How to Create Your Own High School Capstone Project
/A different way of thinking about passion projects and extracurriculars for college admissions
A capstone projects allows your child to turn their interests into milestones
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Part 1: Introduction
If you’re the parent of a bright, motivated high schooler, you’ve probably been thinking about their extracurricular activities, which form a crucial component of a serious candidate’s college application. You’re likely aware of the usual suspects as far as after-school options go: athletics; theater, music, drama, or dance; debate; academic teams; robotics or science competitions; community service through school or religious organizations.
You’ve also probably heard the broad, true advice that it’s wise to let your child’s natural interests dictate their choice of extracurricular activities, and that it’s often better for an applicant to demonstrate a deep and passionate interest in a handful of things than to be a shallow participant in a ton of different organizations.
If you feel like you already know some of the basics of the extracurricular profile conversation, and you’re equipped to help your child choose the right clubs and activities for them, you might consider some “advanced” extracurricular tactics, namely working toward a capstone project. In this post, we’ll identify what a capstone project is, talk through developing capstone project ideas, and discuss how to carry out and evaluate a capstone project.
Everything that follows is a way of demystifying the ubiquitous questions that seem to abound in college admissions: What is your passion? What are you passionate about?
Most teenagers don’t know the answer to these questions. (Many adults don’t!) But pursuing a capstone project is a way of testing whether or not an interest runs deep enough to be a passion. If it does, your child might unlock something important about their future. If it doesn’t, your child will still have learned how to own, develop, and execute their ideas.
Capstone projects vs. passion projects
Questions sometimes arise regarding the difference between these two terms. First, let’s answer the question: what is a passion project?
A passion project is a self-driven and independent project your child undertakes to go deeper into a subject, hobby, or pursuit. It can, and probably should, be carried out with the support of a mentor or advisor, but it might exist outside of school frameworks—beyond the classroom, and beyond clubs. However, a successful passion project will probably draw on existing resources in your child’s academic and extracurricular universe.
Such a pursuit could take place over the course of four or more years, or in a single weekend. We’ll discuss timelines for capstone projects shortly, and identify the ways in which they’re distinct.
So, to recap, a passion project may be:
Beyond the classroom, but not apart from the support of a teacher; it might begin in a classroom
Beyond extracurriculars, but not apart from the support of a coach, instructor, or other extracurricular mentor; it might begin through an extracurricular
Self-driven, guided by your child’s personal interests
That third bullet point may be the hardest. In an age when teenagers’ lives are so hyper-scheduled, pursuing something outside the fold can be difficult.
Here’s an example. Perhaps your child began writing science fiction novels in their spare time in middle school. The writing has no real beginning or end. You can help your child nurture that passion by connecting them to mentors in and out of the classroom, sending them to summer camps or programs on that theme, taking them to readings and events at local bookstores or libraries, and encouraging them to write a few times a week.
What is a capstone project?
This post will focus on capstone projects, which you might think of as a type of passion project or as a component of a larger passion project.
As we mentioned above, a passion project can be pursued anytime. It can be something your child begins as a freshman (or even earlier) and it can follow them through college. On the other hand, a capstone project takes place during a defined period of time.
Some schools call capstone projects “senior projects” and expect all soon-to-be graduates to show off the depth of their knowledge or skill in a particular area before they head into the world. In other cases, students pursue capstone projects entirely apart from official school requirements.
Here’s an example of a capstone project that is run through an extracurricular organization but still requires enormous self-motivation: the Eagle Scout Service Project. It takes years to become an Eagle Scout. Your son must earn badges, go on camping trips or summer excursions, become competent in the outdoors and in service, etc. Then, in order to become an Eagle Scout, he’ll need to choose a particular community need and meet it. He might organize a clothing drive or build a community garden.
This is a classic capstone project: it certainly completes the process of becoming an Eagle Scout, but it’s part of a long-term relationship that your son is developing with service.
(Note that the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout is the Gold Award Girl Scout.)
To continue our first example, your sci-fi-savvy child might have any number of possible capstone projects. They could:
Sign up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and try to write a draft of a novel during November.
Write a short story during their senior year that they try to publish in a journal or magazine that features young people’s writing (for instance, One Teen Story).
Write a story on a specific scientific topic, collaborating with a local scientist or doing significant research. Perhaps your child is interested in climate change. They might do enough research on climate change that they understand how the environment in your town will shift. Then they can write a story set 100 years into the future about the impact of the environmental crisis in your community. In this case, the project is the capstone, and publication might not be the goal. Perhaps your child instead presents their story at a local environmental fair.
Interview several authors about the future of science fiction. If your child loves science fiction but doesn’t want to put pressure on themselves to write something in a specific time period, they can instead simply learn more by speaking to authors. Perhaps by attending readings at local bookstores, colleges/universities, or libraries, they can ask each author one question—e.g. “How do you go about world-building another reality?”—and, with the authors’ permission, create a website or submit an article compiling several great science fiction authors’ wisdom on a topic that is extremely interesting to other science fiction fans.
