Student Reflections

What’s the most significant benefit you derived from your Capstone Project?

• Gaining a more thorough understanding of the media industry and corporate ethics.  I learned enough to know that I want to know more.
• Research devoted exclusively to one topic.
• Knowing that I’m capable of taking a project from start to finish.
• Getting involved with a community organization.
• Having the ability to choose how you want to dedicate your 6 credit hours toward something meaningful to you is the best way to spend your time in college.
• Forcing myself to create and maintain a personal work schedule for the project.
• Teaching me how to do independent work better.
• In-depth subject matter.
• Sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.
• Ability to make decisions regarding the planning, preparing, and starting of my own business.
• Gaining a deeper understanding of a time and place that will inform my future fiction writing and other life interests.
• The writing experience will be valuable in future writing endeavors.
• Integrating the various topics I studied in the BIS program.
• Learning about organization dynamics and growing as a leader along the way.
• Ability to work with some really amazing people.
• Becoming a “local expert” on a topic.
• Opportunity to use the research skills I had learned from my BIS classes.
• Learning that if I ask the right questions, I can find the right answers.
• Teaching me time management skills while honing my writing skills.
• Going beyond what I thought I could accomplish.
• Being hired based in part on my Capstone Project.

What was the most significant benefit you derived from your mentor relationship?

• My mentor truly made me understand that this is a worthwhile project.
• The mentor relationship is the key to success for the capstone. 
• Critiquing is an essential aspect of the mentor relationship. 
• Making me work really hard to set the deadline and lay out the steps I needed to take.
• Knowing that my mentor was familiar with my area of research and that I could ask relevant questions and expect relevant answers.
• Support and guidance, but not babysitting.
• Sharing the vision of how the student/mentor relationship will work.
  Quality feedback on research directions and writing style.
• Having a flexible relationship with my mentor.
• Having someone willing and ready to help.
• Encouragement and understanding from my mentor.
• My mentor was accessible and willing to go the extra mile when needed.
• A mentor who questioned my thought process and made me think about ideas that I did not have on my own.

Other Comments

• The Capstone was a painful, yet terrific experience. 

• It can be the most awful or greatest experience of the BIS requirement.  I found it a challenge (because I really do not like writing) as well as a joy because I got to read some really great books. 
• Having a schedule/timeline to meet the deadlines for the first draft, second draft, and final copy.
• The project has been a learning exercise in self-directed study/research.
• Higher feeling of accomplishment after a project like this than with any typical class.
• The organizational skills I learned will be with me forever.
• It’s a great way to cap our whole experience in the BIS program. 
• Early in my program, I questioned why we had to complete the Capstone Project.  It is only after completing the Capstone that I now understand the answer to that question.
• My experience with the BIS community has been “the best” educational experience in my whole life.
• Makes graduating all the more sweet knowing what an accomplishment you’ve just achieved.