UNCP5579 · University and Capstone

Capstone: Becoming a Self

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Seniors only. Capstone classes may NOT be taken Pass/Fail. You may take only ONE Capstone class before graduation. A Capstone seminar combines a deep exploration of the self, with a disciplined academic exercise in substantive reading, writing, and discussion, to foster a place to ponder ultimate questions within a community of discourse. This seminar, like all Capstone seminars, invites participants 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? Becoming a Self focuses these questions and goals in a particular direction. Who am I? What will make me happy? Who do I wish to become? What do I owe myself, others, God? Am I called to a special purpose, and how would I discern it? What kind of story do I tell about myself? How much of that story is really my own, and how much have I just drifted into? How do I envision the path from my present self to the self I would like to be in ten, twenty, fifty years? What is the scope, and what are the limits, of my agency to shape myself, or to do good or harm in the world, and how do I respond to circumstances, even very great evils, beyond my control? How do I relate my work and career to my sense of purpose, calling, or desire to be of service? Well explore these questions together through narrative (fiction, diaries, and films), theory, and practices, including some meditative walks, journaling, and the Examen of Consciousness from St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.