A capstone course or project is the pinnacle of a student’s undergraduate career.  It demonstrates the most sustained, intellectually rigorous and thoroughly researched scholarship or creative invention a college student can do in specific discipline.

It’s an immensely valuable exercise, and the pride and sense of achievement students feel from delivering such exemplary products is powerful.

The springboard project, in a sense, opens up the “product” which is the capstone.

• A springboard project focuses on process, not product.
• A springboard project connects disciplines–because what you learned in chemistry doesn’t have to be completely divorced from what you learned in modern poetry.
• A springboard project includes consistent informal reflection–because part of doing research or creative work is the emotional toll, and the emotional rewards, of the work
• A springboard project faces outward–because global connections with interest-based communities are the heart of the doitocracy
• A springboard project is simultaneously retrospective and prospective–because learning is not limited by semesters

(what else will go on this list? That’s something we’ll decide together!)