TURING FELLOWS CELEBRATES RECORD YEAR, PLACING 19 STUDENTS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY WITH NYC STARTUPS
NYC Turing Fellows Announces Record Number of Applicants, Partner Schools, and Fellows in its Mission to Connect Startups with Top Students from the Top 100 Computer Science Programs
NEW YORK – April 17, 2013 – The NYC Turing Fellows Program, which matches outstanding students with paid technical internships at leading technology startups, proudly announced its record-setting class of 2013, marking the program’s most successful year yet. 19 students were placed into internships at New York City startups through the exclusive Fellowship.
Over 1,000 students from the top 100 computer science programs applied for the program this year, setting a new record for the number of applicants and partner schools. The participating startups, which have cumulatively raised more than $750MM of capital, represent a broad cross-section of New York’s established and emerging startups, covering media, e-commerce, data & analytics, fintech, and more.
The Fellowship is designed to bring the best technical talent from all across the country into the New York tech ecosystem. Turing Fellows executes on this mission by recruiting as many partner schools as possible, and the results speak for themselves.
"I was immersed in the NYC startup scene and got to meet so many incredible people,” said Bethany Sumner, a 2012 Turing Fellow with Kickstarter. “Through the Turing Fellowship, I was able to work for one of my favorite companies, and after the fellowship was over, I ended up accepting a full-time position there."
This year’s Fellows hail from schools across the country, from as far west as the University of Southern California through heartland schools like Oberlin College and the University of Pittsburgh to East Coast institutions such as Brown and Cooper Union. Turing is able to reach so many partner schools thanks in part to an aggressive outreach effort, which is complemented by the unparalleled experience that it offers students.
“One of the things that makes the Turing Fellows so special is its commitment to finding the best technical talent at all of our partner schools,” said Pete Miron, Vice President, Engineering at bit.ly. “World-class developers don’t just graduate from places like Stanford and M.I.T. Turing helps bring these extraordinarily talented individuals -- from all across the country -- to New York startups.”
Over the past several years, about half of the Fellows have continued to work for a startup throughout the year, while others have gone on to full-time positions with New York City startups. This net inflow of talent is positive for New York City as a whole, helping to raise the bar in terms of the quantity and quality of engineers throughout the tech ecoystem.
“NYC Turing Fellows is an important program for our City’s economy, connecting the nation’s top engineering and computer science talent with some of the most innovative New York City-based businesses” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. "Supporting the City’s next wave of entrepreneurs and creating jobs is critical to our future economic success, ensuring that we continue to establish ourselves as the world’s leader in technology and innovation.”
In 2013, Turing Fellows sponsors and partners include:
Startups: Adaptly, AppNexus, bit.ly, Chartbeat, Conductor, Crowdtap, Crowdtwist, Etsy, H.Bloom, Knewton, Livestream, MakerBot, Medialets, Newscred, Pontiflex, Sailthru, Secondmarket, Shopkeep, Smartling, Sulia, Tremor, and Zocdoc.
Corporate Supporters: Ernst & Young, Amazon Web Services, The New York Times Company, Gunderson Dettmer, Daversa Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Square 1 Bank, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Wollmuth Maher & Deutsch.
Venture Capital: Canaan Partners, FirstMark Capital, RRE Ventures, and IA Ventures.
About the NYC Turing Fellows Program
Turing Fellows was founded in 2010 and is co-organized by Warren Lee (Canaan Partners); Amish Jani (FirstMark Capital); Peter Miron (bit.ly); Brendan Dickinson (Canaan Partners); Abraham Geiger (Shake); and Dan Kozikowski (FirstMark Capital). Since its inception, the organization has paid out $175,000 in fellowship grants to an elite group of 35 students who landed internships with 27 of New York’s brightest tech startups.
The NYC Turing Fellows Program seeks to support the rapidly growing technology ecosystem in New York City by matching outstanding computer science and engineering students from across the U.S. and Canada to paid summer internships with leading technology startups. The fellowship is named after Alan Turing who was an early pioneer in computer science and the quintessential hacker who invented a number of critical techniques for breaking German ciphers, including the Enigma machine, during WWII. Details on the NYC Turing Fellows Program can be found at www.nycturingfellows.org.
Media Contact:
Emily Miethner / NYC Turing Fellows Program / 646.543.9823 / emily@nycturingfellows.org