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: Lisa Jo Frech
CRN: 44078
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 grant proposals for Rising Tide. Rising Tide (http://www.portlandrisingtide.org/) is an international, all-volunteer, grassroots network of groups and individuals who organize locally, promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change. In order to write a...
Fall 2022Winter 2023
Retired-course
Instructor Name: Lisa Jo Frech
CRN: 81210, 13699
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 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022
Grantwriting Ecology Online or Hybrid Courses Sustainability Ecology or Sustainability Advocacy Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Glorie Gary
CRN: 13702
This hybrid online course is for students who are interested in creating and facilitating a community event. This Capstone partners with Portland Parks & Recreation Adaptive Inclusion Program. Each term, students will plan and facilitate a community event that has already been arranged with the community partner prior to the start of each term. You can expect the in person event to be during the last 2 weeks of the term (event date and time will be announced in the first week of classes,...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022
Events Planning Event Social Services developmental disabilities multnomah county community community outreach Event Management Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: David Osborn
CRN: 81189, 13675
Celilo Falls: Decolonization, Dams and Salmon in the Pacific NW
The Columbia river flows through our region in physical and metaphorical ways. Present in the story of the river and the salmon that navigate it are social issues, history and conflict that continue to impact NW communities. Through a place-based, experiential approach we will engage this content. Over the course of the term we will spend the majority of our class time outside of the classroom near the river and at sites of...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023
social movements environmental justice Northwest history colonization social change Sustainability Ecology Activism
Instructor Name: Julie Boyles
CRN: 64084
When you hear the terms "hunger" or "food insecurity," you may not immediately think of college students and a university setting, but a significant percentage of college students are struggling with challenges to meet their nutritional, quality, and quantity food needs. The percentage of university students that are deemed "food insecurity" is approximately three to four times the national average or surrounding population percentage. This capstone delves into the reasons and potential...
Winter 2020
food; food insecurity; hunger; sustainability
Instructor Name: Kimberly Mukobi
CRN: 64559
orangutan small pic.jpg
Description: Known as the "red ape," orangutans are one of the most intelligent, yet critically endangered animals on the planet and now is a crucial time for them. With less than 45,000 orangutans remaining in the world, they could be the first great ape to become extinct within our lifetime. But there is hope - numerous organizations are working vigorously to prevent that from happening.
This Capstone partners with one of those...
Grantwriting Animals Great Apes Grant Writing Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Jenna Padbury
In this fully online course we will practice deepening our existing service in the community. Throughout the course students will learn about and practice the Social Change Model of Leadership. Before class begins students will contact the instructor and develop a service plan with an organization with which they are currently affiliated. In addition, students will form small teams with their classmates. Each team will develop, implement, and evaluate a highly focussed community project. If you...
Leadership Online or Hybrid Courses community
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 14642
Queer Rock Camp is an annual summer camp that works to engage LGBTQ-identified youth through performance and musical self-expression, as well as empower youth of diverse backgrounds in peer alliance and community building skills. Students in this Capstone will examine contemporary social issues related to the lives of LGBTQ youth. Students will also participate in Queer Rock Camp volunteering, programming & the creation of a final communication plan that will document camp activities to...
Education-Youth Arts Youth LGBTQ
Instructor Name: Laura Mulas
CRN: 63969
This capstone is designed to provide an opportunity to learn about Spanish culture and society by means of synchronous and asynchronous discussion group forums between American and Spanish middle and high school students. The communities of students will be from: Portland, Oregon, various schools in Washington state and Zamora, Spain. These forums will be between paired classes (one USA and one Spanish) of similar grade and language level and will be facilitated and monitored by both teachers...
Fall 2019Spring 2020Spring 2022Summer 2020Winter 2020
Education - Youth Global Perspectives Online or Hybrid Courses Education International Capstones International Relations social justice
Instructor Name: Joseph Wightman
CRN: 81211, 13676
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 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Education-Youth Education Leadership social justice Mentoring
Instructor Name: Kristin Teigen
CRN: 63948
Marketing to Fight Women’s Homelessness: Students in this Capstone will learn about homelessness, housing policy and issues of women in poverty while partnering with Rose Haven. Rosehaven is a women’s day shelter which welcomes women off the street and addresses needs by offering life sustaining services and assistance. Students will support the work of Rosehaven by providing marketing support for its annual Reigning Roses Walk, which helps create awareness and raise support to serve 2,400...
