Cal King’s Master of Public Administration and Leadership capstone experience: Making technology accessible and experiential at Ohio State

At The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Cal King found the perfect opportunity to turn her professional expertise into meaningful student impact. As program director for the Informal Learning Program, OHI/O within the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University, she focuses on experiential learning: Creating programs and events that foster a thriving tech community across campus and empower students to apply the skill they learn in the classroom to real world problems. Through her Master of Public Administration and Leadership (MPAL) Capstone, Cal explored how to break down barriers to tech education and develop hands-on opportunities for both engineering and non- engineering students to leverage technology for community impact. 

Her Capstone project centered on designing pathways for students who might feel intimidated by technology, ensuring that programs were inclusive, interdisciplinary, and aligned with real-world industry needs. 

“One of the things I leveraged the Capstone was to address that issue of bringing accessible tech and breaking down some of those barriers to entry for students who might not consider themselves ‘tech people,’” she said.

By creating these pathways, Cal aimed to empower students to explore, experiment, and innovate in ways that directly complement their formal coursework. 

Tech for all: The Capstone challenge 

For her MPAL Capstone, Cal tackled the challenge of making technology more accessible to students who might otherwise feel intimidated by tech or see it as out of reach. She focused on creating interdisciplinary opportunities, where students with strong tech backgrounds could collaborate with peers from diverse fields, reflecting real-world problem-solving. 

Cal is the director of OHI/O, The Ohio State University’s premier program dedicated to nurturing and advancing dynamic tech culture through hands-on, inclusive events. Run by students and for students, they have opportunities to innovate, collaborate, and solve real-world problems, OHI/O organizes a series of hackathons, make-a-thons, and tech-centered events from K-college throughout the year. 

“At OHI/O, it’s important to create these interdisciplinary environments,” Cal explained. “We want students to explore technology not just for tech’s sake, but to create projects that improve the world.” 

Her Capstone involved envisioning multiple futures for her program, identifying variables within her control, and designing actionable plans for each path. One outcome was support for students exploring AI, including those new to the technology. 

Implementing the Capstone: AI Studio and student-led hackathons 

The Capstone was far from theoretical. It directly informed the development of an “AI Studio” embedded within OHI/O fall hackathon weekend at Ohio State, which brings together roughly 800 students to rapidly prototype tech solutions to industry informed challenges, and is led by the students for the students. 

“We provided training in AI tools in a single-day program to create prototypes, geared toward non-engineering students,” Cal said. “Fifty students participated, and the results were incredible. Students were asking for more resources and more time. We’re going to be expanding that AI Studio program at other hackathons that we host to potentially give it its own showcase where we can bring it to students in other departments and colleges on campus. It was really exciting to see something I planned in the Capstone actually play out in real life.” 

Reflecting on the experience, Cal shared advice for students starting their own Capstone projects. “Choosing something that was immediately applicable really made a big difference,” she explained. While she noted that students could pick an organization outside of their workplace if they were passionate, having access to data and professional networks made her project not only easier to accomplish, but more impactful. “At every step, I wasn’t just applying theory,” she said, “I was getting real-time feedback from other professionals and exploring how I could see this applied in my career.” 

Cal credits the MPAL program with giving her the framework to structure and plan projects effectively. “Future planning is really important,” she said. “The Capstone forces you to lay out goals in a structured way. You understand not just what you want to accomplish for the organization, but also for yourself. If the work isn’t important to you personally, it won’t be as good as it could be.” 

Leadership and collaboration in student-led technology projects 

Beyond planning and strategy, the MPAL experience reinforced the importance of community. “Even though the MPAL community is mostly online, I felt like I had an experience equivalent to in-person college experiences,” Cal said. 

Despite being at different stages of life, Cal said there was still a thread to bring fellow classmates together. 

“We all found ways to connect and support each other that was relevant to the work that we were doing, supported our education, and fit our lifestyles. I really appreciated that people were supportive and wanted to participate and were also, we’re all on the same page, and we need to be respectful of everybody’s time,” she said. 

“That was really nice and maybe not something that I was expecting. I didn’t come to this degree program to necessarily build community. I wanted my piece of paper, I wanted to get my degree, but I got a lot more than that.” 

In addition, Cal also emphasized the flexibility of the program, starting with the John Glenn’s Leadership Certificate for Public and Nonprofit Professionals, a way to explore graduate coursework without committing to the full degree immediately while also earning credits that can be applied into the MPAL program. “The L-Cert helped me get comfortable with being a grad student again and prepared me for the Capstone,” she said. 

Creating lasting impact through the MPAL Capstone and experiential learning opportunities 

Cal’s Capstone created a practical, ongoing initiative for Ohio State students. The AI Studio, along with other experiential learning programs, allows students to apply technology creatively, gain hands-on experience, and collaborate across disciplines. 

“The students lead much of this work,” she said. “It’s their influence and energy that really make it successful, and it’s rewarding to see them take ownership while still benefiting from the structure and planning we put in place.” 

Cal’s story highlights how the MPAL program equips professionals to translate leadership, strategy, and planning into real-world impact. “The Capstone allowed me to bridge my education with my career and make meaningful contributions to the community I serve,” she said.