Hoping to inspire a new generation of artists, students from California State University, Channel Islands, gave tours Wednesday of the CSUCI art complex and shared their artwork with students from Buena High School.

The two-hour event was part of Art and Sole -- Walk in Our Shoes, a student-led project to introduce high school students to art as a college major and as a career.

"The goal is really to educate these high school students, to motivate them to choose a career in art," said Summer Conover, 26, of Calabasas, one of five CSUCI students who organized the project. "Hopefully, it will get them involved in higher education."

As part of the project, the CSUCI students also took the Buena students to the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard and introduced them to Gronk, a Los Angeles artist whose work is on display at the museum through May 16. Gronk also attended Wednesday's event.

Art and Sole is one of a number of capstone projects under way at CSUCI this spring. Capstone projects are designed to give graduating seniors a chance to use the skills and knowledge they've accumulated during their years in college, often in a way they might be expected to use them in a job setting. Many of the projects have a community outreach or service learning component.

The capstone projects are required for students in many of the university's majors. Students earn credit and gain experience working in "real-world" conditions.

"It's designed to give them some professional experience," said Steve Lefevre, dean of the faculty at CSUCI. "It's also a way to assess their (academic) program and assess what the students have learned."

Since the university's first large group of students is preparing to graduate this spring, many of those students are completing their projects this semester.

One group of art students painted a mural at the Channel Islands Marine Resource Institute in Port Hueneme. Another group of students is putting on an Earth Day Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. The event is open to the public.

Student Lydia Etman, 44, of Simi Valley, proposed Art and Sole. Etman said she was looking for a way to connect the university's art program with high school students and the greater art community.

"Our purpose is to excite the high schoolers," Etman said. "We're showing what we're doing here."

She and Conover worked with art students Izabela Betlinska and Christine Beirne and liberal studies major Darrell Forthe to put the project together.

Forthe, 24, plans to be a teacher. He wanted to work on a capstone project that would connect his interest in teaching with his interest in the fine and performing arts.

"It's been good working with Buena," he said.

"I'm hoping this can be a continual relationship (between the two schools). Ideally, most of these students will come here."

Buena High School teacher Tori Sepulveda said the program has been wonderful for her students because it shows them there is a future in studying art.

"They know they like something in art, but what do they do with it?" she said. "This is such a great opportunity for them to see an art department in action."

Buena student Lianna French, 15, said touring the art complex only added to her interest in CSUCI.

"I was interested in coming to this school to begin with. This really makes me want to come here more," she said. "Here, it's like you can do whatever you want. You're so free here."