Navigating the Capstone journey: Insights and strategies for success
Capstone is a unique experience. You likely have not experienced anything like it in your formal education thus far. As a student completing my Capstone experience, I hope to offer some words of wisdom to help as you navigate this exciting and challenging academic venture. I completed my Capstone experience within the OT Education department at the University of Kansas Medical Center. For my Capstone, I focused on designing and implementing educational activities to support student learning. This experience challenged me to view the world of academia from the lens of a faculty member and provided me with opportunities to support my own learning and growth through mentorship of first-year students completing the activities I designed. Through my own experience and anecdotes from my classmates, I have compiled a list of advice to support you in planning and executing your own Capstone experience.
1. Have a Spirit of Flexibility
The nature of Capstone is innately fluid and evolving. This can be exciting or challenging (or both!). When transitioning from a structured role to a self-directed role, navigating unexpected situations can be challenging. Through my Capstone experience, I encountered obstacles such as winter weather closures, shifting faculty mentorship, and other circumstances outside of my control, causing me to change plans at the last minute. Work to develop flexibility in the small things prior to Capstone. For example, be flexible with changing a meeting time if your site mentor has something come up. Developing flexibility will help you navigate larger changes within your Capstone, and even your career. These skills will be necessary to develop professionalism throughout your life.
2. Practice Self-Motivating in the Small Things
Motivation and volition, two client factors in the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (4th ed.; American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2020), must also be observed within our own lives. It is often much easier to stay motivated when we have external expectations and schedules put on us. It can be more difficult, however, when we are self-directing our experience. Capstone is innately unstructured to allow students to practice self-guided learning. This skill is crucial for remaining up to date with the latest practice standards. To prepare for Capstone, practice self-motivation in the small things. Consider setting specific goals with dates for yourself when devising a detailed action plan. Set dates to hold yourself accountable for the goals you set. Though it may seem trivial, it truly does help to hold yourself accountable by writing down what you hope to achieve.
3. Seek Support
Capstone can be an isolating experience, especially following rigorous fieldwork experiences with direct supervision and mentorship. You may be surprised to find that you are likely not the only student on Capstone experiencing these feelings. When you are feeling stuck, seek out support from your classmates and faculty. You might consider setting up a weekly work group to hold yourself and other students accountable and to provide a safe space for idea sharing. Within our cohort, our Capstone team set up accountability groups for students to attend on our learning management platform, which provided a smooth way to communicate virtually. As with all areas of your OT education experience, it truly does take a village!
4. Don’t “Should” Yourself
When planning your Capstone, there can be a temptation to select your experience based on what you perceive you “should” do. Maybe you feel as if you really should get some experience in an inpatient setting because you did not have a fieldwork in this area. Or maybe you feel like the idea you are passionate about is not “OT enough” and needs to conform more to the current landscape of OT practice. Though this is a completely valid approach, I invite you to view Capstone in a different way. Capstone is meant to not only develop students as self-directed learners and innovators, but to create and promote new spaces and places where OT can shine. When discerning the “where” and “what” of your Capstone, keep in mind that this is your chance to innovate and pursue OT’s connection to a population you are passionate about. I entered the Capstone planning phase feeling like I had to choose a site heavily focused on clinical practice. Through mentorship, reflection, and exploration, I came to the realization that a Capstone in teaching was exactly what I felt passionate about. Don’t let what you think you should do get in the way of pursuing a Capstone that fills you with excitement.
5. Use Your Resources
As a student, I have learned that we often under utilize the services that our respective universities provide. Capstone is an excellent time to take advantage of the resources available to you. Most universities have writing centers that are staffed by qualified writing experts. It can be very easy to miss our own errors in writing, even when we self-review our work. Writing center staff are usually well-versed in citation methods and professional writing principles. Additionally, it can be helpful to have a non-OT read through our work to ensure it is understandable to the general public. Librarians at universities are experts in finding relevant literature using Mesh terms and Boolean phrases. Taking advantage of the services you have access to will support you during your Capstone and can even help to bridge the gap between your role as a student and as a future clinician.
Reference
American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain & process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010p1–7412410010p87. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001
Molly Schneider, OTS, a Lincoln, NE, native, is a third-year OTD student at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Through her time at KUMC, Molly has been involved in Pi Theta Epsilon as the Vice President and has received multiple departmental scholarships. Molly has a passion for pediatrics and academia, and her ultimate career goal is to become a professor and fieldwork educator. Molly enjoys spending time with her wonderful husband and lively Goldendoodle named Lincoln.