Pepperdine Public Relations Students Team Up with Special Olympics of Southern California

Successful PR depends upon authentic communication, a golden rule of the business. 

This spring, a senior capstone class led by Klive Oh, associate professor of public relations, practiced that simple truth by trading textbooks for real clients and real pitches to develop PR campaigns for Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC), a nonprofit devoted to providing a community with confidence and fulfillment through sports. 

“Capstone courses involve two pillars,” says Oh. “One is a culmination of academics—putting all your education together—and the second is career readiness. I wanted students to be able to see the value behind PR work by partnering with such a great organization like SOSC.” 

Oh's class delivering their pitches

Oh began by conducting his class like a real-life PR firm. Donning the role as agency’s senior-most executive, Oh conducted a mock interview with each student and requested each to provide a cover letter and updated résumé as if they were applying for a position at a real company. Then he questioned them about their skills and areas of expertise, to consider where they would best fit to serve their client: SOSC. 

Across 11 local counties, SOSC provides nearly 25,000 special abilities athletes with physical fitness activities, helping them gain self-confidence through leadership and sports competitions. Year-round events span 12 Olympic-type sports, including basketball, flag football, swimming, volleyball, and even bocce ball. 

Oh placed his 21 students into four teams where each assumed roles such as executive and creative director. Projects for SOSC ranged from creating campaigns to boost event participation to developing LinkedIn tool kits for volunteers. While other teams crafted templates for consistent branding across social media materials or ventured into the world of community engagement, conducting outreach to potential partner corporations.

SOSC athlete sharing her dream

While being mindful of their client’s communications needs, Oh’s students were encouraged to let their creative ideas run wild. Following a kickoff meeting with their clients in January, each group formally pitched their ideas right before spring break in February. When students returned to classes, they received feedback on their work—mainly the ideas that the clients wanted to implement and those that needed to go back to the drawing board. 

The following months involved execution of their approved ideas. For instance, graduating senior Campbell Hamilton and her team partnered with Kiwi filmmaker Fraser Grut—whom she had befriended at church—to recruit SOSC athletes for his 10,000 Dreams project. Launched when he was only 22 years old, Grut’s project has taken him across the world to ask prime ministers and pilots to movie stars and grocery store clerks one question: “What is your dream?” 

While building a wider awareness of SOSC and its mission through a feature on Grut’s social media, Hamilton’s project gave a direct voice to specific SOSC athletes as they spoke of their biggest dreams on camera. One athlete, Sasha, shared a tripartite dream: unite people across differences, to become the CEO of SOSC, and to someday meet Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps. Hamilton shares that she was deeply moved by the collaboration. 

“Being a part of this project with SOSC and 10,000 Dreams was so impactful,” says Hamilton. “Most importantly I saw the power of storytelling come to life, and that is arguably the whole reason PR exists.” 

Parisa Samadi, another student, explains that it was rewarding to see the fruits of her education after years of exams, in-class projects, and long study nights. She also appreciated the practical experience of presenting their finished project to SOSC executives in April right before graduation. 

Oh's class at their final presentation 

“I loved getting to know how their internal operations worked, and being able to give SOSC a fresh perspective on the PR front,” says Samandi. “My favorite part about this project was knowing that the work we did would truly help the organization and community.”

Oh’s recent partnership with SOSC builds upon years of successful community engagement, including work with the Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood in 2024 and Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce in 2025, where his previous students provided strategic communication tools to aid in encouraging and rebuilding the Malibu community following the devastation of the Palisades fire.

“I am incredibly proud of my students,” says Oh. “When they worked with actual clients to do pitches early on and implement their campaigns during the semester, they reacted, responded, and then rose to the occasion.” 

Watch Fraser Grut x Pepperdine University’s Pursuit of Purpose project.