Summer 2021

Girls Rock Camp. The Rock & Roll Camp for Girls is a local non-profit organization that works to build girls' self-esteem through musical & performance mentorship as well as empowers/prepares young women of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles within their communities.  Students in this Capstone will examine contemporary social issues related to the lives of girls today, as well as participate in Rock Camp programming & the creation of a final communication plan to secure on-going community support & sustainability for the camp. Please contact Molly Gray, mcg@pdx.edu, for more information.

Art and Social Change 

The working Thesis for this class is that for Art, or indeed anything/anyone, to effect change in a society the work/ideas must be palatable to the majority, real and tangible in terms of outcomes and sustainable over time. We never get far when we try to change using hate, anger, force or such "clubs."

Collaborations: Boys and Girls Club

This course focuses on the importance of service learning in our community. As a class, we will have the opportunity to discover, evaluate, and reflect on the needs of our community by creating and facilitating educational workshops, mentoring, and exploring fundraising opportunities for the Boys and Girls Club. Students will learn respect for themselves and others as part of a community and will promote teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills.

GirlPower! 

In this course, we will be working with our community partner, the local non-profit organization; the IPRC, Independent Publishing Resource Center.  Our project is to coordinate a series of *rap sessions* with local teen girls about current issues in their lives. We will use these group conversations to encourage the girls to become a part of our ZINE project - where they will write, edit, and publish a grassroots, mini-magazine with our class.  In preparation for this project, we will read feminist scholarship about teenage girls as well as focus groups and zine publishing methodologies.

Portland's Water

This course is designed to give students an opportunity to learn about tap water and create community outreach products for the Portland Water Bureau.  Our community partner for this class is the Portland Water Bureau. This class will focus on the Bull Run watershed (the source of Portland's drinking water) and the work of the Portland Water Bureau -- how they deliver our water to our taps.

Course Description: 

Middle School Equity & Inclusion is a hybridized capstone offered each Summer.  Through text and community engagement PSU students will observe and reflect on race, language, and class privilege as they are encountered by immigrant children and their families.

Summer Youth Enrichment. This summer, we will be working as tutors/mentors with the 6-week summer program Upward Bound on the PSU campus.  We will be part of the summer session of this college preparatory program offering assistance to approximately 90 low-income and first generation high school students.  98% of participants ultimately graduate from high school, 95% of participants enter college after high school graduation, and 80% of our high school graduates since 200 are still in college or have graduated.

Grantwriting: Sustainability A grant is a proposal that seeks funds to solve a problem and normally is directed by a nonprofit organization [IRS 501(c)(3) designation] to a federal, state, or local government agency, a foundation, or a corporation.

Effective Change Agent

This course is for students interested in being effective change agents for the public good. Each student (individually or with others) will take the initiative before the Capstone begins to arrange a project with a community organization. This project may be an existing relationship or one sought for the purpose of this class.

Queer & Trans Youth

It is estimated that 1 in 10 individuals identify as a sexual minority. Often an already challenging stage in identity development, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & questioning (LGBTQ) youth face a set of issues unique to their daily lives.