What is Capstone??

Capstone is a project that really puts into perspective the full extent of your abilities in a certain field. It allows you to develop and idea and then take action on that idea throughout a semester. It then not only becomes a finished product that you receive course credit for, but it is also the most prized piece in your portfolio. It allows a future employer to see what your passions are and what you are capable of doing. This is a project to not only do something that you already have the knowledge to do, but also learn new things along the way and figure out new ways to accomplish your end goal.

Ideas for Capstone

I have already decided what I would like my capstone project to be. I am planning on making a documentary film on rock climbing. I have thought about many different ways to go about this. At first I just wanted to do the classic climbs of the midwest and travel around to all of the spots that I have been and film the famous routes that are there. I then decided that, that would be a little to time consuming considering I would have to travel to many different places throughout one semester. I then narrowed it down doing the classic routes in the Red River Gorge of Kentucky which is one of the most popular spot in the country to climb. That is also a place that I visit regularly to climb. As I thought about different ways to start putting that together I couldn't think of a way to make it different from climbing films that are already out there. I started to dig deeper and finally came up with an idea to focus on one spot at the Gorge and not only focus on climbing there, but the land, the politics, and the ecology of the land. This film is going to be made to help raise awareness about Muir Valley, which is a piece of land in the Gorge that is privately owned. This piece of land is open to the public to climb but over the past couple of years it has not been taken care of by the climbers that use it. Bringing awareness to these different issue will help preserve the climbing area and allow climbers to continue climbing there since the land is privately owned.