MindWing Concepts Blog

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a recent trend in educational design, and involves presenting students with real-world contextual tasks that relate to curriculum areas. PBL is a great approach for Speech-Language Pathologists and Special Educators to employ as our students benefit from having their learning relate to personally relevant and functional content. To learn more about PBL, watch this great video from Common Craft. One tool that has been integrated as a kind of PBL is the “Webquest,” a set of web pages that outline a task and provide web-based resources for its completion. Webquests are not new, and teachers have been developing them for some time. There is a particular Webquest that I wanted to share with you in this post, particularly because it is one you could use in classroom, small group, or even individual language therapy while integrating Story Grammar Marker® and Thememaker® tools in the process.

The webquest I speak of is called the Tantalizing Adjectives Webquest, originally designed by Ann Ryan. The task presented is as follows:

You and your partner are very excited about having the opportunity to create a menu for your themed restaurant. Since this is a new experience for both of you, there are certain tasks that you will need to accomplish.

They include:

• Review the definition and types of adjectives
• Analyze and evaluate online menus
• Decide on the theme for your restaurant
• Choose the types of food you would like to serve
• Write descriptions using adjectives
• Use an online dictionary and/or thesaurus to improve word clarity
• Create a menu

Kids love food and going out to restaurants, and will be instantly excited when you present this task to them! The Webquest provides necessary links and resources on its “Process” page, but you can always feel free to supplement these as you’d like (a few suggestions to follow).

So, where does the SGM® come in? First of all, I use it to outline the scope of the project, and each session we recap our progress and what is left to do using the SGM®. This provides the students with multiple exposures to the icons and the “story” of our project.

Additionally, when you arrive at the stage of the project that provides models of themed restaurants, you can use the SGM®/Thememaker® Descriptive setting map in multiple activities. First of all, it provides a framework for breaking down the idea of “theme” so that students have a strong descriptive model of a realized theme. After reviewing the examples provided, students can complete a Descriptive Setting map for one of the restaurants.

In this part of the activity, I supplemented the Webquest by displaying two resources. First of all, there is a wonderful video describing T-Rex, a restaurant in Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida. This provides an example of a fully realized theme, and can be used with a Descriptive Setting map to model the process. Another fun extension activity is to look at the website for S’MAC in NYC. This macaroni-and-cheese themed restaurant provides yet more examples of strong menu descriptions, and you can introduce the concept of “teaser” and “clincher” statements within the descriptions here, e.g. “Be swept away by the Mediterranean Sea...” for Mediterranean Mac and Cheese. However, for decor, S’MAC is not really a realized theme, so you can have kids brainstorm what would improve it, yet again using a Descriptive Setting map. Mine came up with: cheese-shaped furniture and lighting, macaroni-shaped table legs, waitstaff dressed in yellow and orange, and a macaroni fountain!

After exploring themes with your students, you can have them work with their group to brainstorm themes and select a theme. The Thememaker List Map comes in handy here:

Later, students work to describe what their restaurant will look like, and begin to think about menu items, using a Setting Description Map:

I have done this project a number of times in the past, and making a traditional poster for the menu works quite well. However, this year I am thinking of using Glogster with the students to make the final project. I will plan to update you in a later post, hope this project was interesting to you. You can find a resource of other Webquests here.

Sean J. Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public school and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens and one of the editors of TherapyApp411.

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The holiday season creates a lot of excitement for our students, no matter what holiday they celebrate! This mood can lead to a lot of language and, of course, the opportunity to develop narrative using Story Grammar Marker®. In this post, I’ll be mentioning a couple of resources you can use to acknowledge the season (in varying degrees of sectarianism) while reinforcing use of narrative elements and SGM® icons.

The first is a brief Pixar-like animated short I stumbled across in my blog-surfing routines; I am so glad I found it! As I described in a previous post, wordless videos can be an engaging way to have students “fill in” the language that is not used in the video, while also identifying emotions signaled by nonverbal cues. Check out Impossible Present, a great complete episode narrative to map, especially with elementary aged students who can handle the “unexpected behaviors” (Social Thinking®) and the brief flash of kid-buttocks! It’s all good when a laser is involved, right?

