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: Celine Fitzmaurice
CRN: 45187
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...
Winter 2021
sustainability and environment
Instructor Name: Dr. Rajiv Sharma
CRN: 64018
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 2020Spring 2021
Instructor Name: Megan Kupko
CRN: 81213, 81215, 14033
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2019Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2021
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: Alissa Leavitt
CRN: 63984
Health Professionals as Agents of Change
Do you ever wonder what health care will look like in 5 -15 years from now? 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 public health, we will also be asking “how do we apply these concepts in real world settings?”
Students will explore how personal, social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental factors...
Spring 2019Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2021
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: 44274
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 2020Winter 2021
Instructor Name: Michelle Swinehart
CRN: 64035
This Capstone partners with two schools in Oregon - Walt Morey Middle School in the Reynolds School District and Wilson River School in Tillamook, Oregon. PSU students will provide creative mentoring to 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 empathy and being vulnerable in a leadership role; and what creates self-advocacy. PSU...
Spring 2020Spring 2021
Education - Youth Youth education and social justice
Instructor Name: Carmen Denison
CRN: 45186
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 2020Winter 2021
Instructor Name: Deborah Rutt
CRN: 81203, 14037
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 2019Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2020Spring 2021Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
Criminal & Juvenile Justice
Instructor Name: Julie Boyles
CRN: 81187, 81181
While the term "food insecurity" has become known and understood, the implications and wide-ranging aspects of it have not. There are physical, emotional, psychological, cultural, health-related, as well as other manifestations that we explore. We look at how food insecurity impacts college students while struggling to remain enrolled; we look at the Portland area and Oregon as a whole; and we look at the national picture of food security in our country. We not only look at the challenges that...
Fall 2021Spring 2021Summer 2021Winter 2021
food; food insecurity; hunger; sustainability; food justice; food equity
Instructor Name: Megan Schneider
CRN: 45190
This course will focus on how we can create sustainable and just change in our food system, and beyond. Students will explore the concepts of sustainability, sustainability leadership, food justice, and food sovereignty through community-based learning with the PSU Learning Gardens Lab (LGL). For Winter Term 2021, this course will be fully remote and will consist of synchronous Zoom meetings and remote projects that support the mission and operations of LGL.
Winter 2021
Learning Gardens Learning Garden Garden-based learning Gardens
Instructor Name: Courtney Dillard
CRN: 15110
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. This course will help you research/profile donors, create activity plans and set realistic budgets, all as part of the grant proposal process. At the end of the course you should have a grant proposal strong enough to benefit our...
Fall 2019
Grant Writing Grantwriting Non-profits
Instructor Name: Nariyo Kono
CRN: 44261
The goal of this course is to give students 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 endangered language communities in the Northwest (tribal language programs in general and the Warm Springs Tribal Language Program, specifically) to work together to support those programs by giving students “on-the-ground” skills to accompany class studies....
Spring 2020Winter 2021
Online or Hybrid Courses Activism Education Fund Raising indigenous Sustainability
Instructor Name: Suzanne Savaria
CRN: 81343
One of the most powerful learning opportunities for a student is studying abroad. The impactful, sensory experience of being far away ultimately brings us closer to ourselves, naturally offering a platform to examine how we identify and relate to the world around us.
In this course, we’ll delve into the idea of identity of people and place, both abroad and at home. Using musical and cultural experiences as a lens, we’ll explore the powerful concept of identity. In a rapidly shrinking world...
Spring 2020Summer 2020Summer 2021Winter 2020
International Capstones Education - Youth Arts Identity Music
Instructor Name: Megan Kupko
CRN: 15585, 45173
Cultivating Wellness Practices in Public Schools Through Garden-based Education for Youth (K-6th grades)
Class times: Tuesday's 12:45-3:45pm
Classroom Location: 1st class held on-campus in a PSU classroom (still to be determined). Remainder of classes held at McKinney Elementary School: 535 NW Darnielle St. Hillsboro, OR 97124
Course Description: This course will explore the theory and practice of garden-based education for youth grades K-6th. The capstone will be partnered with Mckinney...
Fall 2019Winter 2020
Instructor Name: Jenna Padbury
CRN: 14021
We will practice and grow in our understanding of mindful meditation and awareness as a foundation for personal and global healing. Meditation is a practice that encompasses a philosophy of living with a quiet mind, open heart, and in service to others. Learners will cultivate their own mindful meditation practice 6 days a week for 15-20 minutes a day. Together we will explore the connections between ancient Eastern philosophy, personal healing, and social responsibility. Service-learning...
Fall 2020Fall 2021Spring 2021Winter 2020Winter 2021
meditation mindfulness Community Health trauma-informed social justice contemplative practices interpersonal neurobiology
Instructor Name: Christopher Carey
CRN: 63975
This in-person course will explore issues of social justice in criminal justice. Students will focus on a community-based approach in collaboration with the community partner to learn about reducing barriers to exiting the criminal justice system. These include clemency, parole, prison litigation, immigration and refugee status, mental illness and incarceration, non-unanimous juries and removing the criminal related barriers that keep individuals in poverty. Specifically, the Capstone...
Spring 2021Winter 2021
Criminal Justice
Instructor Name: Zapoura Newton-Calvert
CRN: 63993
The Black Lives Matter at School week of action and call to anti-racist curriculum year round was initiated by Seattle educators in 2016 in response to bomb threats by white supremacists toward students and teachers wearing Black Lives Matter/We Stand Together t-shirts at John Muir Elementary School. Inequity in curriculum, curricular violence, bias in textbooks, lack of access to diverse authors and representation in school libraries all contribute to the “achievement gaps” that both federal...
Fall 2020Spring 2020Spring 2021Winter 2021
Instructor Name: Deborah Rutt
CRN: 81179
This course will explore sustainability, food security and personal connection to the environment through community engagement at the Oregon Food Bank and Wombyn’s Wellness Garden. Students will examine community-based learning through the lens of sustainability leadership, and engage with alternative and critical perspectives on sustainability. Class time will focus on hands-on activities in the learning gardens, group discussion and community engagement projects in support of the Oregon Food...
Summer 2020Summer 2021
Learning Gardens Garden-based learning