About the Institute

News & Events

People at the Institute

Academics

Admissions & Financial Aid

Student Services

Research & Outreach

Alumni Services

Career Services

Employment Opportunities

Conference Center

Contact Humphrey Institute

Search Humphrey Website

Humphrey Institute Home

"Linking students with community clients"

A Resource for Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Does your organization have a public policy or planning problem that requires research, analysis, and innovative thinking? The Humphrey Institute provides an innovative resource to help public and nonprofit organizations with targeted, practical, applied research needs. It's called the Capstone Workshop. The workshop links the skills and services of second-year graduate student teams with the real needs of clients.

Capstone Workshop Overview

Each year Humphrey Institute instructors select substantive projects for external clients to be completed by small teams of Humphrey Institute students. Students receive three credits for successfully completing this option. Students electing the workshop option must complete three separate products:

1. a written report for the client;
2. an oral presentation to the client that summarizes the major findings from the report;
3. a reflection paper on the workshop experience.

A Client-based Workshop

Capstone Workshops are designed to provide a learning opportunity for Humphrey graduate students in their second year to apply their knowledge through a client-based team project. The requirements for a client-based team project vary for MURP, MPP, and MPA students.

• Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) students must do a team project AND an individual professional paper. The Capstone Workshop meets the requirements for a team project, but the MURP students also must complete a separate professional paper. MURP students who desire to use the workshop topic as a basis for their individual professional paper should consult with their adviser and the workshop instructor.

• Master of Public Policy (MPP) and Masters of Science and Technology Policy (MS) students must do a professional paper, which be either an individual professional paper OR a team project. In this case the Capstone Workshop team report (including a reflective paper) meets the requirements for the MPP professional paper.

• Master of Public Affairs (MPA) students are required to take the four-credit Synthesis Workshop (offered for eight weeks in the summer). They may substitute a Capstone Workshop for the requirement but must do one extra credit of work to meet the MPA program’s four-credit requirement, since the Capstone Workshop is a three-credit course. The one-credit team Project Planning Workshop (PA 8190) meets this requirement.

Students with questions about how the Capstone Workshop applies in their situation, should consult with their academic adviser.

Capstone Workshops Cover Many Topics

The Humphrey Institute offers a number of Capstone Workshops in different topical areas from education to economic development to nonprofit management. To see examples of recent Capstone Workshops visit examples. To learn more about specific workshops review the syllabi (PA 8002, PA 8081, PA 8183, PA 8583) or contact the instructor.

How to Propose a Capstone Workshop

If you are an organization with a project you wish to propose, please send a brief description of the your proposed project to Stacey Grimes at grime004@umn.edu. Capstone Workshops are conducted in fall and spring but most Capstone Workshops are conducted during the spring semester from January through May. Instructors typically select client projects throughout the year. Instructors usually select client projects between October and December for spring semester Capstone Workshops.

For more information, please contact:

Stacey Grimes at grime004@umn.edu or (612) 626-1329.