Whitfield Innovation, Strategy and Engagement Center for Leadership in Public Service

For people with a heart to serve.

Public service should not require wasted years or wasted money to learn. WISE CLIPS teaches the real work of serving a community, taught by people who have done it, and built together with the people who sign up.

Four ways in

Every path here starts with an I.

Learn

A curriculum built with you, not for you.

Most people who feel called to public service have no on-ramp short of a graduate degree. We are building that on-ramp: practical, working-session courses where you leave with a skill and a finished product, taught in a fill-in, do-it-live format.

  • Taught by practitioners: a former mayor, executives, and public servants doing the work now
  • Short courses and workshops, not semesters
  • You vote on what gets built first, starting with the form on this page

Signing up costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It puts you in the first cohort conversation and gives your vote weight in what we teach first.

Join and shape the first courses

Check what you would take. Tell us what is missing.

How the internship pipeline works

1. Students raise a hand

College students tell us their interests and whether they are looking for paid work or a shadowing experience.

2. Organizations post real needs

Cities, agencies, and nonprofits describe work a student could genuinely move forward, not busywork.

3. We match and support both sides

Placements come with structure, mentorship, and a named supervisor, so students grow and organizations get value.

Students

Serve early. Learn the work for real.

If you are a college student who wants to give back, you should not have to wait until after graduation to find out what public service is actually like. Our placements put you inside real work: some paid, some shadowing, all with mentorship.

  • Paid internships as funded placements become available
  • Shadowing placements to see the work up close first
  • Mentorship from practitioners throughout your placement

This form registers your interest for the first placement cycle. We will contact you as matches open.

Student interest form

Tell us who you are and how you want to serve.

Organizations

Get a student who moves the work forward.

Cities, agencies, and community organizations always have more mission than staff. Tell us where a motivated student could make a real contribution, and we will work to match you with one, with structure and support built in.

  • Describe the need in plain terms; we help scope it into a placement
  • Host a paid intern if you have funding, or a shadowing student if you do not
  • Every placement includes expectations, check-ins, and a point of contact

List your intern need

A few sentences is enough to start the conversation.

Support

Help build the on-ramp to public service.

Paid internships, scholarships for courses, and matching infrastructure all take resources. We are assembling founding supporters now: people and institutions who want to fund placements, mentor students, host cohorts, or partner on programs.

We are currently establishing the charitable structure for this work. We are not accepting donations yet, and nothing on this page is a solicitation. Raising your hand here means you will be the first to know when there is a concrete way to give, and you will help shape what we build in the meantime.

Become a founding supporter

Tell us how you would want to help.

Frank Whitfield
Founder
  • Former Mayor of Elyria, Ohio
  • Former President and CEO, Lorain County Urban League
  • Built a municipal housing development program from the ground up
  • Executive MBA, Case Western Reserve University
  • Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
Why this exists

Nobody handed me a map. So we are drawing one.

Frank learned public service the long way: in the mayor's office, at the Urban League, and building programs inside city government. WISE CLIPS exists so the next person with a heart to serve, whether they are 20 or 50, does not have to learn it the long way. The initiatives Frank built are still running years after he moved on. That is the standard here: build things that outlast the builder, and build them with the people they serve.