Four years of study converge here.

Every Soka undergraduate completes a capstone: an original research project carried out with close faculty guidance that asks students to produce knowledge as independent scholars in their own right.

You’ll develop a research question about a topic in your concentration, and your faculty mentor will help you determine your approach. Some students collect data in the field. Others examine primary sources, review the work of other scholars, or conduct laboratory research. What every capstone shares is the opportunity to dive deep into an issue you’re passionate about and add your voice to the conversation.

What you'll develop

Independent inquiry — Formulate a research question and pursue it with sustained focus.

Deep knowledge — Move beyond survey-level understanding into expertise in a specific topic.

Analysis and writing — Drawing on four years of analytical training, produce a coherent, substantial treatment of your question.

Capstones by concentration

An Environmental Studies capstone is an independent research project grounded in an aspect of environmental studies, science, policy, management, or planning — from local ecosystems to international law. Students work with faculty to define a question, choose a methodology, and produce original analysis.

A Humanities capstone is a substantial piece of original critical work shaped by the student's coursework, developed in close collaboration with a faculty mentor, and grounded in the research, writing, and analytical skills at the heart of a Soka liberal arts education.
 

After seven semesters of coursework, International Studies concentrators write an extended research essay — a focused, faculty-supervised project that applies the analytical skills and area knowledge they've built across their studies. Students work closely with a faculty mentor throughout, producing original scholarship with a bibliography that reflects genuine depth of engagement.
 


A Life Sciences capstone is an independent research project with a scientific focus, drawing on the foundational knowledge students have built through the curriculum. Students work with faculty to design and carry out an experiment and present findings that demonstrate scientific reasoning and original contribution.
 


A Social and Behavioral Sciences capstone challenges students to formulate a meaningful research question and answer it using the methods of social science — quantitative, qualitative, or mixed — developed across their concentration coursework.
 

Where Capstone research goes

After seven semesters of study, students have the tools to explore any subject they choose with real depth and rigor. These are some of the topics they’ve investigated.

  • Renewable Energy in California, Germany, and Japan
  • Farmers Markets and Local Food Access in Orange County, California
  • Water Audit of Soka University of America
  • River Ecology and Ecological Restoration: A Case Study of the Los Angeles River
  • Climate Change and Informal Urban Settlements: Building Resilience for the Urban Poor in Nairobi, Kenya
  • Approaching the Nonhuman: Navigating Art, Abjection, and Ambiguity for a Post-Natural Ecology

  • The Power of Uncanny Women: Analysis of Japanese Horror Film and Argentine Fantastic Literature
  • Sigmund Freud's Unconscious and the Collective Pursuit of Hysteria
  • Montaigne and Me, Intimate but not Sexual
  • What a Time to Be Alive: An Exploration of All Things Millennial — An Audio Podcast
  • A Dialogue on Dance: Funding, Advocacy, and Participation
  • White Rabbit Knows Everything — A Short Novella

  • The Causes of the Thai Sex Industry and Its Effects on Thai Women
  • Violent Insurgent Groups: Defining the Relationship between the State, the Insurgency, and the Population
  • Multicultural Hawaii: Seeking Autonomy
  • The Legacy of America's Super Citizens: What Comic Book Superheroes Reveal about American National Identity
  • An Evaluation of the Construction and Reproduction of Historical Narratives about the War of the Pacific in Peruvian Textbooks
  • The Philosophy of Nonviolence in Guatemala: Withdrawing from La Violencia through Hip Hop

  • Synthesis and Testing of a New Drug as a Potential Therapy for Cancer
  • Assembly and Annotation of a Carnivorous Fish's Genome and a Comparison of Its Digestive Genes with Those of an Herbivorous Cousin
  • A Comparison of Blood Sugar Levels in Volunteers Who Ate Whole Fruit vs. Blended Fruit
  • An Analysis of Population Changes of Invasive Marine Species in Southern California Harbors
  • The Impact of Artificial Sweeteners on the Risk for Disease
  • The Effectiveness of Using Board Games for Science Education

  • The Commercialization of Hip Hop: When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong
  • Semper Fidelis: The Construction of Gender in Military Wives
  • Gender Equality in Vietnam: Promises and Reality
  • Myanmar's Ethnic Problem: History, Conditions, and Solutions
  • Parental and Peer Contexts of Hookup Culture and Its Potential Influences on Sexual Behaviors and Marital Attitudes
  • An Investigation into the Meaning and Implementation of "Inclusive Education"