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: 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: Lindsey Schuhmacher
CRN: 81178, 81180, 64501, 64502, 44137, 44145
Welcome to EveryBody Matters: Embracing Size Diversity! This course focuses on fatness as a social and cultural construction, examining the relationship between discrimination caused by body size and gender, race, and social class. Students will use social justice and healthcare perspectives to question weight bias and explore ways in which the fat community and its supporters resist sizeism.
A 2010 study from Yale University shows that body size discrimination occurs at the same rate as...
Spring 2020Summer 2019Winter 2020
Community Health social justice Activism Gender social movements Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Julia Delgado
CRN: 64482
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...
Grant Writing Development Marketing Poverty Awareness Housing Policy
Instructor Name: Laura Mulas
CRN: 81179, 14155, 44136
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 2019Spring 2020Summer 2019Winter 2020
Education - Youth Hybrid or Fully online Online or Hybrid Courses
Instructor Name: Andrew Haley, Andy Reed
CRN: 14174, 44125
Note: Summer term taught by Andrew Reed, areed@pdx.edu. Fall Term 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. The...
Fall 2019Spring 2020Winter 2020
Immigration Refugees
Instructor Name: Celine Fitzmaurice
CRN: 43888
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 350PDX, https://350pdx.org/. Students will...
sustainability and environment
Instructor Name: Alan DeLaTorre
CRN: 64610
Our region, as well as world, is witnessing a rapid and unprecedented growth in the proportion and number of older adults. The window of opportunity for preparing communities is shrinking rapidly. This researched-based course seeks to improve understanding of physical, social, and service environments and it aims to share research findings with local partners in an effort to make the Portland region a better place for those of all ages and abilities. Students will receive research training and...
Research Aging Services Gerontology Age-friendly Communities Community Development
Instructor Name: Dr. Rajiv Sharma
CRN: 64514
Students will contribute to an ongoing research project on access to healthcare. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own experience with the healthcare system as well as collect, analyze and disseminate information on access to primary care in the US. No prior research experience required. Results will be presented to Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research.
Portland State University has the only group in the US that conducts a national longitudinal audit of primary...
Spring 2020
Instructor Name: Megan Kupko
CRN: 14179, 81206, 81204
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 2019Spring 2020Summer 2019
Education-Youth Sustainability Community Health Science
Instructor Name: Tony DeFalco and Celine Fitzmaurice
This Capstone partners with the Living Cully collaborative, a six year old collective impact effort in the Cully neighborhood by four community-serving organizations to build wealth among low-income people and prevent displacement. Capstone students will partner with Living Cully to learn about three areas important to the community (housing, transportation and parks). Students will gain an understanding of how development can proceed without displacement of low-income people and people of...
Instructor Name: Marilyn Rampersad Mackiewicz
CRN: 14177
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This capstone will focus on building skills in effective communication, negotiation, leadership, networking, mentoring, and professional development (leading focus groups and interviewing). These are skills traditionally not learned in a classroom and are essential to advancing successful STEM careers. Capstone students will work in teams to design, implement, and evaluate a 1-day workshop to coach and transfer STEM career preparation skills to...
Fall 2019
Leadership negotiation networking mentorship communication
Instructor Name: Alissa Leavitt
CRN: 64521
Course Description:
Do you ever wonder what health care will look like in 5 -15 years from now? How do personal, social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental factors affect community and population-based health? What will your role be in effecting positive change? Although we will look to theory and research to help answer these and other questions related to the topic of change leadership in healthcare, we will also be asking “how do we apply this in real world settings?” I hope...
Spring 2020
Instructor Name: David Hall
CRN: 81202
Partnering with the Little White Salmon Biodiversity Reserve (LWSBR), participants will help tend farm and forest lands while exploring relationships among science, culture, stewardship and community development. LWSBR is committed to providing a place-based, systems-aware learning environment while serving community well-being and ecological health. Time will be split between campus meetings and two overnight site visits in the Columbia Gorge. Students will create multimedia materials to...
Summer 2019
Instructor Name: Molly Gray
CRN: 43866, 44138
This fully-online Capstone will examine the issues relevant to the lived experiences of transgender and nonbinary individuals and the associated socio-political climate for this population in the U.S. Students will collaborate digitally with the Trans Oral History Project at the New York Public Library to transcribe recorded oral histories to increase access to the archives as well as deepen awareness and solidarity with those who are transgender and/or nonbinary.
Winter 2020
Instructor Name: Courtney Dillard
CRN: 64494
In this course, students have the opportunity to learn the basics of grant writing. A much sought-after skill in many sectors, grant writing helps a variety of nonprofits and government agencies obtain funds for various projects they are interested in pursuing. For this class, our community partner will be JOIN. As they describe on their website, JOIN exists to support the efforts of homeless individuals and families to transition out of homelessness into permanent housing. Our efforts are...
Fall 2019Spring 2020Winter 2020
Homelessness Grant Writing Grantwriting Online or Hybrid Courses Hybrid or Fully online
Instructor Name: Michelle Swinehart
CRN: 65835
This Capstone partners with Centennial Park School (CPS), an alternative school for at-risk students in Gresham. PSU students will provide mentoring and guidance to CPS students to help them express themselves through storytelling. The course will examine issues of social justice; power and privilege in our society, community and classrooms; holistic learning; the power of being vulnerable in a leadership role; and what creates self-advocacy. PSU students will critically engage with pedagogical...
Spring 2020
Education - Youth Youth education and social justice
Instructor Name: Carmen Denison
CRN: 65415
This course combines critical race theory, the history of the Black Civil Rights Movement, and critical service-learning methodology to develop a symposium plan for Campus Compact of Oregon's annual programming honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. PSU Students will design a teach-in style event that centers the voices and needs of partner campus representatives, community interest groups and advocates, and student activists representing Portland's Black community; thematically...
Spring 2020
Instructor Name: Debbie Rutt
CRN: 14152, 44157
Drawing on poetry, political theory, sociological texts, film, and personal narratives, this course offers an introduction to prison and its critiques, as well as the power of education to transform individuals and societies. This hybrid course meets once a week at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF); Capstone students will study together with women enrolled in higher education at the women’s prison, about 20 minutes south of PSU in Wilsonville. Successful background clearances are...
Fall 2019Winter 2020
Instructor Name: Julie Boyles
CRN: 81199, 44129
Food insecurity is a challenge for students, children, parents, immigrants, long-term citizens, old, young, and all other label you might apply to someone. In this online course students have the opportunity to do their "25 hours of service" in a food-scarcity-related organization in their own community. The service component of the course offers an important connection and correlation between the course materials and the validated and verified aspects of food insecurity. Students often reflect...
Fall 2019Spring 2020Summer 2019Winter 2020
food; food insecurity; hunger; sustainability
Instructor Name: Lukas Maurer
CRN: 81211
In this capstone, students will explore and participate in the concept of “community food security” through community engagement and learning gardens. Students will also examine community service learning through the lens of “sustainability leadership.” During this term, we will work with a variety of people and organizations partnered with the Learning Gardens Laboratory. Class time will focus on issues of community food security and ways to create food justice through community engagement and...
Spring 2020Summer 2019
Learning Gardens Learning Garden Garden-based learning Gardens