Capstone Project

Professional Portfolio

The capstone project for the ISS program is the Professional Portfolio. The portfolio course (POL 695A) is a three-credit class in which you will develop a portfolio that overviews your academic achievements.

There are two broad goals for this project:

  1. Consider and synthesize what you've learned in the program, including how your studies have added to your knowledge of international security topics, your overall world view, and your how education can contribute to your professional advancement.
  2. Provide you with tools to advance in the professional world, including writing a professional bio, updating your resume, providing writing samples, and producing an (optional) personal website that can be shared with employers.


Select students may be interested in pursuing a thesis project in place of the portfolio. The thesis is a larger project that involves original research on a topic in international security, for which a social-science approach is used to explore the research question of interest. This option is available but requires approval from the program director. To inquire about a thesis project, please contact Prof. Kurzer, the program director, at