26-04-2025
DWU seniors put knowledge on display with annual Capstone Day event
Apr. 26—MITCHELL — The Pratt Alumni Boardroom on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University was thick with the chatter of dozens of seniors Wednesday morning. As the spring semester draws closer to its end, energetic student conversations are not an uncommon occurrence on campus.
But these particular discussions covered a wide range of niche topics and research, with titles hinting at the subjects just beneath the surface. Students in business casual attire dove deep into topics like "Online Versus Traditional Classrooms," "Healing Environments In Pediatric Patients" and "Drug Dogs In Police Work" as fellow students and evaluators listened.
The diversity of the topics reflects the work and interest of every student involved.
"All of the graduating seniors present a research project that they have been working on, a combination of things they've done all semester long as part of their graduation requirements," said Sarah Raml, a nursing instructor at Dakota Wesleyan and a member of the program committee. "They work on it all semester long, and the university basically shuts down. We don't have classes today so that everybody can be a part of it."
The hive of activity Wednesday morning shows why classes are off for the day. The Pratt Alumni Boardroom is filled with seniors and other students mingling and chatting about the topics of their choice. Rows of display boards hold posters highlighting data charts, research details and conclusions arrived at through their work.
No two presentations are exactly the same, each reflecting the individual tastes of nearly 100 seniors set to graduate in May.
For Isabella Gregg, a senior from Moreno Valley, California, one subject was not enough for her presentation subject. A criminal justice major with a minor in psychology and creative writing, she sought out a project that would combine her favorite elements of all of them.
Her solution? Writing a thriller crime novel.
"I had two capstones — I had to do one for my creative writing minor and one for my criminal justice major. And I asked (Dakota Wesleyan professors Joel) Reinisch and (Barbara) Duffy if I could combine the two to make it easier on myself," Gregg said with a laugh. "So I put my criminal justice knowledge into a thriller, and I'm writing a novel."
Her presentation put her storytelling process on display. She went over her writing and editing process and gave examples of her notes. A breakdown of chapter timelines was also included, and she also read an excerpt from the novel-in-progress.
The book, tentatively titled "The Story I Told The Police," is a work in process, but it's coming along. The main character in the book sees her roommate go missing, and calls the police after she becomes concerned. The police arrive and interview her, and by a matter of circumstance, she becomes a suspect in the case.
"So she has to figure out how she can prove herself innocent," Gregg said.
She has about 23,000 words down on paper and is aiming for a total somewhere around 70,000 to 100,000 words, roughly the traditional length for such stories. She based the location of the story on her experiences in Mitchell, a community with which she's become quite familiar during her time at Dakota Wesleyan.
The project was well-suited to her interest in both writing and criminal studies.
"I bring up search warrants, I have detectives and police officers that do work for this (fictitious) police department. I made sure to keep it local, so I kind of based the town off of Mitchell. You want to write what you know, and I've been here four years," Gregg said.
Gregg has no publisher yet for the story, but she intends to pursue that should the novel come to completion, even if it's self-published. She is looking to pursue law school after graduation after taking some time for herself with a gap year.
But her foray into writing a novel has been a fun experience, if for no other reason to simply say she did it.
"I do think it would be awesome. It would look great on a resume and to say I finished a novel and I have something out there," Gregg said. "I think another part of being a writer is the vulnerability of sending out your work. So I would like to publish it, maybe send it out there. And if anything, I could always self-publish on Amazon."
Jakob Dobney, another senior taking part in Capstone Day, took a close look at a modern problem for his project.
A psychology major from Vermillion, Dobney dove into a study on how interacting with social media can impact people's performance completing tasks. He looked at a number of popular social media platforms, specifically Instagram and TikTok, and how they affect how people process information.
As is sometimes the case in research, he came to no solid answer.
"My study was inconclusive. There was a little bit of correlation with TikTok and Instagram and their task performance, but not enough to say this is conclusive evidence," Dobney said. "Overall, though, when you look at heavy social media users over an extended amount of time, there is a decline in social media usability, especially attention span."
He explored a few avenues for his research.
As he began putting together his presentations a few months ago, he put a timer on his Instagram use on his phone, limiting himself to 90 minutes total a day with the app. He soon confirmed that app programming is designed to keep the user engaged and using it.
"Social media sites have certain mechanisms that target certain areas of your brain so that it's almost addictive. Instagram, for example — you'll look up certain things on your search bar or tap on certain things that Instagram will pick up on," Dobney said. "They'll utilize that to show you more of the stuff that you interact with. It turns into you scrolling about all the things you like."
Concentration and a healthy attention span are important in many areas, from mundane tasks like driving to studying for an exam. The shorter the attention span, the harder it is to stay on course with work projects without becoming distracted.
Additional research included working with about 54 fellow Dakota Wesleyan Students and studying their social media habits, the data for which was displayed in a graph on his presentation poster. That part of his research confirmed what he at least suspected, that the issue was common.
"The study of people at Dakota Wesleyan shows that — it's hard to see here — but a lot of them have really high social media addiction scores. When I did the survey, a lot of them were addicted to social media," Dobney said. "There are certain aspects of it that you really need to be careful about, especially scrolling through reels and short videos. It really negatively impacts your attention span and how you process information, especially after doing it for so many hours a day."
Dobney, like Gregg, has his eyes set on graduate school. He plans to study social work at the University of South Dakota's satellite classrooms in Sioux Falls.
"I'm pretty excited about that," Dobney said.
With the wide variety of subjects on display and the number of students presenting, it is unsurprising that it takes a full day to get through all the presentations. The presentations are a way for each student to express themselves about their interests, passions and the time they spent at Dakota Wesleyan University.
There's something new and engaging for anyone who happens to take in the presentations. And the benefits to the participating students are clear, Raml said. Making a point to research a subject, put together a presentation and then relate that study to fellow students and professors in a professional manner are all skills that should serve them in the next phase of their lives, be it grad school or a career.
The presentations reflect the wide variety of students Dakota Wesleyan is sending out into the world on a yearly basis. That's something for both the students and school to be proud of, she said.
"Nursing, wildlife management, mathematics, biochemistry, education. Everything," Raml said. "This is a great opportunity to prepare for interviews, to prepare to be professionals and just to show what they've learned over the last four years."
