Experiential Learning in Public Policy: How Will You Translate Your Skills to the Real World?
Impact Before You Graduate
As a Heinz College Public Policy and Management student, you will complete a team-based Capstone project, working in collaboration with a real-world client. Heinz College solicits these clients—businesses, governments, and nonprofits—to find projects that benefit both you and client. The ideal project forces you to expand beyond your comfort zone, work with imperfect data, learn to work in a group setting, and apply the skills you learned in class to an actual business challenge. It also provides something of value to the client.
Recent Capstone Clients
- World Economic Forum
- The Aspen Institute
- SAS Institute
- World Bank
- Pittsburgh Regional Transit
- Global Emancipation Network
- OECD
- U.S. Department of Education
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (multiple departments)
- RAND Corporation
- Green Edge Technologies
- New Orleans Police Department
- YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh
- Bike Pittsburgh
- Allies for Children
- UNICEF
- Footbridge for Families
- Overseas Vote Foundation/U.S. Vote Foundation
- Amtrak
- Heinz Endowments
- City of Pittsburgh (multiple departments)
- Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh
- One To World
- Bipartisan Policy Center
- UnitedHealth
We had a lot of unknown unknowns. This project helped surface things that weren’t on my radar before.
Kelsey Kennedy
Senior Analyst, Government Accountability Office | Heinz College Capstone Client
Capstone Projects: Real Clients, Real Experience
A team of Public Policy and Management students partnered with Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services to develop a practical guide that helps Pennsylvania nonprofits prepare for community solar programs, which allow residents to share the benefits of solar energy without installing rooftop panels.
Public Policy Summer Internships
Between your first and second years, you'll complete a 10-week, full-time summer internship. Whether in government, consulting, nonprofits, or the private sector, our students apply what they've learned in the classroom while building the skills, networks, and confidence that lead to full-time opportunities.
Recent Internships
- AARP
- Accenture
- Allegheny County Department of Human Services
- Allegheny Health Network
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Chicago Transit Authority
- City of Alexandria
- City of Pittsburgh
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- Deloitte
- FDIC
- JP Morgan Chase
- National Cancer Institute
- National League of Cities
- NorthShore University HealthSystem
- Los Angeles Mayor's Office
- MetLife
- National Governor's Association
- The Nature Conservancy
- Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
- Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
- Unilever
- United Nations
- United States Congress
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
- Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh
- U.S. Department of Defense
- U.S. Department of Justice
- U.S. Department of State
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
- U.S. Office of Management and the Budget
- The World Bank
Begin Your Path to Impact
Hands-On Classes
Our Machine Learning for Public Policy Lab, taught by Professor Rayid Ghani, is a project-based course that teaches you to solve real-world problems using machine learning, with a focus on public policy and social good. You'll build end-to-end machine learning systems, starting from project definition and scoping, to modeling, to field validation and turning their analysis into action.
In Measuring Social, you'll learn to analyze social media data and solve problems for organizations from industry, government, and the media.
For many years, Heinz College has welcomed colleagues from the U.S. Army War College to campus to conduct an International Strategic Crisis Negotiation Exercise with our students, providing an invaluable experience in leadership and international diplomacy.
Policy Innovation Lab: User-Centered Research, Human-Centered Design
The Policy Innovation Lab is an intensive, applied course that prepares you to become a public-interest technologist who is creative, ethical, inclusive, and responsive. You'll learn how to design and build public-interest technology services with human-centered design. Working directly with a client from a government office or public-service nonprofit, you'll develop and deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with high-impact results.
Recent projects include the development of a large language model to ensure safe employment opportunities for immigrants and asylum seekers, the creation of an open-source green investment bonds platform for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and the support of a toolkit that helps the U.S. Census Bureau counter bias in artificial intelligence.
Work Directly With Faculty
Our faculty are more than researchers and instructors. They are innovators and mentors who work to solve major problems facing companies, governments, and society. Most importantly, our faculty are uncommonly accessible and include students in their groundbreaking work. Heinz College and Carnegie Mellon are also home to dozens of renowned research centers.
