Final Reflection Essay

Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to step back from the week-by-week
processes with which they crafted their Capstone Project and to consider the course holistically.
This assignment echoes the first writing assignment for the course and allows students to
consider what they’ve learned and how that learning has affected them.

When we started this course, you were asked to reflect on what brought you to the course and
how you would move forward. At that point, you had little course content to reflect upon and
were only beginning your experience in this course. We’ve come a long way together since that
first reflection paper, and now you are asked to reflect again upon the course, with the fullness
of your HUM 3910 experience supporting your thoughts.

Instructions:
Be sure to answer each bullet point below; however, you do not have to answer each question
inside each bullet point. Focus on the most applicable to you and your experiences.

Content:
● How has interdisciplinarity functioned in this course and in your work on your capstone
project? Which different academic disciplines—your major and others—have informed
your work? What have you learned from classmates about their academic disciplines?
Has exposure to the different perspectives and interrogations of the academic
disciplines enriched your thinking and contributed to your course project? Why or why
not?
● Your exploration of ethics in this course has suggested, I hope, that ethics is not an
abstract, “philosophical” concept or a luxury for people who don’t have real tasks ahead
of them but a guiding star that can and should lead us as we work on the real tasks in
our lives. What have you learned about incorporating ethics into your decision making
and your actions? What have you learned about the role of ethics in professional life?
What have you learned about your personal ethic?
● This course purports to help prepare students for a professional life. How has it done
that? What lessons and skills, evidenced in your development and articulation of your
capstone project, can serve you in your professional career? How has the utilization of
the Career Resource Center, as well as creating a LinkedIn profile, enhanced your
awareness and application of professionalism in your writing/language choices? In your
behavior?
 ● How do you now (after engaging in ethical dilemmas and creating solutions) define your
own civic identity?
● After engaging with your discipline’s/field’s ethical views and creating a proposal to
tackle an issue in said discipline/field, what do you feel is your responsibility, as a
member of a community, to continue your civic engagement in the future? How do you
plan to utilize the civic knowledge gained in this course to impact your social and/or
professional communities?
o Note: If you have taken SOC 3050, you may also reflect on how your experience
in this course relates to your experience engaging in your service-learning
project.

Formatting Expectations:

● 2-3 pages, double-spaced, 12-font, Times New Roman (Do not be afraid to exceed the
suggested length of 2-3 pages!)
● APA document formatting and citations (You are not required to incorporate outside
sources, but if you do, cite them appropriately)
● Reflection papers can be quite personal (first-person pronouns welcome!), but this is
still a college-level paper, so spelling, grammar, and mechanics “count.”

Strategies for good writing:

● Develop your body paragraphs with plenty of discussion; personal experience,

examples, and analogies help your reader understand your thinking.
● Organize your paper and use transitional words and phrases to lead your reader through
its pathway.
● Be honest; if you don’t quite know something or haven’t quite decided something, it is
good to acknowledge that fact.
● Remember that the goal of writing this paper is two-fold: to help you clarify your
thinking as you embark on this capstone course and to let your reader know you.

It has been a pleasure to work with you in this capstone course, and I look forward to reading
your course-ending reflection.