We\u2019re thrilled to announce: now through the end of February, we\u2019re recruiting for the 2019 Congressional Innovation Scholars Program<\/a>!<\/p>\n Growing the Scholars fellowship\u2014 the sister program to our Congressional Innovation Fellowship\u2014 is an exciting development. \u00a0The Innovation Fellowship is now in its fourth year, and continuing to mature. We\u2019ve seen the impact that our fellows can have\u2014 including leading the investigation into Cambridge Analytica<\/a>, passing a landmark open data bill<\/a>, and securing the Congress from hacking attempts by the Russian government<\/a>. \u00a0This is all in the last nine months.<\/p>\n These accomplishments have proven the core hypothesis of TechCongress: that technologists, when placed in the right roles in government, can have an outsized impact improving and modernizing government. \u00a0Just as importantly, fellows are proving the necessity of their expertise, making themselves indispensable, and getting hired on as leaders in Congress and civil society.<\/p>\n Our fellowship model is priming the pump on the demand side of government and civil society. \u00a0Once institutions realize how much more effective they can be with a technical person working on policy issues, they also realize they can\u2019t live without that expertise. \u00a0Once you\u2019ve driven a Porsche, there\u2019s no going back to your old Ford Pinto.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s another side to the equation that needs just as much attention as the demand side: the supply of technical talent, especially in universities.<\/p>\n I wrote last year<\/a> of talking with computer science, engineering, informatics, and data science\u00a0faculty across the country. \u201cI can name for you, right now, half a dozen students that would like to work in government or public policy.\u201d Ths was the response I got from virtually professor I spoke with.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ve personally heard from these students as well. \u00a0Over 100 students applied for the Congressional Innovation Fellowship, even though that program is squarely mid-career. \u00a0I get a cold email every couple days from a student seeking to do public interest work.<\/p>\n We need more pathways for them to do so. \u00a0And that\u2019s why we\u2019re expanding the Scholars program. <\/strong><\/p>\n Last year, we piloted the program, and wanted to test a few assumptions:<\/p>\n The answers from our first Innovation Scholar<\/a>, Katherine Pratt were unequivocable: yes to all.<\/p>\n Katherine had seven Congressional Offices fighting over her\u2014 tying our fellowship record at the time\u2014 each pitching her on why their office was the ideal place to serve her fellowship, before deciding to work for her local Member of Congress, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA).<\/p>\n She did extraordinary work on digital privacy issues, including helping Rep. DelBene introduce comprehensive privacy legislation<\/a>, and probing issues of facial recognition and notice and consent of data use. \u00a0And she built an extraordinary network of policymakers and advocates that will serve her well as she finishes her PhD dissertation about the risks of human-computing interfaces and neural privacy. Just this week she was testifying before the Washington State Legislature<\/a> about the risks of facial recognition!<\/p>\n Katherine\u2019s experience was a resounding success. Now it\u2019s time to find more Katherines.<\/p>\n From now until midnight EST on February 28, 2019, we\u2019re recruiting for two to four 2019 Congressional Innovation Scholars.<\/p>\n Scholars, starting in June 2019, will serve for a minimum of six months\u2014 and up to twelve, if desired\u2014 in Congress. \u00a0The program is exclusive to current students or recent graduates with a technical background. TechCongress will provide needs-based stipends as required, and include support for healthcare, relocation and other travel for the Scholars.<\/p>\n For more information, you can visit our application page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Interested in learning even more? \u00a0Join us for an informational call about the program<\/a> on Friday, February 15th at 2:00pm ET \/\/ 11:00am Pacific, or listen to one of our prior informational calls<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tech Congress 2019 Innovative Scholars Program We\u2019re thrilled to announce: now through the end of February, we\u2019re recruiting for the 2019 Congressional Innovation Scholars Program!…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-call","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n