Do you need help weeding through the myriad ideas for research and capstone? Take a look at these
video links. Each section highlights successful capstones from recent students and should give you some ideas and helpful tips for moving forward.
Steps to Move Forward
with a Service-Learning Capstone
Connect to your passion.
- Take inventory of what gives you juice. If you choose a topic that you care about, you will have more focus to complete the project.
Find an organization that meets your passion. Choose something from your own life and relationships.
- Look to your place of work, your place of worship, your child’s school, an organization that you already volunteer or would like to volunteer at. Often the most successful capstone projects are often already connected to your life in some fashion.
Choose something that will allow you to use your business skills.
- Donating time to serve soup in a soup kitchen may helpful to those in line, but it is really not advancing your business skills. However, designing a marketing strategy and promotional materials to raise additional capital for the food bank would allow you to grow your business skills and it does a world of good for the food bank.
After you identify the organization, ask questions and listen to their needs.
- What are their issues? What does this organization need help with? After listening, ask yourself, “Does this organization need MY skill set?”
Narrow the outcome/product.
- Depending upon the needs of the organization, this could be a business plan for a new initiative, an HR manual, a training module for employees or clients, a marketing plan, or a recruitment video for a non-profit. The choices are endless. Contact the Service Learning Director or Associate Director to brainstorm additional ideas.