Impossible Present from Royale on Vimeo.

This story can be mapped as follows or using an earlier developmental level of narrative (e.g. a simple action sequence or reaction sequence):

The video also presents a great opportunity to talk about expected reactions (modeling the icons used in a narrative reaction sequence) to receiving or, in this case, finding a gift, and perhaps place them on an Incredible 5-Point scale:

5- Extremely Negative Reaction (saying something rude about the gift)
4- Mildly Negative Reaction (e.g. “I already have one of these,” making “a face”)
3- Neutral Reaction (saying nothing)
2- Positive Reaction (smiling, saying “Thanks! I can use this to...)
1- Enthusiastic Reaction (“WOW!”)

For other holiday fun, check out the iPad/iPhone/iPod app ClickySticky Christmas Sticker Book ($1.99), which allows you to create all sorts of picture scenes with students, including the following:

• a decorated living room (think SGM® or Braidy® Setting map...)
• outdoor winter activity scenes with simple animations (SGM® or Braidy® Action Sequence map, anyone?)
• a customized snowman, Santa, or elves (what Characters to describe using SGM® or Braidy® Character Maps!)

Tap and Drag to assemble characters, then tap the Play button for subtle animations that will prompt action words...

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Sean J. Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public school and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens and one of the editors of TherapyApp411.

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Making the world a better place for children. That’s what an Easthampton woman has done through her work in helping children solve problems.

Maryellen Rooney Moreau is a speech and language pathologist. She was a professor at American International College and twenty years ago founded Mindwing Concepts, a business that creates tools to help children communicate better to solve problems and resolve conflict. Maryellen says, “The tools that I’ve created over the past many years, 20 years, that I’ve been a speech and language pathologist for over 35 years, and the focus has always been to help children who maybe have ideas in their head, but can’t get the ideas out. So to foster that in areas of reading and writing, but especially in the area of social communication.”

Maryellen has created a tool called the Story Grammar Marker. Her daughter, Sheila Moreau Pratt, is vice president of marketing and sales for Mindwing Concepts. She says, “It helps children to be able to tell stories, solve problems, think critically, communicate.”

It’s for her work that Maryellen is the recipient of the Boise Peace Quilt Lifetime Achievement Award. The project was started in 1982 by two mothers in Boise, Idaho. They made the first friendship peace quilt and sent it to people in what was then, the Soviet Union. There are 45 quilts now, given to people from all walks of life like Fred Rogers and Senator Frank Church. Gwynne McElhinney, a member of the Boise Peace Quilt Project says, “All of them share this idea that the world can be made a better place if each of us, in our own little patch of garden, our own backyard, think globally and act locally and look for conflict resolution.”

Maryellen received her quilt in Idaho back in October. A reception was held in Springfield Wednesday night to celebrate her milestone. McElhinney says the quilt has squares on it that were images that children drew, strategies to resolve conflict and they’ve been turned into fabric art

Maryellen now travels across North America training parents and teachers in methods to help children improve themselves in school and in life. Her passion to help children is making a difference. Maryellen says, “The reason I think I’ve made a difference is that I’ve given them a way to think through situations and be able to express those thoughts and plans and perspectives, just do everything that the piece quilt is a symbol of.”

MindWing Concepts is located at 1 Federal Street in Springfield at the STCC Technology Park. To learn more, call 866-851-2415 or check out their website, mindwingconcepts.com.

Watch Maryellen's Interview with WGGB

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Recently in the Mindwing Blog I featured the Story Patch iPad app, which allows students to create stories according to provided structures or from scratch, resulting in a text and picture-based booklet.

I wanted to follow up that post with a different digital storytelling app that provides an easy means to create and publish dynamic animated stories with spoken audio and music! The app I speak of is Toontastic (an absolute BARGAIN at $1.99), whose creators at Launchpad toys have sought to bridge the gap created when students who primarily express themseves through play are suddenly expected to write stories (i.e. that gap we call “First Grade”). Toontastic uses the iPad’s multitouch interface and a play-like context beautifully as students are guided to create as many scenes as are needed to tell their story. The app would be a great tool to use in order to teach narrative elements and organization using Braidy the StoryBraid™, Story Grammar Marker™, or the Mindwing Autism Collection and their associated manipulatives and story maps.