Whichever of these capstone projects your child chooses, it would stem from their broader passion project, writing science fiction.
What’s the point of a capstone project?
Some students are engaged in extracurricular pursuits that have a natural finale or milestone. A competitive varsity athlete can aim to become state champion. An actress can hope to star in her senior play.
But what if your child’s interests don’t fit neatly into a preexisting club?
That’s where a capstone project can help a high school student go from being a tinkerer to someone accomplished in a particular field or area. By learning how to direct their personal interest into a concrete project with measurable results, your child will grow immensely, and will enter college prepared to tackle more adult challenges from internships to major papers to lab research.
Remember a few things:
A capstone project may not be for everyone.
A capstone project is a way to deepen and test interests. If your child finds out during the course of the pursuit that they don’t love what they’re doing, that’s okay. They might benefit from staying committed to what they’ve started, just to see it through, or you might be able to help them taper things off early so they still reach one milestone but don’t have to devote a whole year to the project.
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Part 2: Brainstorming capstone project ideas
Encourage your child to begin reflecting on their major interests in three areas:
Academics
Extracurriculars
Everything else
For instance, here’s what one example student, Joey, jotted down:
Academics: Loves civics and history, especially history of war and geopolitics
Extracurriculars: Model UN, summer courses at Duke on American foreign policy, summer course at Yale on international relations
Everything else: News junkie
In addition to these major interests, Joey is also on the soccer team and plays the flute.
Joey doesn’t write for the school newspaper—he was never much interested in covering the affairs of his high school—but he does read The Economist and a few other great news outlets regularly. He has some designs on combining the above interests in some form, someday. He’d love to study history or international relations in college, and would ideally pursue some interdisciplinary studies that allow him to get multiple perspectives on global issues. Maybe one day he’ll become a foreign correspondent, a contributor to a foreign policy think tank, a diplomat, or an international lawyer.
We can start in each of the areas to brainstorm. How might Joey push himself in one of these areas?
Academics: Civics and history
Write an essay or a paper on a topic of interest. Ask teachers about submitting it for awards or prizes.
Host a debate at school among the honors and AP students about a current event.
Extracurriculars: Model UN, summer courses
Win a major Model UN tournament.
Combine information from the two summer courses into a seminar for students from his high school and/or nearby high schools, which he’ll lead.
Everything else: News
Write researched op-eds and letters to the editor about issues that he is excited about.
Launch a YouTube channel or a podcast about an issue he is excited about.
Start his own magazine or newsletter at his school, or in combination with a few other nearby schools, in which students can write reportage or opinion pieces about national and global political issues.
Evaluating potential capstone projects
Now Joey can look through his options—which, remember, came from him asking how he can push himself in areas he’s passionate about—and make a decision. Here’s what he should ask himself as he assesses his brainstorm.
Do I need to go outside the standard bounds of my classes and clubs? Am I trying to lead or start something for its own sake, or could I get what I want out of my existing commitments?
Are any of the options I’ve written down something I’m truly excited about spending several hours a week on for a chunk of my junior or senior year?
Do I have the support I would need to carry out one of these ideas? For instance, do I have a faculty advisor in mind, and/or other students to come on board?
Are any of these areas in which I can see myself spending more time in college and after?
In the end, Joey’s decision is about whether or not he really needs a new project to devote his attention to. Soccer takes up most of his time when he’s in season, and when he’s out of season he likes to stay in shape by working out with friends.
But in the end, he decides he hasn’t quite been challenged enough by his existing intellectual outlets, and he misses the intensity of the summer courses he did at Duke and Yale. In order to resurrect that feeling, he decides to do a version of the last brainstorm bullet point: he launches a web magazine that his classmates from the Duke and Yale programs agree to contribute to, and he asks the AP Civics teacher at his school to serve as an advisor.
Another example student, Alexia, got injured during her sophomore year on the basketball team. Feeling down, she wants a way to stay engaged with athletics but can’t conceive of finishing out her high school years without a state or national championship to shoot for. After discussing things with her school counselor and coach, she decides she’d like to learn more about photography and technology. She takes photographs for the school paper to cover basketball games at first, and then eventually branches out into filming and editing her old teammates’ highlight clips, starting a small but thriving business.
A third example student, Younmee, has been interested in healthcare for a long time. There’s no natural club for her to invest her time in, and she isn’t drawn to lab research—she wants to be around people. So she works with her church and a local nursing home to set up the Buddy Project, which sends teenagers to spend time with older residents whose families can’t visit as often as they’d like.
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Part 3: Executing the capstone project, including a timeline for capstone projects
It might be difficult to imagine getting from the brainstorm phase to the execution of a capstone project. After all, this is probably the first time your child has had to undertake something so large and under their own direction.
