CVSR Minor Capstone Essay

For students planning to graduate in Spring 2026, the capstone essay is due Friday, March 27, 2026.

The final requirement of the Minor in Civic and Social Responsibility is the capstone essay, written during the semester in which you will complete the minor requirements. In this essay, you will reflect on the intersection of theory and practice as you have completed your minor courses and engagement in the community.

Formatting & Submission: Complete each of the three parts below. Your essay needs to be typed, double-spaced, and in a standard font. Submit your essay as a Word doc or PDF by emailing it to [email protected]. (Note: Please send the actual file and not a OneDrive link to the file.) The minimum word count is 1,200 words. For citations, you may use Chicago, MLA, or APA style.

Part 1

For each of your Foundations, Social Justice, and Elective courses, write a brief paragraph (at least 150 words) in which you discuss: (A) The 2-3 most important things you learned from the course, and (B) how the course changed your perspective on the main subject/topic of the course. 

Then, for Intro to Community Organizing, write a brief paragraph (at least 150 words) in which you discuss: (A) How an organizing approach is different from both a service approach and an advocacy approach, and (B) any 2 core principles that guide how effective organizers work within a community.

Part 2 

From your community engagement experience - whether it was 1 internship and 1 community engagement course or 2 internships - write about 2 key moments from which you learned a lot about how to enhance well-being and equity in the community. These may be moments of success, failure, relationship-building, discovery - whatever moments had the biggest impact on you. For each moment, write at least 200 words in which you discuss (A) what happened and (B) what you learned from it.

Part 3

Based on your courses and your community engagement, write at least 200 words answering the following: What are some important things you, as a member of society, have a responsibility to do during your life, in order to enhance well-being and equity in your community (or communities), on a local or national/global scale, or any scale between? And why are these things important to do?