The Capstone Class –FAQ’s

Although the Sociology majors’ Handbook provides an accurate description of the sociology capstone requirement, it fails to provide answers to several questions student often have about their capstone classes. 

What is a capstone class, and why am I required to take one?
In an architectural context, a capstone is the top-most stone that completes a building.  In an academic context, a capstone is the final class that completes a student’s curriculum.  In other words, a capstone is a class in which senior liberal arts majors are required to pull together what they have learned in their previous classes and use this integrating experience to demonstrate that they are capable of doing what they should be able to do as they graduate from the program (think critically, perform research and evaluate others’ research, write in acceptable academic style).  This process serves a dual purpose.  It provides sociology majors with a final opportunity to practice and demonstrate the skills they will need to succeed after graduation on the job or in graduate school.  It also presents the Sociology Department with a final opportunity to assess whether or not it has been successful in its mission to produce competent sociology majors.

What kinds of Capstone classes are available?
The IUPUI Sociology Department offers its majors a choice of three capstones.

What capstone class should I take?
The answer to this question depends on what you are preparing to do after you graduate.  If you plan to enter a graduate program and/or profession that would require you to perform research, then either SOC-R 497 or the SOC-R 498 Capstone Seminar would be your wisest choice.  If you plan to apply the principles you have learned as an undergraduate sociology major in the workplace after graduation, and if you have some idea what type of work you will be doing, an internship (R494) may be your wisest choice, but the Capstone Seminar might also be helpful.  If you are not sure what you will do after graduation, the best choice would be the Capstone Seminar, which is specifically designed, in part at least, to explore career options.

When should I take my Capstone Class?
You should take the Capstone after you have completed all or most of your sociology classes, during your Senior year. Unless there are special extenuating circumstances, students will not be permitted to register for the capstone until they have completed the other required sociology courses and at least 4 of the 5 electives.  We have found that students who attempt their Capstone in the summer rarely manage to finish.  Therefore, with the rare exception of an Internship Capstone, students will not be permitted to do their Capstone in the summer.  Note also that the Capstone Seminar is only offered in the Spring Semester.

If you are planning to register for SOC-R 494 or 497, you will need to make arrangements ahead of time.  The Capstone Checklist, on page 14 of the Student Handbook, describes the steps for SOC-R 494 and 497 students to complete, or you may check with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, who will go over the procedure with you. In any case, this should be done early in the semester prior to when you intend to do your Capstone.

Patricia Wittberg,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Sociology Department
CA 303G
pwittber@iupui.edu
274-4478
 Capstone : "A culminating set of experiences that captivate, encapsulate,
synthesize, and demonstrate learning."

 

The Sociology Capstone Seminar (SOC-R 498) is designed to help graduating seniors synthesize and demonstrate learning in their major. It provides opportunities for students to integrate what they have learned in sociology classes, while engaging in enjoyable interaction with other students completing majors in sociology. There are, of course, other ways of fulfilling the Capstone requirement in Sociology. Individual students may pursue an independent study project, or they may work on an internship. But a valuable aspect of any Capstone is the opportunity to interact with other senior Sociology majors. Most Capstone programs, therefore, encourage - or even require - students to complete the requirement by attending a seminar course such as this one.  GOALS The goals of this Capstone seminar are to help you to:  ◄ Integrate reflectively and critically what you have learned in your college Sociology courses both here at IUPUI and elsewhere. ◄ Hone your theoretical and methodological skills in applying the sociological perspective to some aspect of your past or future life experiences, or to some local social problem. ◄ Prepare yourself for what comes after graduation - whether this is a job that utilizes your sociological expertise or post-graduate study.

 

SAMPLE SYLLABI

Sociology Capstone Seminar
R498 25387
Spring Semester, 2005

Patricia Wittberg
Cavanaugh Hall 303G
Phone:274-4478
pwittber@iupui.edu

Goals

The goals of this Capstone seminar are to help you to

• Integrate reflectively and critically what you have learned in your college Sociology courses both here at IUPUI and elsewhere.
• Relate what you have learned in Sociology to IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning.
• Hone and demonstrate your theoretical and methodological skills in applying the sociological perspective to aspects of your past or future life experiences, or to some local social problem.
• Become expert at locating, evaluating, and summarizing both the published and the online data sources related to the field you will soon enter.
• Prepare yourself for what comes after graduation – whether this is a job that utilizes your sociological expertise or post-graduate study.

