SAGES | Capstone

Welcome to the SAGES Capstone Website 

This site offers detailed information about the CWRU SAGES Capstone program. Updated 6/9/2011.

General Information

SAGES requires that students actively participate in a carefully crafted learning experience that gives them the opportunity to integrate, practice and demonstrate the skills they developed and honed through the SAGES curriculum and their major/minor studies at CWRU. A successful capstone is the ultimate target of the general education requirement. CWRU students must be able to define a problem or question and produce a thoughtful and creative response to that issue. The capstone provides active participation that requires students to practice analytical and practical skills already learned and apply them to a specific project. In this way, their skills move beyond the classroom environment and begin to replicate the environment of the “world of work,” thus engaging the student in forms of analysis and articulation that are distinct from the classroom, and giving them a sense of accomplishment in the participation of their own research or creative initiative. 

The formal SAGES capstone program is based on courses offered by individual academic departments within the university.  These courses may vary widely in nature, as deemed appropriate for various disciplines by the department offering each course.  Some SAGES capstone courses will involve individual research while others are based on group design projects.  Some courses may be similar to an advanced seminar while others will require live performances or other creative endeavors.  In some courses, faculty will define the topic on which a course is based while other courses will provide students the option - or even the requirement  - of doing work based on their own ideas.  There are, however, some unifying principles for all SAGES capstones. Across the university, SAGES capstones must include:

  • Critical thinking on the part of the student.
  • Clear goals with an appropriate plan of action.
  • Regular oversight by the project adviser.
  • Periodic reporting of progress.
  • Regular writing (e.g. drafts, progress reports, critiques) throughout the project including a final written report which may be a thesis or equivalent document associated with the project or activity, (e.g., such pursuits as performance, experiment, live case analysis, or creative writing), as approved by the department of capstone origin.
  • A public presentation at the Senior Capstone Fair, a conference, a performance, a public lecture, a teaching presentation, or other, as approved by the department of capstone origin.

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