Course Descriptions
Fall 2017
CEP 301: The Idea of Community | Core | 5 Cr
Theories of community and communal rights and responsibilities. Experience building a learning community within major. Explores struggles for community in every sector of life.
Presents historical thought on community building from the perspective of seven deceased white male philosophers. This class will provide a good basis for identifying classism, socially engineered strife, and pervasive blind spots in the prevailing narrative of our society.
CEP 499: Social Justice Practicum | Methods | 5 Cr
This course takes a critical look at pervasive social justice issues ranging from transportation to environmental projects, and homelessness to gentrification. Each topic is examined from the perspective that equality must be attainable and challenges the student to think creatively about what untested solutions might exist. The course also includes an internship component placing students at local nonprofit organizations relevant to the topics of study. This course directly relates to my educational focus of affordable housing by challenging societal norms from an equality perspective while also demanding creative problem solving and public service.
SOC 300: Foundations of Social Inquiry | Methods | 5 Cr
Covers what makes social science a science, the components of good research design, and what counts as valid evidence for sociological claims. Pays special attention to links between theory, research questions, and data.
This class was an excellent exercise in recognizing abuse of statistics both intentional and unintentional. It took a grounded approach to understanding what makes an unbiased study and identified shortcuts people take that drastically skew the results of their study calling into question their summary of the findings. Will be particularly useful for the data collection phase of my career in affordable housing where I am trying to better understand what people want from an affordable house.
Winter 2018
CEP 302: Environmental Response | Core | 5 Cr
Explores issues of environmental crisis and societal responses. Readings and reflective analysis from broad selection of authoritative sources to develop grounded perspective in ecological literacy and consciousness. Concurrently, experiential education in challenges and practical responses to building sustainable society through participation in community-based environmental effort.
The intended purpose of this course appears to be teaching students how to read and understand environmental impact statements. To make this required core course relevant to my educational goals I plan to take it from the unrelenting stance that environmental outcomes are social justice outcomes.
RE 598: Affordable Housing | Methods | 3 Cr
This course is intended as a broad introduction to the field of affordable housing, which will guide the student through the affordable housing development process and the policy issues that must be addressed to successfully plan, finance, design, construct and manage affordable housing. Relationships of federal tax and budget policy, as well as the role of federal, state, local, nonprofit and private sector agencies and participants will be examined.
This class was a brilliant examination of how America attempts to address housing affordability at the Federal, State, and Local level. I wrote three policy briefs on a topic at each of those three levels. I learned a significant amount about the inner workings of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. This class was also where I did my first in-depth research into Community Land Trusts, the topic of my senior project.
SOC 316: Introduction to Sociological Theory | Methods | 5 Cr
Introduction to sociological theory. Includes classical theorists Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber and their influence on contemporary theoretical debate.
After taking SOC 300 I caught the sociology bug! I’m excited to take this class as it is the theoretical counterpart to the data driven SOC 300. I think it will improve my ability to understand my own biases as well as inform my approach to how to think equitably about different social issues.
Spring 2018
CEP 303: Social Structures and Processes | Core | 5 Cr
Investigates use of formal and informal social structures and processes within context of community and environment. Looks at patterns and institutions of social organization and relationships among different sectors. Issues of interrelatedness, citizenship, knowledge, and communication.
This last required core course of Junior year seems to approach community through both broader topics like social organization, and micro interactions such as communication. This course should help me better understand the forces that work on large and small communities so I can be more effective in achieving affordable housing outcomes.
CEP 446: Internship | Internship | 5 Cr
Connects core and individual courses with field work. Group and individual readings develop understanding of how students' internships and field placements constitute particular element of community and environmental planning. Explores how what we do for a living is part of our lives as citizens and public service.
The class portion of the internship requirement within CEP will help shape ideas about public service and how we can be giving back to our communities even if we have careers in the private sector.
RE 370: Real Estate Data Modeling | Methods | 3 Cr
Data issues in real estate differ considerably from other assets. This class will cover a variety of different issues that arise when analyzing and modelling land, residential and commercial real estate markets. The course will cover hedonic models, GIS and spatial modeling, forecasting. Generally the class will consider how to manage datasets of varying quality and size and how to effectively model them.
This was my second class taught by Dr. Walter. During this class I had my first exposure to GIS and spatial analysis. My final project was a suitability model of the City of Tacoma that found where the best place to locate affordable housing would be when considering factors such as, proximity to superfund sites, educational attainment, access to nutrition, crime rate, and average commute time.
CSE 160: Introduction to Data Programming | Electives | 5 Cr
Introduction to computer programming. Assignments solve real data manipulation tasks from science, engineering, business, and the humanities. Concepts of computational thinking, problem-solving, data analysis, Python programming, control and data abstraction, file processing, and data visualization. Intended for students without prior programming experience.
