Winter 2022
Water Scarcity (online)
The project will work alongside Water4 Foundations, a non-profit that is focused on water scarcity issues. Students will address needs affecting the field of water scarcity. Students may participate in the following service-learning:
Research cultural practices and country dynamics to assist NGOs transition into new markets;
• Research water technologies, benefits/drawbacks of each, identify best practices; and
• Survey water scarcity activities, map out industry trends, and conduct gap analysis.
Racial Equity In Oregon
This Capstone partners with the Community Alliance of Tenants, Taking Ownership PDX and the Urban League. Students will learn the history of BIPOC communities in Oregon while working with our partners to fight racism, white supremacy and to create a different future for Oregon. Students in this course will learn how to write grants, work directly with organizations centering BIPOC homeowners and tenants and, if they choose, use their own skills and talents to support these organizations. All of this work can very easily be translated to working professionally in a nonprofit organization! A wide variety of project opportunities exist -- everything from scheduled shifts to projects that can be conducted on your own time and schedule.
Sustainable Living
In light of looming environmental crises, what can individuals do to change direction? In this course we collectively examine our society to determine which cultural and personal values support, and which inhibit, sustainability.
Grant Writing for Animals: Shelter Pets
Approximately 2.7 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs - about one every 11 seconds - are euthanized in U.S. shelters each year. This class partners with a local no-kill animal shelter to further its goals of eliminating the unnecessary euthanasia of healthy or treatable companion animals in the community and finding them permanent, loving homes.
Students will participate in the various aspects of grantwriting, including locating appropriate funders and ascertaining the needs of the community partner, as well as writing and reviewing grant proposals. A significant portion of this course is spent in online discussions, allowing students to explore the social/cultural dynamics of pet overpopulation, the ethical dilemmas presented by it, and the rise of the no-kill revolution in the United States. Please have a webcam or smartphone available for the discussions.
The end project will be a presentation and portfolio of grant proposals addressing the current needs of the community partner. Please contact Kimberly Mukobi, kmukobi@pdx.edu, for more information.
Performing Arts Advocacy
The arts play a critical role in stimulating creativity and in developing vital communities. They have a crucial impact on our economy and are an important catalyst for learning, discovery and achievement in our county.
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."
Design/Edit 4 Organ Donor
Students will work with the nonprofit agency Donate Life Northwest (DLNW) while learning about their mission to save/enhance lives through the promotion of organ, eye, and tissue donation. Students will design/edit promotional documents (digital, video, electronic or for print), while integrating knowledge from their own field of study, familiarity with today's popular culture, and the community partner’s mission to increase registration of voluntary organ donors in the Pacific Northwest, and to honor the brave individuals and their families who make the decision to donate.
Linking the Generations
Students will engage with older adults to complete a variety of life history projects. Students will address their assumptions and stereotypes toward the aging population and will reflect upon personal barriers and successes in the intergenerational communication process. Communication issues will be addressed in the areas of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intercultural communication.
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.