Here’s a visual tour of Toontastic for you:

Toontastic comes with an audio explanation of story structure that can be easily aligned with Story Grammar Marker®, as can be seen above. You can choose to create five different scenes in your animated movie, or just stick with one!

Choose a setting, then Character “Toys” to put into action! You can also draw your own settings and characters.

Character Toys themselves can be custom colored, then tapped and dragged around the screen.  Tap Start Animation and the app will record as you move the characters and speak to provide an audio narration and/or dialogue. The app will then play back your animated scene!

For each scene, you can pick a music soundtrack that corresponds with the mood of the situation, connecting actions with internal responses of the characters.

When you are done with as many scenes as you’d like to create, tap Done and you can give your movie a title and genre, and share on ToonTube, Toontastic’s online community, if you’d like.  The story is automatically also saved within the app.

Students will be excited to publish to ToonTube, where others can interact with their film by “liking” it.  ToonTube also features model animations that would be a great context for story mapping of others’ creations using the SGM and other tools!

I recently had the opportunity to chat via Skype with Andy Russell, one of the creators of Toontastic.  If you have a few minutes, it’s an interesting conversation about the background of the app, its creators’ sound belief in social interactionist (Vygotskian) language learning, and future plans for the app and Launchpad Toys.

I hope you’ll check out Toontastic- it’s a great app to add to your narrative toolbox!

Sean J. Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public school and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blogSpeechTechie: LookingatTechnologyThroughaLanguageLens and one of the editors of TherapyApp411.

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Join us for this live event on Tuesday, September 13, at 4:00 PM (EST)!

Register now for our FREE webinar, "Narrative Development: Beyond Story Grammar," presented by Maryellen Rooney Moreau, MEd, CCC-SLP, of MindWing Concepts, Inc.

Abstract: When we think about "narratives," we often only think about naming the parts of the story, sequencing actions and whether that story has a beginning, middle and end. Narrative development goes beyond the basic story. Instruction and intervention in narrative development can improve your students' skills in oral and written communication. Narrative development can help students with perspective-taking, problem solving, answering "why" questions, and comprehending and communicating the emotions, motivations and plans of characters in stories and in life's social interactions. It provides a way to teach the often elusive concepts of main idea, plot, cohesion, temporal and causal connections, and summarization. This type of instruction and intervention can help speech-language pathologists give every child - regardless of age, ability or culture - the skills to think, communicate and learn effectively in order to achieve academic and social success.

The following quote was in an article in the most recent publication of The ASHA Leader. It truly exemplifies and supports the methodology that Maryellen will be speaking about in Tuesday’s Webinar: “Oral narratives are a natural bridge between oral and literate language. Narrative skills and the language skills needed to produce quality narratives are interspersed throughout the Common Core Standards. One effective RTI approach for SLPs is to provide intervention focusing on narratives. The SLP provides Tier 1 supports in the classroom through modeled lessons with the whole class. In Tier 2/3, the SLP provides small group intensive intervention that simultaneously targets the story grammar and deficient language skills. Using oral narratives in an intervention model builds a foundation for the development of listening, speaking reading and writing.” – How to Fit Response to Intervention into a Heavy Workload, The ASHA LEADER, August 30, 2011 Vol. 16, No. 10.

About the Presenter: Maryellen Rooney Moreau, MEd, CCC-SLP, founder and president of MindWing Concepts, Inc., in Springfield, MA, is a speech-language pathologist and a nationally recognized presenter in the area of oral language development - specifically story grammar, narrative development and expository text. She received her bachelor's degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and her master's of education degree in Communication Disorders from Pennsylvania State University. Maryellen's 40-year professional career includes time spent as a school-based speech-language pathologist in the Hartford Public Schools; assistant professor at American International College; diagnostician at the Curtis Blake Child Development Center; and coordinator of Intervention Curriculum and Professional Development at the Curtis Blake Day School for children with language learning disabilities, all in Springfield, MA. She created the Story Grammar Marker® and Braidy the StoryBraid® after years of research and practice, and was awarded two United States Patents. Her methodology, which encompasses narrative development and expository text, helps children across the globe to think, communicate and learn!

