Community Health

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?

Following three campus class sessions in July and August, students will spend two weeks in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Classroom topics will include immigration, socio cultural behavior, and workforce development.  Students will assist a non-profit workforce development or social services agency.  Outside of class, students will tutor or teach ESL for immigrants as they transition to life in the U.S, or complete other projects related to immigration.

Organizing and Defending Immigrant Workers  Explore the contentious issues surrounding immigration and the growth of an immigrant workforce. Partner with a local immigrant rights organization to explore ways to defend immigrant rights and to improve the working conditions of immigrants.

Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Community Psychology

This course focuses on the development of consultation skills applicable for use with a broad range of organizations and utilizes a Community Psychology perspective. Students will join one of several available consultation teams, each working collaboratively with a particular community partner on a project to address a critical organizational need. Community partners organizations are typically working in the fields of child/social welfare, social justice, health/mental health, violence prevention, education, criminal justice or community development. The capstone strives to foster the development of practical  skills related to organizational consultation and collaboration, program evaluation and development, effective teamwork, technical communication, as well as ethics, inclusion, and social responsibility. Previous capstones have assisted community partners with a broad range of projects. For example, evaluations to assess program effectiveness, creating the foundation for new programs, enhancing prevention and safety efforts, and supporting/assisting with the development of a major community training event.     

Equal Access for Justice

A comprehensive and engaging examination of contemporary multicultural and cross-cultural imperatives, this capstone explores the barriers to justice for ethnic and racial minorities. Special attention will be given to the U.S. institutional structure and the justice system. Utilizing a progressive and proactive approach, students will acquire a deeper understanding, awareness and appreciation  of  the root causes of the existing disparities. Their learning outcome will be enhanced through design and formulation of proactive solutions to secure fairness, equity and justice for all.

Engaging Democracy

This Capstone takes place over the winter and spring term, and is only offered every other year, when the Oregon Legislature has a full session.  One of the most pressing problems in American politics today is that the public feels increasingly distant from elected leaders. To many reformers, the health of the nation’s democracy can only improve by getting more young people involved in politics. The Engaging Democracy capstone addresses this problem by having students assist Oregon legislators during the long legislative session in odd calendar years in Salem, where they will help handle the broad range of responsibilities placed on legislative staff. During classroom times, students will learn about the position of legislatures in American politics and the character of Oregon politics. As a final project, the students will work together on a web-based guide to the Legislative Assembly. The work in the capitol will be arranged around each individual student’s schedule. Carpooling should be available. It is likely we will have some funds to offset travel costs.

Cities harbor significant natural systems, though they are often culturally miscast as the antithesis of nature.  The trend in city building over the last couple of millennia has increasingly focused on making our cities more efficient machines to support human habitation.

Research and Society. The objectives of Research and Society are: Community service with an emphasis on the sciences and your research interests; Learning to communicate scientific material in various media to professional and lay audiences; Higher level thinking about questions about scientific processes & ethics—synthesizing knowledge; and, Preparation to complete undergrad work and enter grad school and the workforce.