Required Readings:

American Sociological Association. 2002. Careers in Sociology.
American Sociological Assocation. 2003. Careers in Clinical Sociology.
American Sociological Association. 1998. Embarking Upon a Career with an Undergraduate
Degree in Sociology  OR Mastering the Job Market with a Graduate Degree in Sociology.

Course Expectations

Since this is a seminar, your class attendance and participation is essential.  More than 2 absences will negatively affect your grade.  For most weeks, there will be a pre-class or in-class group activity (e.g. a focused research problem search, a worksheet on online data sets, a draft of your resume, or a letter of application).  At the end of each class session, you will suggest a grade for yourself (and, sometimes, for your group) on these activities.  These grades will form the basis for the class participation component of your final grade.  If you must miss a class session, I will expect you to complete that session’s group activity report or worksheet on your own.

The major requirement for this course is to complete a Senior Capstone Portfolio, which will include the following components.  Each of these components will be separately graded, and you will have the opportunity to work on them in class and receive feedback on preliminary drafts.

1.) A five-page essay reflecting on the Sociology courses you have taken, how/if each course helped you to gain a new perspective, how they all fit (or didn’t fit) together, and how you hope they will contribute to your future educational or occupational career(s).  This is due on January 18.  You will have a chance to revise this at the end of the semester, reflecting on how/if your views have changed.

2.) A seminar paper.  There will be several parts to this assignment.  Each part will be separately graded, and the resulting average grade will be 50% of the grade for your portfolio.  The parts (and their respective grading weights) include:

• Choosing the topic of this paper, which should be an intensive exploration of something that you will need to know about in your future career.  The point is for you to hone your research skills in gathering information that will be the most useful to you.  We will work on topic choice and refinement on January 18 and 25. (5%)
• A complete literature search of materials relevant to your topic.  You will be much more “marketable” in your chosen field if you have a thorough knowledge of both the electronic and print resources you and your colleagues need.  We will work on this in special library session on February 1, and in class on subsequent weeks. (5%)
• A data bank search of available data sets from research done on your topic.  Again, knowledge of and ability to manipulate such data sets will be useful to you in your chosen field.  We will have an initial presentation and workshop on this in mid-February. (5%)
• The written paper itself (of course).  Total length of the paper should be between 15-25 pages.  We will have several working sessions on the different styles of professional and academic writing. (25%)
• A one-page executive summary and/or press release on your paper.  Knowing how to write such summaries is a valuable skill. (5%)
• Your presentation of your paper to colleagues.  This can be in either the Midwest Student Sociological Society annual meeting, which will be held this year on April 1-2, or in a formal presentation to the rest of the class here. (5%)

 
NOTE:  For those of you who plan to attend graduate school in an academic subject (i.e. not the Schools of Law or Social Work), you may choose to “upgrade” a paper you have already written to graduate level.  In this case, you will need to submit both a copy of the original paper and the revised and improved version you work on for this course.  You will also, of course, still need to complete the other parts of this assignment (i.e. the Literature Search and Data Bank Search Worksheets, the Executive Summary, and the Presentation)

3.) A Professional Planning Packet that contains a Core section – completed by all students – and either an Employment section or a Graduate School section, depending on your post-baccalaureate plans.

            a. The Core Section (required of all students) will contain the following documents:
i. a one-page statement describing your immediate and long-term career and life 
goals, including an explanation of why these goals are appropriate in terms of your knowledge, skills, characteristics, values, and experiences.
ii. an official senior audit (taken from Insite or OneStart) and a semester-by-semester
plan for how you plan to complete your BA in Sociology
iii. a current, accurate, and professional-appearing resume.  JagJobs will
help you prepare this, if you wish, and we will critique each other’s in class.
iv. an address where you can be reached after graduation.

            b. The Employment Section will contain the following documents:
i. the results of a computerized job search strategy from the Career Center
ii. a professional-appearing cover letter that can be modified for specific job applications
iii. completed letter of recommendation request forms listing at least three appropriate people who have agreed to write strong letters of recommendation for you for a job (you do not need to ask them actually to write these letters yet, but you do need to see if they would be willing to do
 so),
iv. completed applications for at least three jobs (again, you do not need actually to send these applications in unless you want to).

            c. The Graduate School Section will contain the following documents:
i. results of a search for appropriate graduate programs.
ii. a personal statement that can be modified for specific graduate programs
iii. evidence of preparation for the GRE
iv. completed letter of recommendation request forms listing at least three appropriate people who have agreed to write strong letters of recommendation for you for a job (you do not need to ask them actually to write these letters yet, but you do need to see if they would be willing to do
 so).
v. completed applications for at least three graduate programs (again, you do not need
actually to send these applications in unless you want to).

