Capstone
Overview
The Leadership Studies Capstone is a student-driven project that analyzes and addresses a leadership topic within an organization or group. The capstone requires students to design and implement a project that enables them to synthesize content learned throughout the Leadership Minor and apply it in a community, business, or educational setting. Therefore, students are engaging in leadership behaviors while working through a change process. Credits earned for the capstone are different from a traditional course in that students have full autonomy over the goals of their project, rather than being pre-determined by an instructor.
There are two options for completing the capstone for credit.
Option 1: Individual Studies (4193 or 5193) – For students who have identified a faculty member with whom they would like to complete a project.
The faculty member will serve as the capstone project advisor and determine the deliverables for the course. Students must register for the course through the identified faculty member. This option works well for students who have already worked with a faculty member on projects or have a specific interest for which the faculty’s expertise can support. Generally, this will be through the department of the student’s major. A project summary is submitted to the Leadership Studies Minor Coordinator upon completion.
Option 2: Capstone in Leadership (COMLDR 4480)- For students who need a structured course and advisor with whom to work.
Through the course students will design a project that includes goals and measurable objectives for addressing an identified leadership issue or topic. Students will submit a project proposal, reflections, and a final portfolio and presentation. This course is offered each semester. For AU and SP semesters, students will work in small groups or pairs to provide peer feedback and collaborate when possible.
Past Projects
Nathan Grine- Ohio 4-H LGBTQ Diversity Dialogue
Nathan’s goal for his project was to increase awareness of the LGBTQ community in the Ohio 4-H program. To accomplish this, he developed two professional development opportunities for Ohio 4-H professionals. The first was a session for about social identity and perspective taking which was presented at an in-service. The next was a professional development training around microaggressions and microaffirmations delivered through a webinar. Finally, Nathan worked with the Ohio 4-H LGBTQ+ Committee to analyze feedback from the previous year’s LGBTQ+ Summit to revise programming for subsequent events.
Shivani Patel- CABLE Outreach Event
Shivani partnered with TEDx Ohio State University and developed at TED Salon Event to educate attendees about biobased products. As the Ohio State Student Delegate for The Consortium for Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Education (CABLE) she spearheaded an effort to find a relevant TED talk to show and educate attendees about the bioeconomy and their prospective role in it. As the host of the event she moderated the discussion on bioproducts, engaged attendees in interactive activities, and obtained and gave out biobased product samples. Shivani reached out to various companies for giveaways, created her own biobased products, and invited biobased company representatives to manage interactive tables to make the event engaging for attendees
Molly Sprague- Connecting Student Parents to Resources
As a student parent for most of her undergraduate career, Molly wanted to develop a way to connect other student parents in the Columbus area to resources to help them balance parenthood and school. She researched local resources related to childcare, articles related to being pregnant and parenting while in college, supports for food assistance, family-friendly housing, and mental health services for pregnant and parenting moms. With this information, she created a website: Columbus Student Parent Support Group and established a social media presence.
Mia Murray - Reflection, Reconstruction, and Transition of The African American Voices Gospel Choir, Inc.
Mia worked with the African American Voices Gospel Choir, Inc. in order to address concerns with their organizational culture and structure. The overarching goal of her project was to implement a series of leadership development workshops to improve upon the overall functioning, and governance, of the organization. Her project was comprised of three interactive workshops in which: (1) the executive board reflected on their leadership abilities and the success, and/or shortcomings (2) the executive board revised the current constitution ensuring that it accurately reflected the intended goals and objectives of the organization and (3) the incoming executive board members were trained on the responsibilities and expectations associated with their respective position.
Brooke Zuber- Building the Nest-Mentoring Program at Delphos St. Johns
Brooke identified an issue at her high school alma mater related to women’s athletics. Fewer female students were participating in sports after transitioning from middle school to high school. In order to cultivate interest in women’s sports at the high school level, Brooke developed a mentoring program wherein high school athletes met with middle school girls to engage in sports, discuss challenges of the middle to high school transition, and complete service projects together. Brooke worked with the high school coaches and middle school administrators to develop the mentoring schedule and created the content for the mentoring sessions.
Landon Strouse- Feed the Children through Youtube Videos
My name is Landon Strouse, I'm a Gaming content creator and the owner of (Nin10doland) on YouTube who wanted to use my platform for something bigger than gaming. I ultimately decided to bring together many different content creators big and small to collab on a fundraiser video where all the proceeds were sent to the "Feed the Children" charity. Covid has made it hard for families and children around the world to receive the nourishment they need. Within just a week, the video has made over $200 in donations and over $300 in video revenue. Being able to use my platform for something bigger was an amazing opportunity that I have always wanted to be a part of and this project gave me that opportunity!