Faculty

Capstone Festival

Students

Senior Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Mary Baldwin College’s distinctive major programs allow seniors to carry out original research or creative projects, ensuring the chance for hands-on experience that provides substance to your passion for knowledge.  The Capstone project integrates and builds on your classroom work, community service, international travel, internships, and/or undergraduate research experiences, putting you one step ahead of others when you enter graduate school or launch your career.  Each year, the best senior projects are nominated by faculty to be featured at the annual Capstone Festival, where the entire community celebrates the seniors’ achievements.

Anthropology
Anthropology majors pursue research on a theme or issue of their choice, joining other seniors in the World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department to share work in progress.   Your work culminates in two oral presentations and a well-written research paper, which is presented to all members of the department.

Art History
As an Art History student, you will select a research project during your junior year that suits your major and your personal background.  The fall semester of your senior year is dedicated to developing a bibliography, outline, and draft.  Your work culminates in an oral presentation and a well-written research paper, which is presented to all members of the department.

Studio Art
The senior project in Studio Art is regarded as the culmination of the major. Affording the opportunity for independent scholarship and creative work, the project is an important and exciting step that will help prepare you for professional activity and/or graduate work. You will have the opportunity to produce and present for exhibition a cohesive body of work that represents serious investigation of a theme or specific idea. Majors in studio art may focus on painting, graphic design, ceramics, drawing, printmaking, extended media, or photography.

Art Management
As an Art Management student, you will select a research project during your junior year that suits your major and your personal background. The fall semester is dedicated to the bibliography, outline, and a draft. Your work culminates in an oral presentation and a well-written research paper, which is presented to all members of the department. You may choose to focus your research on art, music, or theater.

Asian Studies
As an Asian Studies major, you will pursue research on some aspect of a theme or issue chosen annually by the department. You will receive feedback and input from faculty and fellow seniors, and your work will culminate in an oral presentation and a research paper written in English.

Biology
Your senior project in Biology will give you the chance to put what you have learned into practice as you write and submit a formal research proposal and carry out an original research project of your own design.  During “lab meetings” you will get the opportunity to work with the biology staff and your fellow students to present results, including giving one long presentation similar to a paper presentation at a scholarly meeting.  Your research will culminate in a written thesis and an oral defense. 

Business Administration
In Business Administration, you will apply your accumulated business knowledge to the comprehensive analysis of a publicly traded company. Using the case analysis process learned in preparation, you will analyze a company and present your findings as a written case analysis and oral presentation.

Marketing Communications
As a Marketing Communications major, you will conduct a thorough review of a selected firm or competitive industry, including collecting customer communication components, analyzing the competitive environment, and determining a revised relevant target market and marketing mix. You will then develop alternative strategies, write a comprehensive recommendation, and produce a variety of new marketing communication components in a format ready for client presentation. You will make an oral presentation of your recommendations. This opportunity will help you generate a professional-quality and comprehensive sample worthy of inclusion in your portfolio to submit to potential employers.

Chemistry
As a Chemistry senior, you will have the opportunity to experience research as it is carried out in practical situations. This research will result in the presentation of your findings both orally and in writing.


Clinical Laboratory Science
In Clinical Laboratory Science, you will have the opportunity to use your knowledge learned in the classroom to complete a 12-month, hands-on training program.  This training, as well as your class work, will provide you with excellent preparation for the National Registry Examination that all health professionals must pass.

Communication
As a major in Communication you will have the opportunity to independently conduct a major research project or thesis demonstrating your understanding of communication issues, theories, research methods, and skills on a topic of your choice. You will get the chance to apply primary and secondary research to a selected issue associated with human and/or mass-mediated interaction. Your thesis or project will be presented orally and in writing to members of the department and other students in the major.

Computer Information Systems and Computer Science
The culminating academic experience for computer information systems and computer science majors will allow you to integrate the knowledge from your course work in the major and your liberal arts experience as you develop a programming project, a systems analysis and design project, or an academic paper. You will present your project in both written and oral formats throughout the semester to project sponsors, supervising faculty, and discipline peers. At semester’s end, a formal oral presentation is made to the college community, and a final written document is presented to the discipline faculty.

Economics
You will have the opportunity to design and implement a major independent research project on a topic of interest to you. The project will draw on your mastery of economic theory and quantitative reasoning and will result in written and oral presentations in the middle and at the end of the course.

