The Capstone Project

During our Senior Year in the Energy and Sustainability B.S program at Penn State World Campus, we are required to take a capstone course. This course is meant to challenge us to apply everything we have learned in the real world. The first step to enrolling is pre-approving a potential project and getting a community partner to agree to work with you. In this step you very generally sketch out what you will be doing. After this you gain enrollment into the class and then spend a majority of the class working on the project you have agreed to do for your community partner. This all culminates in a presentation of your work at the end of the class to your community partner or whoever they deem appropriate.

For my project I reached out to the City of Gahanna, the town I live in, to ask if they had any needs in the sustainability space. The mayor met with me to better understand the scope of what I needed to be successful on the course. After speaking, she connected me with Michael Greenburg, a retired owner of a environmental consulting company. He had been working with the city as a volunteer on environmental and sustainability projects. He Identified that there was an opportunity with vacant building the city was proposing moving its Senior Center, Police Station and city services to. The mayor agreed that this was a worthwhile endeavor and thus my project became creating a sustainability based retrofit plan for the building.

Each week I researched a different topic related to retrofits, HVAC, insulation, lighting, landscape, etc. Then I used my research to build a PowerPoint presentation that touched on each area I had researched. I made sure my recommendation connected back to the building and the cities needs specifically, but also gave general best practices when it comes to sustainable retrofits. I then asked Michael and another professor for feedback. I edited again after receiving the feedback and then I had my finalized PowerPoint deck. I practiced my presentation with the professor for my capstone course as well as practicing on my own. The presentation was given in a joint session with an entire class of city planning majors from Ohio State University. They had worked on a presentation around a sustainability action plan (sap) for the city. We presented to the mayor, heads of each department, and city council members. The Ohio state students presented first, and then I went. I received positive feedback from everyone there and was able to answer everyone's question thoroughly. I gave the city my slide deck and hope to stay involved in the future with the project.