Spring 2022

This course will not be available in SPRING 2024

Students will support in sharing stories of local, socially engaged artists by creating podcasts in collaboration with McDaniel Highschool students. Art Talk Bus Stop is a public art education program and monthly podcast interview series about how artists do their work and make a living. Students learn about arts and cultural work and careers, and get hands-on experience producing alive interview, learning the technology, research and storytelling skills.

Grant Writing for Environmental Education: This Capstone will partner with the Sauvie Island Center (sauvieislandcenter.org). The mission of the Sauvie Island Center is to “equitably educate elementary school-aged children about food, farming, and the land.”  The center runs place-based farm education trips and events at Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island and creates food systems learning content for grade-school classrooms.  Capstone students in this course will participate in the various aspects of grant writing, including locating appropriate funders and identifying the needs of our community partner, as well as writing and reviewing grant proposals. No previous work with grants or grant writing is needed. The class also involves reading and discussions about environmental and outdoor education, equity in education, and sustainable food systems and farming practices.  Students in this course will develop skills in storytelling to help transform the relationship between humans and their environment. The Capstone project will be a presentation and portfolio of grant proposals addressing the current needs of the Sauvie Island Center. 

Learning Gardens and Food Justice at LGL 

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). This course will focus on community building, group discussions and activities, and will work on projects that connect LGL with on-campus food security efforts. For Spring Term 2022, this course will include face-to-face meetings at LGL (depending on PSU and Oregon's Covid policies) and Zoom meetings. LGL is located at 6745 SE 60th Ave, Portland, OR 97206.

HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS:  Nearly half of all PSU students have experienced food insecurity and over 15% have experienced homelessness. This Capstone considers the challenges of housing insecurity and homelessness, faced by our country and here on our campus, through a critical systems-thinking approach to complex social issues. The course is guided by our collaborators at The PSU Landing at FUMC: A new PSU community resource sheltering students through housing crisis and transitions. Capstone student projects will work to change narratives, implement creative actions, and advocate for effective housing policies. In Spring Term 2021, this class will be offered fully remotely, meeting in synchronous Zoom meetings; and a weekly one hour asynchronous Capstone Project meeting is also required.

This capstone course introduces oral history as a method for documenting, preserving, and amplifying the diverse histories and voices of LGBTQ+ community leaders and activists regionally and nationally utilizing an intersectional framework. Through listening to interviews, exploring related primary source materials, and learning from guests to our course, we will learn about local and regional LGBTQ+ history as situated within the larger context of this history in the U.S. Topics will include exploration of movements for LGBTQ+ rights as they intersect with racial justice in Oregon and the U.S. Simultaneously, we will develop and practice our listening and interviewing skills, edit oral history interview transcripts, and work in teams to develop teach-ins and public-facing educational materials in partnership with the Gay Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest (GLAPN).

Cultural Ecology in the Urban Forest at Tryon Creek

This course is designed to inspire and question the ways we educate both ourselves and our next seven generations as global stewards. Through remote discussions and exercises, readings and media, nature journaling, and personal reflection, students will gain a deeper appreciation of the authentic cultural ecology of the area. Students will have the opportunity to collaboratively apply their learning to a community outreach project that helps the extended Tryon Creek community in building unique and lasting relationships with the natural world. The projects and course will take place mainly in person at Tryon Creek.

Violence Prevention

This Capstone will partner with the Learning Gardens Laboratory (LGL), a 12-acre garden education site on Portland’s southeast side. Students work collaboratively to gather stories of community gardeners, teachers, and community partners who regularly gather at LGL to learn and farm. Capstone students will gain skills in interviewing, storytelling, and using narrative as a means for social change, in addition to learning about sustainable food systems and the impact of learning gardens. 

Trauma often leads to contemplative dissociation- a detachment from the body and the mind. Through a social justice framework, together we will explore trauma and healing using Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB).  IPNB is relational neuroscience that offers kinder, broader wisdom to understand how we are hurt and how we heal within relationships (including the relationship with the self).