The Capstone Experience: Building on a Culmination of Knowledge and Relationships

The Capstone Experience is Soka University of America’s year-long undergraduate project, designed as the culmination of the knowledge and skills acquired from the institution’s liberal arts education. Typically done during fourth year, the project requires students to become intimately familiar with a topic of their choice and write a dissertation.

Students first enroll in the Capstone 390 course for a semester, picking a mentor from the SUA faculty to help guide them through their project or to plan their project proposal. They then enroll in Capstone 400 and 450 as they conduct research and begin writing.

The Capstone Experience gives students the opportunity to grow as writers and critical thinkers. Students may investigate any subject as long as it relates to their concentration, encouraging interdisciplinary study. All students are potentially eligible for grants, furthering the possibilities for research. The breadth and depth of capstone projects are vast, giving students the freedom to pursue topics they are passionate about.

For Skyler Wolf ’22, capstone was an opportunity to blend their passion for horror films and Japanese culture. Wolf decided to examine the genre of Japanese horror films through a feminist lens after taking Professor John Kehlen’s courses on world cinema and Japanese cinema.

“It was immediately apparent to me that discussion of gender is not a side piece of Japanese horror films—it is the core content of horror, from the very beginning,” Wolf said of their capstone “‘This is the Happiness of Being a Woman’: the Representation of Womanhood in a Century of Japanese Horror Film.”

By evaluating the films in the context of gendered power relations, Wolf has defied the assumption of many film critics that the genre does not warrant deep analysis. “Ultimately, what I’ve come to realize is that it’s so important to look at these areas of movies, literature, art,” Wolf said, “…that people have said are worthless and just don’t meet the standard of ‘high art’.”

Wolf’s capstone project has directly affected their life trajectory. After graduating, they will attend the University of British Columbia to continue Japanese language studies. They plan to obtain a Master’s in Asian Studies and study in Yokohama, Japan in the second year of the program to improve their language skills.

Bijesh Thapa ‘22 also integrated capstone research into their future plans. Thapa, who is interested in becoming a market analyst, studied the US banking industry for their capstone, “Post-Merger Asset Returns in the US Banking Industry.”

Noting that the top four banks in the US now control approximately 60% of the country’s total banking assets, Thapa investigated how the industry arrived at its current state and the effects of mergers on the assets of large banks. Thapa analyzed the Federal Reserve Board’s database for the banks’ asset data and a government document used to approve bank mergers and acquisitions.

“These four banks basically direct the whole industry,” Thapa said. “And we could come up with better legislation for regulating the mergers…mergers do not necessarily lead to better cost-effectiveness.”

Thapa grew familiar with the market economy when they worked as a stock broker for their grandmother in their home country of Nepal. They became interested in the similarities and differences between the banking systems of Nepal and the US. Thapa claims that unlike Nepal, large banks in the US have a significant influence on the international economy, making their share in assets carry even more weight.

Another student invested in the global impacts of their field of inquiry is Saanika Joshi ’23, who chose to write about women’s healthcare. Joshi, one of several third-year students who started their capstone project a semester early, enrolled in Capstone 390 so they could study abroad during the fall semester of their fourth year. As a self-identified woman and aspiring doctor, they have a strong desire to highlight the experiences of women.

“The goal is…inspiring change even locally as I move forward, fostering a better environment for care, and also looking at the intersectionality of this particular topic in women’s health,” Joshi said. “It’s a completely different kind of care. And it’s a new kind of medicine.”

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joshi observed that many women expressed their oftentimes traumatic healthcare experiences online. They plan to use social media content and interview physicians about women’s health to examine the biases and discrimination that pervade the healthcare system. Joshi believes that by doing this research, they will better understand their motivations for becoming a doctor while also raising awareness about important social issues in healthcare.

What sets capstone apart from senior-year projects at other universities is the close mentor-mentee relationship. Soka’s 7:1 student-to-faculty ratio allows for a high degree of individualization. By working directly with faculty members, students can make connections that last beyond their time at the university. All of the interviewees agreed that their mentors were crucial to not only their dissertations, but their personal success.

“Dr. Kevin Moncrief has inspired me tremendously by his work, by his character, [and] by his interests,” Thapa said.

Reflecting on their work with Professor Kehlen, Wolf said, “He’s given me so much personal and life advice that I really treasure. And I know that John Kehlen is the type of mentor [who] does not stop mentoring me when I leave Soka.”

—Isa Queano ’23