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: Patricia Rumer
Strengthening Early Childhood Education Within the Immigrant Population Participate in a public campaign with Adelante Mujeres, a Latina nonprofit, to educate civic and business leaders on the importance of early childhood education for immigrant communities. Oregon Governor Kitzhaber?s Early Learning Initiative priority is children of color and economically disadvantaged. Students will work with their staff and clients to document successes of Adelante Mujere's early childhood and parent...
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Jenna Padbury
An Exploration of Leadership Through Service in MexicoFirst offering summer, 2013Students will learn, serve, and live together in Mexico for 2 weeks. Through pre-trip classes, direct service in Mexican communities, interactive sessions with grass-roots leaders, and reflection students will explore the following: leadership, community development, and the relationship between Mexico and the U.S. Service projects may include any of the following: serving meals, building housing, painting,...
Global Perspectives Community Health International Capstones
Instructor Name: Anna Alsufieva
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...
Spring 2023Winter 2023
Global Perspectives International Capstones Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Celine Fitzmaurice
Encouraging the stewardship of our shared resources
This course will focus on the concept of "the commons" - those resources that humans share and depend on to thrive and survive. Examples of the commons include clean air and water, shared scientific knowledge, or publicly funded resources such as parks, libraries and schools. Increasingly, many aspects of the commons are controlled by the market or private interests. Students in this course will partner with the "Oregon Commons" project (...
Sustainability Education-Youth Community Health
Instructor Name: DeEtte Beghtol Waleed
CRN: 14659
“I learned that I can no longer just turn my head and walk away.”
We are surrounded by violence in many areas of our lives – crime, TV, wars, domestic violence and much more. The class seeks to understand why our culture is violent. We will interview leaders working to overcome violence in the US and other countries to learn how change is possible. Structural violence and the interconnections between violence and poverty will be explored and analyzed in order to learn new strategies to...
Conflict Resolution Conflict International International Relations History Political Science Research Psychology Education Sociology Criminal Justice
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert, zapoura@pdx.edu
The Educational Equity Capstone explores a variety of issues related to educational equity, including segregation, school funding, standardized testing, curriculum choices, and language and bilingual education, among others. The course is designed as a partnership with Portland Parks and Recreations University Park Community Center site, located in North Portland. Serving students from Rosa Parks, Clarendon-Portsmouth, and Peninsula schools, University Parks Homework Club combines educational...
Education-Youth Community Health
Instructor Name: Eva Thanheiser
CRN: 64818
Have you always wondered about how powerful mathematics is?
Mathematics is often used to excerpt power and suppress people. In this course we will examine how mathematics can be used to understand social and political issues in general and white supremacy in the United States in particular.
Topics we might examine:
- Current events.
- Understanding the diversity of people/resources/etc. across the world using math (various mathematics topics).
- The history in systemic racism in...
Spring 2020Spring 2022
Education-Youth Community Health
Instructor Name: Eden Isenstein
CRN: 82122
Students in this class will work with the Portland State University Women's Resource Center and their community partners to work towards ending sexual assault. The class will work in teams on projects such as, research, awareness raising/prevention, and fundraising. By the end of the term students will be able to articulate the definitions and dynamics of sexual violence as well as current issues in the field. Students will also have gained experience and understanding in what it takes to...
Education-Youth Research Community Health
Instructor Name: Leah Cronn
Creating Access to College for Low-Income Youth This Capstone explores a variety of issues related to equal access to education, including language barriers, bilingual education, No Child Left Behind, school funding, standardized testing, curriculum choices, cultural differences, and lack of health care, among others.
The community partner for this course is Marathon Education Partners, (www.marathoneducationnpartners.org) a Portland based non-profit organization, founded in 2002, that...
Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Leopoldo Rodriguez
Rural communities in NW Argentina are among the poorest in the country. Lacking the rich soils of the Pampas, facing more extreme climatic conditions, and subject to a heavily concentrated land tenure system, agricultural production, the mainstay of the region’s economy, has failed to raise the standard of living of the bulk of the population. The northward expansion of soybean production into marginal lands, while providing new economic opportunities for large landowners, threatens small rural...