Here’s a good process to follow, with a suggested timeline for a project that might begin in junior fall and carry over through senior spring. Of course, your child can also launch into this process earlier.
Junior fall:
Brainstorm (see above process) to determine whether a capstone project might be the right choice.
Meet with trusted faculty advisors and mentors to get input after initial brainstorm.
By the end of junior fall, reach a decision on whether or not to do a capstone project, and be able to explain it in about a paragraph (the way we’ve explained Joey’s, above).
Set several goals, with the help of an advisor:
Long term goal: What do you want your long-term impact to be?
One-year goal: What needs to happen in the course of one year to make that long-term impact possible?
Six-month goal: What needs to happen in the first six months to make your one-year goal possible?
Three-month goal: What needs to happen in the first three months to make your six month goal possible?
One-month goal: What needs to happen in the first month to make your three month goal possible?
… and so on
Junior spring:
Your child won’t have to do all of the following, but they may need to do some.
Recruit other students, contributors, or teammates. Begin holding meetings, if necessary.
Fundraise, if necessary. Ask parents and team members for help connecting to sponsors, or develop a business plan in conjunction with an advisor. Will you fundraise by selling physical merchandise at school? By seeking local advertisers? By running events?
Meet first milestone goals (three month; six month).
Rising senior summer:
Spend several hours a week immersed in capstone project, baking it in alongside college essay writing, camps, or summer institutes, etc. It’s crucial that your child not lose momentum over the summer. Repeat the goal-setting exercise from junior fall so you have month-by-month or even week-by-week goals.
Stay in touch with advisor over email or over the phone, and set a plan to get in touch once a month for check-ins and advice, if they can make themselves available.
Senior fall:
Kick it up a notch! Set new goals for the coming year.
If your capstone results in a major event—a conference, a fundraiser, etc.—plan on bringing it to fruition by the middle of the senior fall semester.
Senior spring:
Set up a legacy plan. Does someone need to take over the project or organization you’ve built? Choose them. Or perhaps you need to follow up after an event to make sure you met your goals. Senior spring is a good time to send out surveys for feedback.
Reflect on how you’ll carry this forward into college. Have you built or begun something—a charity organization, a publication, a long-term research project—that you can keep working on as an undergraduate? If not, take a look at the extracurricular offerings at your new school and see how your experience building something from scratch can propel you through a new landscape of clubs and student jobs. You might be just what a campus club needs! Perhaps you’ve developed skills that might make you a great treasurer, or maybe you’re ready to seek out a research lab during your first year.
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Part 4: Ideas for capstone projects
Below, you’ll find a general list of ideas to get your child started on brainstorming their capstone project. We’ve organized it roughly by discipline, but your child should push the limits! Great capstone projects need not stay neatly within the bounds of one field (though that’s perfectly fine, too).
Arts
Developing a portfolio in a creative field—music, visual arts or photography, film, dance, writing, etc.—and possibly finding a way to display it online. Note that pushing incomplete creative work into the world for its own sake might be something your child regrets later. The pursuit of the work itself may be satisfying enough.
Putting on a production of a play or screening a film.
Creating a community art space, reading series, or open mic night at a local coffee shop, independent bookstore, or library.
Humanities/social sciences
Hosting a seminar series, salon, or reading group on topics not covered in the standard curriculum.
Holding a conference to discuss topics not covered in the standard curriculum.
Writing op-eds or launching a publication, podcast, or other channel for addressing interesting academic and intellectual issues.
STEM
Conducting basic science research in a university lab, with a goal of becoming an author on a published paper.
Building a piece of technology—hardware or software—that serves a specific need, and perhaps beginning the process of distributing it, either bringing it to market or donating it.
Entrepreneurship
Figuring out a local need and launching a single for-profit project (not necessarily a whole company!) to meet it.
Curating events with local business leaders for young people with entrepreneurial aspirations, perhaps trying to make it accessible to people across the socioeconomic or educational spectrum.
Service
Overseeing a single major service project from start to finish, either solo or through something like the Eagle Scouts, Girl Scouts, a local religious organization, etc.
Starting a charity or a nonprofit to serve an unmet need.
Athletics
Launching or coaching a youth league in your sport of choice, perhaps in an area where access to that sport is limited.
Final thoughts
If your child’s interests and activities exist outside of organized extracurriculars (i.e. clubs and teams), a capstone project can be a great way to transform some of those interests into concrete milestones. Not only do these kinds of accomplishments look great on college applications, allowing your child to come across as a specialist, they also have benefits outside of the admissions race.
Pursuing a capstone project will teach your child about initiative and commitment, and it can help them figure out what really appeals to them and what areas, issues, or questions they want to dive into when they enter college. Plus, when they’re inevitably asked, “What is your passion?,” they’ll be that much closer to a terrific response.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on college admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into top programs like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT using his exclusive approach.
