need rather than trying to persuade them to buy what we are producing. Rather than dictating the way that information is to be conveyed to the...
Research Business-Engineering-Technology
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:
During this six-credit term we will explore events in our history when intolerance arose from the fear, suspicion and anger of ordinary people--the same impulses that still cause discord today--and will be brought face-to-face with the negative and often tragic consequences of prejudice and hate. But we will also learn about the hope and heroism that true moral conviction inspires.
This course is based on the assumption that racism, sexism, and hatred of others still exists. The class...
Criminal & Juvenile Justice
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: Mary Ann Schmidt
CRN: 81658
Students will work in partnership with the Clackamas River Basin Council to monitor over twenty stream sites both public and private. Local land owners will provide access to their stream side properties in order for students to collect and analyze water samples. Students will provide creek side landowners with information on the quality of their local surface water, and also report their river basin wide project results to the Clackamas River Basin Council.
This course involves field and lab...
Sustainability Research Education Science Retired-course
Instructor Name: Vicki Reitenauer
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,...
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 2020Spring 2020Summer 2019Summer 2020
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science Culture
Instructor Name: Amy Spring
CRN: 64609
The Inside-Out Capstone provides an opportunity for a small group of students from PSU and a group of residents from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility to exchange perceptions about crime, justice, and how societal structures and culture define crime, justice. We will explore civic and social responsibility and how civic engagement contributes to community strength and self. Crime is often explained as an example of a person’s bad “personal choices.” In this class we will not deny that persons...
Criminal Justice Child and Family Prison Policy
Instructor Name: Julie Porter
With meditation as our framework, we will explore the concept of personal healing and awareness as a foundation for global healing. Meditation is a practice that encompasses a philosophy of living with a quiet mind, open heart, and in service to others. This capstone provides an opportunity to explore ancient Chinese philosophy, personal healing, and social responsibility within the context of a mindfulness practice. Working with a community partner gives you the chance to be of service to...
Global Perspectives Community Health
Instructor Name: Celine Fitzmaurice
Grant writing skills are critical to the survival of many non-profit environmental organizations. In this course you will learn grant writing skills by developing real proposals for a local environmental non-profit organization. The rich history of citizen-based environmental advocacy in the US will play a central role in class discussions, presentations and reflective writing assignments throughout the term.
Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:...
Sustainability Research Grantwriting
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: 81195, 13680
This course focuses on the importance of service learning in our community. 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 learn respect for themselves and others as part of a community and will promote teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills. Community issues to be addressed include:...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Research Education-Youth