Sustainability Global Perspectives International Capstones Retired-course
Instructor Name:
Students in this Capstone will review, research and reflect on the impact of the incarceration of women, the unique needs of female inmates and the diversity of individuals in correctional facilities through structured activities, required readings, video, dialogue and reflective writing. Through the study of existing prison garden programs, students will develop a model for a garden program at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and identify available resources and potential community partners...
Retired-course
Instructor Name: Dr. Margaret B. Neal
For more information, contact Iris Wernher (Assistant Program Coordinator): Wernher@pdx.edu
The program connects classroom learning on the topics of gerontology, community development, cross-cultural communication, and public health with collaborative community service in Nicaragua. The spring-term course builds on student knowledge and skills in order to prepare teams of students to successfully complete projects in the field while traveling in Nicaragua. Students will work with each other...
Research Disabilities Community Health Global Perspectives International Capstones
Instructor Name: Sarah Dougher
CRN: 14244
p:ear is a downtown Portland organization that engages homeless and transitional youth, 15-24, using mentorship and the tools of education, art and recreation. p:ear's Kitchen and Food program provides hands-on training for youth in the areas of food preparation, gardening, nutrition, and the economics of eating. This capstone will partner with this program to engage students in scholarship about food cultures, social justice and sustainability, developing independent research about homeless...
Community Health Education-Youth
Instructor Name: Janice Dilg
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UNST 421 506 Tuesday-Thursday: 10:00 -11:50 a.m. 6 Credits
Monumental Women Senior Capstone students explore and document the ways that women are memorialized and remembered for their contributions to the cultural, educational, economic, and civic development of the city of Portland. Encompassing the entire history of Portland, students have the opportunity to research and write about a historical or contemporary woman, women's organization...
Research Writing Activism History Women's Studies
Instructor Name: Don Trapp
CRN: 64080
Service Coordination Team is multi-agency, multi-faceted program to manage what have been identified as chronic offenders in Multnomah County, Oregon. The purpose of this Capstone is to develop and undertake an evaluation of this program from both a process and outcome perspective. Students will work with all stakeholders in this program at various sites in the community. The final product will be a summary, presented orally and in writing, of the research findings.
Spring 2020
Criminal & Juvenile Justice Community Health
Instructor Name: Kimberly Mukobi, kmukobi@pdx.edu
CRN: 14164, 14100, 14057
The Grant Writing for Animals: Wildlife Conservation in Africa class partners with the Kasese Wildlife Conservation Awareness Organization (http://www.kasesewildlife.org) to further its goals of creating wildlife awareness and increasing conservation efforts in Ugandan communities. Students will participate in the various aspects of grant writing, including researching funding sources, ascertaining the needs of the community partner, proposal writing, editing, and formatting. A significant...
Fall 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Fall 2022
Conservation - Wildlife Education Sustainability Animals Online or Hybri Courses Education-Youth Wildlife Conservation Hybrid or Fully online Hybrid Courses Grant Writing Grantwriting
Instructor Name: Vicki Reitenauer
In this Capstone, students will work intensively to create written work individually and in collaboration with others. Students will investigate a variety of forms and sources of writing as mechanisms for both personal expression and social change, will generate new writing in weekly writing group sessions, will serve as writing partners/coaches with each other, and will work cooperatively in small groups to design and complete writing projects in collaboration with community partners.
Retired-course
Instructor Name: Jen Delos Reyes
Community-Based Art as a Force for Social Change What can art do? This course will examine the potential that creative acts have to effect social, political,local and personal change through the social application of art in the context of an arts program geared towards homeless and transitional populations facilitated and directed by PSU students.
Through examining art historical context this course will look at the ideas surrounding community art, dialogical art, new genre ublic art, and art...
Education-Youth Community Health Arts
Instructor Name: Amy Steel
CRN: 64565
This class typically facilitates a Creative Reuse S.U.N. after school art class at Vestal Elementary School for Social Justice. During Covid 19 remote instruction this class will operate slightly differently. We will have scheduled remote meetings on Thursday from 2-450 with up to 3 hours a week of homework a week due on Wednesday nights before class. We will work with SCRAP (School and Community Reuse Action Project) to develop creative reuse video lessons for elementary students for...
Spring 2021
Sustainability Education-Youth Arts
Instructor Name: Amy Minato
CRN: 63798
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 2019Fall 2021Fall 2022Spring 2020Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2019Summer 2021Summer 2022Winter 2020Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023