Capstone Project: Master's in Public Administration

The capstone serves as documentation of your personal mastery of professional competencies. It is designed to be an integrative experience for MPA students. Public administration core and elective courses should be incorporated into the capstone competencies to examine an issue of importance to St. Louis, the region or the nation.

Capstone Competencies

1. Blend a body of professional knowledge with continuous learning
2. Develop the ability to utilize budgetary and other analytical techniques and research methods
3. Demonstrate an understanding of social responsibility and social justice in public administration
4. Develop creative strategies to address challenging situations
5. Utilize technology, including GIS
6. Use data to inform both public and nonprofit-sector decision-making

Content & Organization

The capstone project may concentrate on organization, policy or program evaluation. The topic may arise from an internship, work experience, original empirical research or description, explanation and analysis. Students are expected to formulate practical recommendations on the basis of their research findings.

The final product should be organized as follows:

1. Executive Summary

2. Table of Contents

• List of tables and figures
• Body of text
  
  

3. Body of Text

• Introduction
• Problem Statement
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings
• Implications of the Study
  
  

4. Bibliography

5. Appendices (must include all supporting materials such as interviews, databases, etc.)

Evaluation Criteria

1. Substance

• Clear Statement of purpose (problem statement) and focus
• Grounding in the relevant literature on the problem
• Appropriate methodology
• Demonstrates understanding of methods, link to concepts and the nature of data
• Clear statement of findings
  

2. Presentation and Language Style

• Grammatically correct
• Appropriate and consistent research citation and documentation
• Appropriate graphics to display data and the results of analysis
• Visual materials to support presentation of the overall document
  
  
  

Your Committee

You will need to select three faculty advisors to serve on your committee. Advisors can be selected from any of the full-time or joint-approved faculty of the Department of Public Policy Studies

Approximate Timeline

Semester prior to Graduation:

• Submit a clearly focused Problem Statement to your main faculty advisor
• Once Problem Statement is approved, begin library research
• Form Capstone Committee
• Submit your Capstone Proposal to your Capstone Advisor
• Once approved, begin producing the Capstone Project
  
  

Graduating Semester:

• Complete all research
• Write the Capstone Project
• Submit completed Capstone to the Capstone Committee
• Make revisions
• Present Capstone to the committee in an Oral Defense
  
  

This is a very general guideline. You will need to be in constant contact with your Capstone Advisor for exact deadlines pertaining to your candidacy.

Examples

To guide you in preparing your capstone, you can examine capstones completed by previous MPA graduates.

Main Street at Sunset: A Case Study in Tax Increment Financing - Eric Sterman, MPA 2006

"Opening Communication Between a Small City and Its Residents Using GIS: The Ferguson, Missouri Experience" - Veronica Creech, MPA 2005

"Evaluating Underlying Tensions in Stakeholder Preferences for Economic Development in Ward 19, City of St. Louis" - Alan Lamburg, MPA 2004

For More Information

If you are currently enrolled in a readings course with Dr. Cropf to work on your capstone, you can download a word document detailing the process via WebCT. You can also e-mail Dr. Cropf with any questions you may have at cropfra@slu.edu.