 English
You will have the opportunity to work together with other senior English majors to become familiar with different theoretical approaches to literature and to incorporate that theoretical knowledge into your own close readings of primary texts.  Your senior capstone experience will culminate in a written research project that will be presented orally to faculty and student peers.

French
As a French major, you will pursue research on a literary theme or issue of your choice.  You will have the opportunity to share work in progress in French with members of the French discipline as well as in English with other foreign language and Asian Studies majors.  Your work will culminate in two oral presentations (French and English) and a research paper written in French.

Health Care Administration
Health Care Administration majors have the opportunity to participate in seminars that synthesize material from the entire curriculum and focus on health care administrators as professionals. Classroom material is integrated with experiential learning through a major research project.

History
As a History major, you will have the opportunity to participate in seminars that examine the method of historical analysis and its specific application to a research problem.  A general research theme is selected each year by the faculty; you and your fellow History seniors will prepare and defend a research paper on a topic related to the theme. 

International Economics and Business
International Economics and Business majors have the opportunity to design and implement a major independent research project on a topic of interest. You will present your results in written and oral presentations.

International Relations
In International Relations, you will have the opportunity to conduct a major independent research project in an area of international or comparative politics.  Your research will culminate in a written thesis.

Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
Mathematics and Applied Mathematics senior have an opportunity to complete a research project and present their research as a written paper and as an oral presentation.

Music
Each Music major is given the opportunity to showcase her talent in a full Senior Recital (40–55 minutes).

Philosophy and Religion
As a Philosophy or Religion major, your senior research project will be a culminating academic experience in which you demonstrate a mastery of your major field of study by focusing on a selected topic in philosophy or religion.

Physics
Seniors in Physics have the opportunity to experience research as it is carried out in practical situations. This research will result in the presentation of your findings both orally and in writing.

Political Science
In the Senior Seminar in Political Science, you will conduct independent research and write a 30 page original thesis. A weekly seminar will provide you with structured guidance of your progress, providing a forum to address common areas of difficulty in the research process and to discuss ideas and findings related to your research. Senior theses build upon a solid foundation of coursework in political science, focusing on the subfield of political science in which the greatest amount of your coursework previously has been completed. The senior seminar allows you to demonstrate your overall level of mastery of the use of the analytical tools of political science.

Psychology

Lindsay Wenger
Lindsay Wenger '10 was runner-up in the best undergraduate poster contest at the Society for Behavioral Neuroscience annual meeting in Toronto, Canada, July 2010.

The senior thesis is an opportunity for you to integrate what you have learned in the major by conducting a large-scale exercise under the mentorship of a psychology faculty member. You have two options: 1) you may propose a data collection project based on a pertinent literature review, design, and conduct the study; or 2) you may complete a comprehensive literature search of primary sources in a contemporary topic in psychology and write a critical analysis of the data that presents an evaluation of the current status of the topic area. With either option, you will make a formal oral presentation of your results and present a final written thesis.

Sociology
As a Sociology major, you will get the opportunity to participate in a combination of lectures and group discussions that will cover the historical development of sociology as a science by focusing on the early founders of the discipline and proceed to modern developments in sociology. You will write research papers and give oral reports that incorporate research and draw conclusions from various areas of study within the field of sociology. Alternatively, you may compose and defend an interdisciplinary research paper in Sociology/Anthropology or Sociology/Psychology.

Social Work
You will get the opportunity to participate in a hands-on supervised field instruction in a social service agency designed to provide you with opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills in social work practice. Under the supervision of the Field Instructor, you will participate in the delivery of social services, and develop insights, habits, and attitudes that facilitate professional growth. You will also get the chance to participate in an integrating seminar class.

Spanish
As a Spanish major, you will pursue research on a literary theme or issue of your choice.  You will have the opportunity to share work in progress in Spanish with members of the Spanish discipline as well as in English with other foreign language and Asian Studies majors.  Your work will culminate in two oral presentations (Spanish and English) and a research paper written in Spanish.

Theatre
For your senior project in theatre, you participate in a seminar series on theatre history, culminating in the opportunity to create your own project.  Your project may be in an area of production such as acting, directing, or lighting; a major research project; or any project accepted by the faculty.  Your project will include some form of analysis, research, analytical journal of the process, culminating in a written paper and oral presentation.