Capstone & Core

For my capstone project next year, I've decided I definitely want to write some sort of short story collection. My only question now is which kind. I'm leaning toward travel writing, but I'm not entirely sure. While the science fiction will be a lot of fun, I really look forward to finally writing and compiling stories from Europe. Also, as a few people mentioned, the sooner the better.

This week, I need to make connections between the Core classes at Champlain (a bunch of required courses in a variety of disciplines) and my capstone project. I'm in a unique situation, because unlike the majority of students in this class, I've only taken two and a half semesters of Core. Due to spending some time running around Eastern Europe and New York City, I'm technically in the first half of my Sophomore year, according to Core.

That being said, I've still taken classes which might be useful for next semester. The first which comes to mind is a course called Capitalism and Democracy which I am taking at the moment. While it seems like a strange course to improve my writing, it helped me understand the basis of Communism. Because so much of Eastern Europe is still recovering from and heavily influenced by Communism, it's important to understand this before writing about the region. The Secular & The Sacred may be useful in a similar way to understand how religion (or in some cases the lack there of) dictates many aspects of a culture. Aside from improving my writing skills in Rhetoric I & II, I'm not entirely sure in the Core I took Freshman year relates to this project.

Capstone

Next year, I will be spending a good deal of my semester on a capstone project--a piece of writing.

For my capstone project, I would like to write a collection of short stories, most likely science fiction. I have been writing a lot of them recently, and I really enjoy it. I'm actually working on a few at the moment for submission in various publications. I think this will be a lot of fun, but maybe not so practical.

If that doesn't work well, I have had the skeleton of a book bouncing around in my head (and my moleskin) for a few years now, and I think it's about time I get it down on paper. The capstone project would be a good way to start this. I have written little bits and piece of things I'd like to include, but I haven't actually started anything.

Lastly, I'd like to work on my travel writing. I have stories and observations from spending a semester in Prague and traveling around Eastern Europe, and I'd like to write them down and make a collection at some point.

This is everything I've though of up to now, and I think any one would be an interesting project for my senior year.