Public Service Pipeline

Students from across the university, whether they dream of becoming a mayor, city administrator, policy leader, or simply want to make a difference in their community, can participate in programming that connects various learning experiences with real-world civic leadership.

PSP students will be granted exclusive access to events, opportunities to engage closely with civic leaders, chances to attend excursions, and more. Impact Scholars play a central role in the Public Service Pipeline experience by serving as mentors, educators, and thought partners.

For Interested Students

Across the nation, local governments are absorbing increasing responsibility—and urgently seeking next-generation leaders to step up and drive solutions. The Public Service Pipeline, a new extracurricular program launching this fall, connects you directly with former public executives to examine urgent civic issues, explore career pathways, and build the skills to lead where impact matters most.

What You Get:

• Executive Access: Unparalleled access to public service executives sharing first-hand experiences.
• Priority Admission: Preferred entry to seminars and small group Civic Leadership Labs (first come, first served).
• Professional Development: Expanded knowledge, skills, and professional networks needed to pursue public leadership and other high-impact careers.
• Certification: Those who attend at least 2 of the 4 seminars offered, and 4 of the 7 Civic Leadership Labs, will receive official recognition as a Pipeline Member with a certificate.

The Public Service Pipeline welcomes Penn undergraduate and graduate students from every school, background, and academic discipline who are curious about civic leadership and driving real-world change. Event schedules will be released at the start of the semester to allow for advanced scheduling.

Students can indicate interest by submitting this form to be considered.

If a student wishes to be more involved in the program, they can apply to be a PSPI Impact Scholar Student Leader (SL). This role is a semester-long paid opportunity open to all UPenn students.

SLs work in teams of 2, paired with a former local public executive in the Impact Scholar Program, serving as thought partners who provide a student perspective to the scholar, as well as administrative and research support.

This is a unique opportunity to work directly alongside experienced civic leaders, receiving mentorship, building research and leadership skills, helping shape a brand-new university initiative, and gaining valuable insights into how local government and policy really work.

SL roles open for applications would be found on the student work portal.

The Public Service and Policy Initiative (PSPI) at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design bridges the rigor of academic research, the experience of public-sector leadership, and the application of human-centered solutions. Launched in 2022, we successfully piloted the Philadelphia Economic Equity Project, a longitudinal research study on economic hardship in Philadelphia and are currently expanding our student-facing programming in partnership with the Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR).