For over three decades, the Capstone Program at Boston College has enabled seniors to engage in self-reflection through a small fleet of highly demanded courses.
But now, the program is expanding, offering more opportunities for seniors to take the introspective journeys the courses promise.
“I think that the topics that will be found in these courses are so relevant to second-semester seniors,” said Ethan Sullivan, senior associate dean of the Carroll School of Management. “This is such an important and meaningful time in their life, it’s a chance to really dive into it and not just let the days go by without doing some of that discernment.”
The Office of the Provost sent out a proposal to faculty and administration last February requesting ideas for courses and co-curricular activities that could encourage seniors to reflect on their growth at BC.
After calling a committee to review and narrow down the proposals, the new courses are set to launch this spring.
“This initiative, I would say, is twofold,” Sullivan said. “One is to have more options for seniors, given the interest. And two, I think we’ve put a lot of innovation into the first year in terms of courses and programs, and we wanted to have more of an emphasis on that transition for seniors as well.”
Elizabeth Bracher, director of BC’s Courage to Know program and new director of the expanded Capstone Program, said the program will offer multiple options to fit students’ needs and course schedules.
Seniors will have the opportunity to take one-credit, two-credit, and three-credit courses, some of which will be upper-level electives in departments like economics, philosophy, and film studies, as well as co-curricular programs and opportunities.
Bracher said she sees this expansion as an exciting new chapter for the program.
“We are still very much in the pilot stage, and we’re hoping that these new courses not only excite seniors in their fourth year, but also excite the instructors of these courses,” Bracher said.
Guided by Jesuit principles and the university’s mission, the initiative aims to equip students with the tools they need as they transition from college to life beyond the Heights.
“It’s not just a senior class,” Bracher said. “There’s something qualitatively different about a Capstone course. The Capstone course is meant to give seniors the opportunity to be attentive to their BC academic experience and their outside-of-the-classroom experience, and then reflect on the meaning that it has in their life as they leave Boston College.”
Similarly, Sullivan explained that the spring semester is an important time for senior students to focus on who they are and how this will impact the lives they lead after BC.
“The opportunity right there to dive into these ideas and topics is going to lend meaning to [seniors’] experience looking backward and looking forwards,” Sullivan said.
According to Sullivan, co-curricular programs will encourage seniors to reflect on their growth and consider how they will contribute to society after graduation.
“One really interesting proposal is for a conference for seniors, a leadership conference, [which] I think will look a little bit like an adulting class,” Sullivan said. “Some of the topics will be about your spiritual development and your personal development. Others will be things like, how do you find an apartment, how do you move to a new city?”
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Akua Sarr said the program was an effort of collaboration across different University sectors.
“There are a number of learning objectives, including an interdisciplinary perspective where students will explore the connections and intersections between diverse academic disciplines,” Sarr said. “So, courses that involve collaborative efforts of faculty from across departments were strongly encouraged.”