Spring 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022
Instructor Name: DeEtte Beghtol Waleed
CRN: 14185
In the past few years we have been inundated with information about sexual assault and the efforts of women, girls, and gender nonconforming people to resist it. More people are aware of the size and seriousness of this problem. In addition to violence in our homes we are increasingly aware of transgender violence, Military Sexual Trauma and violence against women in prisons. Intimate partner violence and sexual assault become even more difficult when the victim is in a foreign country or...
Fall 2019
Gender violence International Global Studies Political Science Research Psychology Sociology Conflict Law Criminal Justice Education
Instructor Name: Susanne Steinmann
CRN: 64579
This Capstone partners with a non-profit Portland Meet Portland (www.portlandmeetportland.org) in order to meet, empower and learn from adults and youth in diverse refugee communities in Portland. The Capstone aims to strengthen cross-cultural learning, understand urban development issues and support positive pathways for refugee adjustment. Students are matched with diverse refugees and will document with text or video newcomers’ social and economic livelihoods and community maps. In...
Community Development Sustainable cities Social Sustainability community outreach social justice Leadership poverty Urban Apartheid
Instructor Name: Courtney Dillard
CRN: 44140
This course is designed to guide students through the step by step process of developing a communication campaign for a community partner. Specifically, students will learn how to set objectives, analyze audiences and contexts, develop messages, choose tactics and make basic design choices. The final product of the capstone should be a professional campaign plan that could be included in job market materials.
Winter 2020
Instructor Name: Kristin Teigen, Julia Delgado
CRN: 63797
The Women's Homelessness Capstone explores the causes, dynamics and solutions to women's housing instability while working with the Community Alliance of Tenants and the Urban League to work for a better future. This course, as well as the service opportunities, are all online. It's a hybrid course as well, with one class online session per week.
Spring 2023
Instructor Name: Lindsey Schuhmacher
CRN: 81214, 81216, 13695
Welcome to "Embracing Size Diversity!" This course focuses on weight stigma as a social and cultural construction, examining the relationship between discrimination caused by body size and gender, race, ability, and social class. Students use social justice and healthcare perspectives to question weight bias and explore ways in which we can resist sizeism individually and collectively. Emphasis is placed on the Health at Every Size™ (HAES) approach to wellness as well as advocating for size...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Community Health social justice Activism Gender social movements Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online social change Sociology Disabilities
Instructor Name: Julia Delgado
CRN: 63983
Students in this Capstone will learn about homelessness, housing policy and issues of women in poverty, while partnering with Rosehaven, a women's day shelter which welcomes women off the street and addresses their needs by offering services, assistance and simply, a warm, dry place to rest. Students will support the work of Rosehaven by supporting their marketing efforts, particularly for its annual Reigning Roses Walk, which helps create awareness and raise support to serve 2,400 people...
Spring 2021
Grant Writing Development Marketing Poverty Awareness Housing Policy
Instructor Name: Laura Mulas
CRN: 81215, 13692
Global citizenship is of utmost importance as our societies are increasingly becoming more connected through media and technology. There is a growing disparity in the American school system that allows only the privileged students to participate in meaningful and engaging cultural learning. Schools that receive funding and support are able to facilitate cultural exchanges in person for students and faculty, while the majority of students in the public system receive little financial support and...
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2023Summer 2021Summer 2022Summer 2023Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Education - Youth Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: George Haley
CRN: 13677
Note: Summer term taught by Andrew Reed, areed@pdx.edu. Fall and SpringTerm taught by Andrew Haley, andrewhaley@pdx.edu)
According to Communities of Color in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile, “In total, people of color in 2008 (by traditional Census Bureau counts) comprise 26.3% of the population of the county. When we add the Slavic community to these data, […] the size of the community totals over 200,000 residents." A large number of these residents are immigrants and refugees....
Fall 2021Fall 2022Fall 2023Spring 2021Spring 2022Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
Immigration Refugees
Instructor Name: Celine Fitzmaurice
CRN: 44036
This course will focus on the issue of climate change and individual steps we can take to respond to this global problem. In this course, we will explore the complexities of this issue, its impact on marginalized communities, and a variety of responses to climate change. Students in this course will be encouraged to reflect on their own identity and skills to determine a meaningful response to the issue.
Our community partner for this course is SAGE Vision 2030. Students will choose from...
Winter 2021Winter 2022Winter 2023
sustainability and environment