What actually is the Capstone Course at Seattle University, and how does a student get the most out of this culmination of their graduate program experience? Kelli Rodriguez Currie, the director of our Master of Legal Studies and Sports Law Program at Seattle, was joined by fellow professor Frank DiMarino as well as some SU alumni to discuss the capstone and program as a whole in a recent webinar. This blog captures the most prescient insights.
Kelli Rodriguez is not only the Director of the MSL and Sports Law programs at SU, but is also an alum of Seattle University School of Law. She earned her JD and Master of Sports Administration and Leadership here and has been on faculty and staff mostly ever since.
Professor Frank DiMarino has been a professor in the Compliance And Risk Management program since 2020 and calls it a deeply enriching experience. He not only teaches the capstone course, but also Foundations of Privacy Law, and Corporate Compliance and Ethics. Prior to coming on board with Seattle University, Frank was a federal prosecutor for 20 years.
Margo Kashaza is an Assistant Director of Product Compliance and has been employed by PACCAR Inc. for 22 years. She recently graduated from the compliance and risk management program at SU and is excited for her upcoming career advancements.
Julie O’Brien graduated in December, 2022, in the same class as Margo. She works in healthcare compliance and is delighted to help support current and future SU students in any way she can.
Getting to the Capstone
The Capstone course falls, logically, at the very end of the program. It’s one of the last 2 classes that SU students take after their years of study, and it aims to synthesize the materials
learned and worked through over the duration of the program. Since SU has always been purpose-driven, the goal is to create learning outcomes that students will be able to use in their professions by taking their learned knowledge and the skills and immediately applying them in a job involving compliance or risk management.
The program curriculum begins with 6 courses. After those foundational courses, students are able to select 5 electives and therefore tailor their education to their specific interests. Once 11 courses are completed, they’re ready for the capstone.
What Is the Purpose of the Capstone Course?
The capstone integrates the knowledge and skills that students have gained throughout their SU educational journey, but with a practical application: students select a real-world problem to analyze, research, and solve. Frank says, “It gives them an opportunity to really reflect on what they have learned throughout the program and see how the information that they have gathered through this program can be leveraged to advance their professional career.”
Best of all, the capstone becomes part of your professional portfolio. SU graduates are able to showcase their work to a potential employer and prove their ability to solve a problem related to compliance or risk management. It’s a tangible project, and one that the students chose for themselves in alignment with their interests and passions. It’s a rewarding project when students can select a topic or a subject that really interests them, that they have a passion about, and that will be able to drive their career forward.
Tailor Your Project to Your Passion
Margo chose and worked on a project involving environmental social governance, or ESG. ESG operates within the view that sustainability extends beyond just environmental issues, a framework that helps stakeholders understand how an organization is managing risks and opportunities related to environmental, social and governance criteria. Naturally, these risks and opportunities involve compliance. “The overall deliverable of my project was a list of factors and related questions we asked ourselves as a company to assess our ESG status.”
Julie, meanwhile, chose a very different project –– due diligence in mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the healthcare space. Healthcare is changing drastically, and with those changes come plenty of risks to manage. “My vision,” she says, “was to create a customizable checklist that’s focused on healthcare space to help an entity that’s entering into an acquisition to assess that acquisition target and the effectiveness of their program.” SU’s capstone allowed her to do that.
Challenges and Successful Outcomes
It was a definite challenge to tackle such big projects about comprehensive subjects, and all from a very high level. “I asked for a lot of help,” Margo says with humility. “Professor DiMarino was awesome at saying, ‘okay, let’s take a smaller bite.’” Julie adds that, “I learned how to be flexible. Think outside the box and be flexible with your time.”
Both Margo and Julie have employed these projects and lifelong skills in their post-graduate work, reiterating the value of not just the credentials of the degree program, but also the Capstone course. The resulting project isn’t just for show; “I’ve used it,” Julie assures. “I think it was 3 weeks ago.”
All in all, don’t worry if you hit a rough patch in your degree, or the capstone in particular. You have a support system and motivation. Just keep going, as Margo says,“one assignment at a time. You’re going to make it.”