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Over the summer I had the kind of “Kickoff” that we all hope to avoid in the course of our ho-hum days. It was a 95-degree school day and I was leaving one setting to go to my private practice and run a social skill group. As I opened my passenger side door to put my bag in the car, an oppressive blast of heat enveloped me. I decided stupidly that it would be a good idea to lean over and start the car so the A/C could have, you know, a millisecond to cool down the car as I walked around toward the driver side. Of course when I got there the door had locked automatically, as it had on the other side. Ugh.

As I stewed in the heat waiting for the auto club to help me out, I thought about the group I had to run shortly (with a dwindling amount of time to actually get there), and how using Story Grammar Marker® and sharing this story could possibly help them when I arrived. I find that when we open up to kids a bit and share real-life stories, their engagement level often increases as they realize that we are actually real people who make silly mistakes and have Kickoffs just like they do. Having received a preview of Mindwing’s upcoming new book, Facilitating Relationships, I also realized that my story could use what is called a Social Problem Solving Prompt, a key intervention outlined in the new book (and supported by the National Autism Center in its recommendation for story-based interventions). In this new book there are 18 different Social Problem Solving Prompts for social situations to help your students to recognize, think about and talk about a social situation including, characters, settings, kick-offs, feelings, conflicts, plans, perspectives and consequences.

When I got to our therapy center 10 minutes late, my graduate student had skillfully and promptly started group (see below for how this occurred), and they were sharing their own weekly news over snack. It seemed a good time to share my news, and I had grabbed a Student Story Grammar Marker as I passed a treatment room. “So, I have a story for you...” I started, and relayed the setting and Kickoff. A good teaching point immediately ensued when one of the boys shouted out “HA HA!” I cued him that while my positive body language while relaying the story could give him a clue that it was OK to smile and laugh a bit WITH me, what he had just done was more in the realm of teasing and made me think an annoyed thought! From there, my story really became a Problem Solving Prompt and an interactive discussion as I asked the boys a lot of questions while using the SGM for visual support:

How do you think I felt? Hot, annoyed, worried, angry were some suggestions.

Which Unthinkable can you guess almost got in my brain? Glass Man, who makes us overreact to problems and SHATTER! (See Michelle Garcia Winner and Stephanie Madrigal’s Superflex™ Curriculum)
Can you guess what my plan was? (This one took some scaffolding to elicit that my plan was to get into my car and get to group on time, or get the message to the center that someone needed to start group for me).

We then talked through what my problem solving steps were. Here’s a preview of what that could look like using one of the Prompts from Facilitating Relationships:

In effect, something as simple as my silly keys story could provide a quick teachable moment that touched on a lot of goals for this particular group: narrative organization, social inference, self-regulation, self-talk, problem solving and interpersonal skills, among others.

Additionally, we all got to talk about what my “Note To Self” should be (see Sara Ward’s excellent work on this concept) after this experience: Don’t start the car unless you are seated in the driver’s seat!

Sean J. Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public school and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens and one of the editors of TherapyApp411.

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Are you looking for a fun summer get-away with a purpose? How about a trip to scenic New England?

A few out of state colleagues asked, “What could my family do if they came with me and I attended both of your workshops this summer?”

