About

A Capstone seminar is an intensely personal experience for seniors. Yet it is just as intensely a shared experience with their peers and professor. The seminar is kept to about 15 students to promote that sharing. The format of the seminar combines a deep exploration of the self, with a disciplined academic exercise in substantive reading, writing, and discussion.

Each seminar prompts the student to look both backward and forward. It asks, "What have you made of your Boston College education? What has it made of you?" It also inquires, "How will you carry out the lifelong commitments you have begun to envision?" These questions go to the heart of the seniors' concerns. Thus Capstone seminars provide a place where students can ponder ultimate questions within a community of discourse.

The continuing success of the Capstone seminars demonstrates that the senior year is truly a "teachable moment." The seminars speak to the needs of that moment but also to the universal human need for reflection and spiritual development. The depth of this need may explain why students have made these among the most popular courses within the University.

We hope the Capstone seminars will equip students for their journeys as they leave Boston College, just as the Capstone program enriches the life of the University itself.