Grade Weights

Attendance and Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30%
             (Includes in-class discussion worksheets, etc.)
Capstone Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70%
. . . . . . .Reflection Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10%
. . . . . . .Professional Planning Packet . . . . . . . . . . . .10%
. . . . . . .Final Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50%
             (Includes Topic Choice, Literature Search, and Data Bank Search Worksheets,
             Executive Summary, and Presentation, as well as the paper itself)
                       
Grading Criteria

A: Greatly Exceeds Expectations
Work at this level represents an outstanding level of performance.  Examples include the addition of extra references, information, etc. well beyond the level called for, exceptionally thoughtful analyses of theoretical and policy implications, unusual creativity in topic choice, etc.

B: Exceeds Expectations
Work at this level represents an above-average level of performance.  Examples include the addition of extra references, information, etc. beyond the level called for, or thoughtful analyses of theoretical and policy implications.

C: Meets Expectations
Work at this level represents the minimum level of performance called for in an assignment.

D: Needs Improvement
Work at this level does not meet the minimum level of performance for a particular assignment.  Examples would include failure to submit some of the worksheets connected with the paper or the in-class group activities, a paper or essay that is below the minimum page length required, a portfolio missing some of the required sections, etc.

Plagiarism
It is assumed that all students will adhere to accepted norms of academic integrity.  Specifically, copying or allowing to be copied one’s paper or worksheets, and plagiarizing from published or web-based sources will render the offender liable for a failing grade on that assignment or test.

 

Course Calendar

Each week’s seminar session will be divided into two parts: an input session (I) focused on job opportunities or skill development, and either a work session (W) or a discussion/brainstorming session (D).

Session                               Activities                                                          

(I) Introduction, course requirements   IUPUI Principles of Undergraduate Learning
(W) Brainstorming Session: "What do you want to do when you graduate? And how will your Sociology Major fit in?"

(I) Job Opportunities (Dr. James Wolf, Public Opinion Research Center) Careers in Clinical Sociology
(W) Brainstorming Session: Choosing Research Topics
 
(I) Types of Sociological Writing                                              
(W) Pick and critique research topic, in line with reflective essay  

Library session: Advanced library research techniques
(I) Jennifer Hehman, SLA Library Liaison
(W) Library searches linked to research topics

(I) Jobs for Sociology Graduates I: Criminal Justice (Lt. Donald Bender, IPD)
(W) Share and evaluate sources.                                  

(I) Presentation on Data Banks   SAVI: Sharon Kandris, Polis Center; ICPSR: TBA
(W) Data Searches linked to research topics

(I) Jobs for Sociology Graduates II: Health Fields (Dr. Dean Babcock, Midtown Mental Health &
                                            Dr. Thomas Fisher, IUPUI Occupational Therapy)
(W) Focused Research Problem Searches

(I) Jobs for Sociology Graduates III: Labor and Work (Dr. Peter Seybold, IUPUI)
(W) Informational Interviewing

(I) Jobs for Sociology Graduates IV:      Field Trip: Walker Research                

(I) Presentation on JagJobs Services    Embarking upon a Career OR Mastering the Job Market
                                           (Thomas Cook, Director, JagJobs)                              
(W)Writing Resumes and Cover Letters to highlight sociological skills

(I) Presentation on Graduate School Dr. Carrie Foote-Ardah, Director, Sociology Graduate Program, IUPUI
(W) Critiquing each other’s resumes and cover letters

(I) Tonja L. Eagan, CEO Girls, Inc.                       
(W) Developing Executive Summaries                                      

(I) Writing Grant Proposals      Tim Seiler, The Fundraising School
(W) Writing and critiquing grant proposals

Student Presentations       Reflective Essay Revision and Portfolio Construction