So, we put together a sample itinerary we thought we’d share:

• You could fly into Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT on the weekend of July 16/17. (Make sure to rent a car that has GPS so that you will have no problems finding your way around New England!)
• Over the weekend into Monday, you could drive to New York City, it is about 90 minutes from there. Here is a link (http://www.iloveny.com/) to help you navigate the many attractions including: Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Time Square, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, and maybe even catch a Broadway Musical!
• Monday night, July 18th, you can stay in the Cromwell Crowne Plaza hotel (where our workshop The Social-Academic Connection: Story-Based Intervention for Social Communication & Social Learning Challenges) is being held on Tuesday.
• Tuesday, July 19th, if you have kids, they would probably enjoy the day at the pool while you are in the workshop and there is also an on-site restaurant for lunch. For other options, you could call the hotel and speak with the concierge… here is the link to that hotel: http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/cp/1/en/hotel/CMLCT/welcome?start=1.
• Wednesday July 20th, on your way to drive up to Natick via Rt. 95, you could spend some time at the beautiful CT beaches such as Old Lyme, Old Saybrook or Mystic OR Mystic Seaport (Museum of America and the Sea) http://www.mysticseaport.org/ or Mystic Aquarium http://www.mysticaquarium.org/ . Here is another link for ideas in Massachusetts and Connecticut: http://www.visitnewengland.com/ .
• Thursday, July 21st is the workshop in Natick, MA Narrative and Expository Writing with the Story Grammar Marker®. Here is the link for the Hampton Inn Natick hotel (where the workshop is being held): http://www.hamptoninn.com/en/hp/hotels/maps_directions.jhtml?ctyhocn=BOSNTHX . If you have kids, during the workshop they could hang out at the pool and Natick Mall is very close; they could take the hotel shuttle. Natick Mall- http://www.natickcollection.com/
• Friday July 22nd, you could head to Boston. There are so many things to do there: The New England Aquarium, multiple museums, Boston Common, the State House, Fanueil Hall, the Freedom Trail, Boston Harbor, Fenway Park (where the Red Sox play), etc. You can even take ferries to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Islands. Look on the Massachusetts tab at http://www.visitnewengland.com/ for more attractions. Cape Cod, Hampton Beach and coastal Maine are fantastic places to visit if you have the chance!
• At the end of the weekend you can head back to Hartford for your flight home.

We hope to see you in July!

REGISTER FOR WORKSHOPS

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There have been a number of apps for iOS (iPad/iPod/iPhone operating system) that have been released in recent months that seem like they were created for use with Story Grammar Marker! Digital Storytelling apps such as Story Patch allow children to create stories while having an emphasis on narrative structure, with choices about character, setting and actions. Students with language disorders will need assistance with organizing, expanding, and adding complexity to their narrative and sentence structure, and that is where you and the SGM come in!

In this video, I give a quick walkthrough of Story Patch (iPad only, currently only $.99- yes, that’s 99 CENTS) and its choices for story creation. You’ll see how its “Create a Story with Help” mode is a great opportunity to link the choices students can make with narrative icons they can begin to internalize. The open-ended story creation mode is a blank slate offering countless choices to work at varying narrative levels, levels of detail and story length. The text tool allows you to take the language in unlimited directions supported by the pictures you choose. Story Patch could even be adapted to support expository language, especially since the allows you to insert pictures saved from the Internet or with your camera.

Mindwing is currently working on developing an app specific to the methodology of its tools. In the meantime, there are quite a number of apps that can be easily adapted to teach narrative and expository language. Enjoy the video!

Link to video: http://youtu.be/8fwQlp3dcp0

Sean J. Sweeney, MS, MEd, CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public school and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens and one of the editors of TherapyApp411.

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April is Autism Awareness Month, and I wanted to highlight one of my favorite tools that I employ with students with autism spectrum and related disorders: The Incredible 5-Point Scale by Kari Dunn Baron and Mitzi Curtis. The 5-Point Scale is a tool designed to help students understand the confusing, emotional and language-heavy range of human behaviors by boiling it all down to a scale of 1-5. The approach is very versatile and can be applied to many situations and target behaviors, such as emotional state, voice volume or scales to help students grade their responses to everyday occurrences such as a “Participation Scale” within the classroom.

The original 5-Point Scale book models how to use the tool as an affective scale, with 1 being “fine” and 5 reflecting an “out of control” feeling.

Where you want the student to “be” on the scale can depend on the scale- in general, a 5 is always bad, but your target level may not always be a 1. In the example of the Participation Scale, when setting up the range with the student, you might describe a 1 as disengaged and “tuned out” in class. A 5, then would be “dominating” and thus the target level would be a 3- “listening and making comments appropriately.” It all depends how you want to apply it!

