Why Capstone?
In the School of Arts and Sciences, students enroll in one of three capstone courses: ART 214 (Portfolio and Resume), HUM 110 (Technology and Society), or HUM 115 (Critical Thinking), depending on their major program.
Students take a capstone course to reflect on their learning experiences while in their transfer program. They learn how to create an ePortfolio, or learning website, in one of their first courses at the college and complete it toward the end of their program. This website demonstrates their academic and personal knowledge by using college assignments to document their learning over time. ePortfolios demonstrate common skills for transfer as well as program specific skills. The Associate of Science degree includes mathematical literacy and scientific literacy while the Associate in Arts degree includes understanding the arts and the human experience and social scientific literacy.
Graduating from SPCC
Knowing oneself creates confidence and a sense of achievement. Students leave SPCC with the awareness of what they have accomplished and what they will do in the future. As they transfer to universities or begin careers, they have a website that can be shared with universities and employers.
Such experiences are the culmination of a student’s academic career and provide a means to reflect and celebrate one’s progress and prepare for post-graduation plans. For example, students in ART 214 prepare a portfolio of their artwork and create a resume to be used for transfer to four-year institutions or for an art-related career.
My work has always been about the joy that comes from creating. From when I could first hold a pencil until now, the creative process, the journey from sketch to final product, and the results of that process have always been something that has brought me immense joy. Despite how difficult it can be at times and how unfocused my work is, both in subject as well as in the process in which my work is created, it has always been something that I truly enjoy doing. The joy that comes from the creation of characters, stories, and compositions is something that I not only want to enjoy viewing and improving upon for myself, but for others as well, wanting to share that creative spark with others. For me, this is what art is, as well as what my work is, the pure joy and excitement that creating art brings me every time I pick up a pencil.
While my work might be unfocused, there are always some things that remain the same throughout, that being the creation of characters and compositions that I, and hopefully others, find pleasing to the eyes. Since I was in elementary school, and still to this day, I have always been a daydreamer, always going off into my own little world whenever I become bored, and as a result, have come up with all kinds of characters with their own worlds and stories, and while I currently do not have plans to put said stories to paper anytime soon, I still have fun with the characters, both within my head, as well as within my art. I enjoy finding new ways to portray them, coming up with new ideas all the time, and with that, comes composition. The composition can either elevate a piece, or tear it down, and making sure that the composition is pleasing to the eyes has always been of great importance to me within my art, as I want my work to be the best it can possibly be. Seeing pieces by artists such as Leigh Ellexson, Loish, and JelArts online have always inspired me, all three being very skilled in creating the compositions within their pieces, as well as portraying their subjects, JelArts and Loish having many characters they have created for their work, all being interesting and unique from each other. They give me inspiration to explore new themes and concepts within my work, both in character creation and composition. The inspiration I get from them, is what I hope I can maybe do for someone else one day.