I took this course because I was interested in being exposed to programming, it seemed like it would be a relevant skill. At the time I was more seriously considering getting a masters and I wanted to learn a programming language to be able to manipulate large datasets in that pursuit. I ended up writing an algorithm that read in all home sales from the Pierce County public records database and pulled out a set of relevant information. The algorithm generates a list of home sales from 2006 – 2011 finding the maximum decrease in sale price for each home sold during the time. The algorithm also finds the maximum price increase for each home sold from 2012 to current. Each list includes coordinates for every home in the list. I was able to map the results from my algorithm and run a hot spot analysis which told me where home prices decreased most rapidly during the Great Recession, and where they are increasing most rapidly now. This information will be useful in locating the softest markets during the next economic downturn for a nonprofit affordable housing organization to buy up homes at the bottom of the market to preserve as perpetually affordable homeownership opportunities for low-income people.
Fall 2018
CEP 460: Planning in Context | Core | 5 Cr
Examines theory against backdrop of practice for broad historical understanding of social, political, environmental planning. Critique from viewpoints, e.g., planning history, ethics, ecofeminism, environmental justice, class and capitalism, planning and global economy. Develop personalized history reflecting individual experience, professional experience, and philosophical heritage of planning profession.
This course will further develop my ability to identify social, economic, and environmental inequality in planning techniques. This class should improve my awareness of areas for improvement within the current policy surrounding housing.
CEP 490: Senior Project Prep Seminar I: Research and Project Scoping | Core | 2 Cr
Supports the conceptualization and planning of senior project/capstone work. Focuses on selecting a project, beginning a literature review, finding a mentor, and developing a plan.
This course will set me on a solid path to complete my senior project
RE 597: Spatial Analysis of Real Estate and Housing Markets | Methods | 3 Cr
This course will cover spatial analysis of real estate and housing markets. The course will teach students methods in quantitative analysis of spatial data. These methods will be applied to a variety of housing and real estate datasets to inform business decisions and policy making. Exploratory data analysis, spatial interpolation, and spatial regression will be covered in the course.
This is my third and final course taught by Dr. Walter. This course is an advanced spatial statistics class. In some ways this is a more advanced version of RE 370 which I took in Spring 2018. This class uses GIS to answer questions spatially. In my case, I am curious what factors most contribute to homeownership in the City of Tacoma. The variables I am looking at are; average crime rate, median income, percentage of the population that is non-white, median age, and percentage of the population living below the poverty level. In this class I will map all of these variables and use advanced statistical regression to identify how strong of a relationship, either positive or negative, each variable has on the likelihood of being a homeowner in Tacoma.
Winter 2019
CEP 461: Ethics and Identity | Core | 5 Cr
Examination of personal, societal, vocational, environmental, planning ethics. Readings and discourse on ethical foundations for public life. Individual and group readings on values, human potential. Develops understanding of ecological context, moral responsibility, self-awareness. Constructs positive, diverse view of humanity, environment regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, beliefs.
I think this core course will help me to further breakdown any unidentified biases I have toward people that are different from me. This should help me to better understand and more easily communicate with those from diverse communities and life circumstances.
CEP 491: Senior Project Prep Seminar II: Methods and Actualization | Core | 3 Cr
Focuses on implementing the senior project/capstone, including revisions and updates as seen fit.
This core course will help to refine and perfect my senior project.
ENGL 368: Women Writers | VLPA | 5 Cr
Investigates how perceptions of "woman writer" shape understandings of women's literary works and the forms in which they compose. Examines texts by women writers with attention to sociocultural, economic, and political context. Considers gender as a form of social difference as well as power relationships structured around gender inequality.
My primary interest in this class is for a difference in perspective. The vast majority of writings I have been exposed to were written by men. I want to read and synthesize some of the universe of thought by female authors that I am entirely lacking.
Spring 2019
CEP 462: Community and Environment | Core | 5 Cr
Capstone quarter merges core seminars, disciplinary courses in major, community field experiences for mastery of personal knowledge and skills. Reflection and synthesis of themes in major; engagement with contemporary issues. Compares theoretical definitions of community and environment with individual philosophies and knowledge within thoughtful, applied context.
This final core course looks to be one of immense personal reflection and ideally, growth. I look forward to engaging in community discussions as my CEP career comes to a close.
PUBPOL 555: Nonprofit Management | Elective | 5 Cr
This is a graduate level course that goes into detail on nonprofit, mission-based business, and other social enterprise management. I hope to learn general principles for leading a successful nonprofit organization as I aim to work at an affordable housing nonprofit after I graduate.