What the Incredible 5-Point Scale allows you to do is reduce the language load on your students while teaching them a strategy that can be carried over into many situations. It provides a way to give simple and quick feedback (without power struggles): “You’re at a 4 right now. Let’s move that down to a 3.” Additionally, you can continue to scaffold and build language by associating the simple numbers and labels with more complex descriptions of emotions and social behaviors. The 5-Point Scale is wonderfully “sharable”; once you create one with a student or group, it can easily be applied in their classroom or home setting by a teacher or parent, somewhat like an advanced social story.

The 5-Point Scale also is wonderfully complementary if you are using Story Grammar Marker with your students, because many scales can be constructed around (and teach variations according to) narrative elements such as Setting, Kick-Off and Reaction. Take, for example, a scale designed to help students gauge and react to problems (Based on Michelle Garcia Winner’s “Big Problem, Little Problem” strategy in her Think Social curriculum):

On the first page of my document above, you can see how the Problem Scale has been aligned with Story Grammar Marker by using the icons (perhaps a great use of the Universal Magnet Set) for Kick-Off- meaning the kind of Kick-Off or problem one is encountering- and Reaction. The scale thus shows 5 kinds of problems and an expected reaction. In the second scale, you can see that the scale has been applied to a particular setting- Halloween night in the neighborhood. The kids I worked with all generated the Kick-Offs at each level of problem- a very engaging activity for them and a good preview of the holiday. The Kick-Off and Reaction icons provided an additional connection recently when I developed a “Negativity Scale” and we discussed 5 different Reactions to the same Kick-Off (e.g. a friend spilling your drink), ranging from overly positive (1) to extremely negative (5).

I definitely recommend that you visit Kari Dunn Baron’s site and check out her products. In particular, I have found the original book and video a great place to start, and her excellent Social Times series of magazines for students shows how the approach can be expanded, with a different 5-point scale in each issue.

Sean J. Sweeney, M.S., M.Ed., CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and instructional technology specialist working in the public schools and in private practice at The Ely Center in Newton, Massachusetts. He has presented on the topic of technology integration in speech and language at the ASHA convention and is the author of the blog SpeechTechie: Looking at Technology Through a Language Lens, which won the 2010 Best New Edublog Award. He can be contacted at sean@speechtechie.com.

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Maryellen Rooney Moreau '68 is one alumna who has turned her undergraduate thesis into a lifelong career.

Over 40 years ago, Moreau completed an honors thesis on language development in the department of communication arts and sciences, which is now known as communication disorders.

Her thesis prompted a continued interest in researching the link between oral language development and literacy, turning Moreau into an entrepreneur whose business has changed the way educators teach. In 1994 she began MindWing Concepts, Inc., a company that develops and patents teacher manuals and educational tools for language and literacy, including the patented Story Grammar Marker ©.

MindWing develops research-based products that aid students in building the oral language skills necessary to be competent in retelling stories, reading comprehension, writing, and critical thinking. Located in Springfield, MA, only 25 miles from UMass Amherst, the local business has grown into a worldwide corporation. In classrooms across the globe, over a million children are using MindWing's visual, kinesthetic and tactile tools to assisting them with oral and written expression.

Even decades after graduating with honors, Moreau continues to conduct research, building on her undergraduate thesis. "I have just completed a new manual and game called the Autism Collection to show teachers and parents of children with autism how my tools and methodology relate to that disability," she said.

Typically completed in their senior year, the comprehensive, research-intensive Capstone thesis or project of original scholarship gives Honors students a chance to delve more deeply into an academic subject of their interest. Students build on the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired by pursuing research, creating art, engaging the wider community in action efforts, or by working diligently on one of a variety of other academic projects. The Capstone is designed to provide all Commonwealth Honors College students with the opportunity to integrate their undergraduate experiences and prepare for their careers—professional or academic.

For Honors students like Moreau, the Capstone Experience can not only culminate an academic career but also commence a professional path.

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