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Mayor de Blasio, Cornell Tech and CUNY Launch Winternship: A Paid Internship Program & Digital Campaign for CUNY Women in Tech

October 11, 2017

Over 200 freshmen and sophomore women at CUNY will participate in two-week program across dozens of companies; campaign will open doors for more young women in tech sector

NEW YORK—Mayor de Blasio, Cornell Tech and the City University of New York today launched a new winter internship program as part of the Women in Technology and Entrepreneurship in NY (WiTNY) initiative. The program, called a Winternship, will provide paid internships to up to 200 CUNY female students in their freshman or sophomore year who are studying computer science or related fields.

Today, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and dozens of companies gathered at Cornell Tech to craft their Winternship program in conjunction with the launch of a marketing campaign to encourage more companies to sponsor young women exploring degree and career opportunities in technology. The campaign will include digital advertising on social media platforms and on LinkNYC kiosks across the city.

Participating companies include Verizon, OATH, Accenture, Citi, Turner, AppNexus, Grand Central Tech, Bitly, Blackstone, and many others. The Winternships will occur during CUNY’s winter break in January 2018.

“New York City is building the strongest tech sector for women anywhere in the country,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “These are real investments that put more women on career paths in technology. We thank Cornell Tech, CUNY and our private sector partners for collaborating to help women build their skills and their resumes.”

“Cornell Tech is proud to partner with CUNY and dozens of companies who are dedicated to launching the next generation of women in tech in New York,” said Judith Spitz, Cornell Tech’s WiTNY Program Director. “Winternships will give CUNY freshmen and sophomores that first ‘foot in the door’ and an early look into what their future in tech could be like as they build their skills, confidence, and network. We believe that with one or more of these experiences ‘under their belt’ and on their resumes, we will replace the obstacle course that these young women face with a glide path to success; giving them the opportunity to share in the benefits the tech industry affords.”
  
“Women are vastly underrepresented in the technology workforce, and this new Winternship program is part of CUNY’s comprehensive effort to address this problem,” said Associate Vice Chancellor Andrea Shapiro Davis, who is leading the WiTNY program at CUNY. “These internships will not only provide new opportunities for our students, but will more broadly introduce the NY tech ecosystem to the strengths and talents of our diverse student population and show them that CUNY is a place to recruit the next generation of tech talent.”

"New York is the best place to be a woman in tech, and the Winternship program is an example of that," said Julie Samuels, Executive Director of Tech:NYC. "It's refreshing and meaningful to see institutions like Cornell Tech and CUNY join with the private sector to support our future women leaders and to work together to realize the goal of a tech industry where women are truly equal."

Short internships early in their college careers will give these young CUNY women much needed exposure, experience and a set of credentials that make their resumes more competitive when it comes time to apply for 10-week summer internships, and ultimately full-time jobs. Giving young women these mini-internship experiences will help launch the careers of a new generation of women in tech in New York.

“People are New York City’s greatest source of competitive advantage,” said Lynn McMahon, New York Metro Office Managing Director, Accenture. “At a time when employers are facing a skills gap – particularly in the technology field – internships are an effective way for companies to reach previously untapped pools of talent. We believe that the Cornell Tech and the City University of New York winter internship program is critical to ignite greater interest in technology and ultimately build a stronger pipeline in New York City.”

A digital advertising campaign on social media and LinkNYC kiosks will show the diverse group of women who have participated in other WiTNY programs to encourage more young women to pursue careers in tech. Through the campaign, WiTNY will also generate interest from additional companies who want to join the WiTNY network.

The City of New York, along with Cornell Tech and CUNY, are committed to encouraging more women to pursue careers in technology. As part of this mission, Cornell Tech, CUNY, and a growing number of corporations including Verizon, Accenture, IBM, Citi and Xerox have partnered to create WiTNY to facilitate, encourage, and enable a significant increase in the participation of women in both higher education and entrepreneurship in fields related to technology in the New York market. The City of New York has supported these efforts, facilitating industry-academia partnerships through its Tech Talent Pipeline and other initiatives to build a more inclusive tech ecosystem.
Over the past two years, graduates of TTP’s industry-informed college programs have secured jobs across the NYC tech ecosystem at companies like Time, Inc., Viacom, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs.  Through the Mayor’s TTP Academic Council, 16 presidents and provosts of public and private NYC colleges - including Columbia, NYU, Pace, Pratt Institute, and CUNY – have also made commitments to further pathways to tech careers for an additional 1,300 New Yorkers.
WiTNY’s strategy is to recruit more women by working with CUNY faculty to offer innovative introductory curricula -- both undergraduate courses as well as a unique summer program called the Summer Guild for women in between their last year of high school and first year at CUNY -- and retain them through scholarship incentives, career immersion via high tech internships, programming and mentorship to develop a robust community of tech women in New York.
To expand access to computer science at CUNY, Cornell Tech and CUNY partnered and developed curriculum that is being implemented at more than a dozen campuses. Building on this success, this past June, Mayor de Blasio announced a new comprehensive commitment to double the number of CUNY tech Bachelor’s recipients who graduate ready to secure and succeed in tech jobs by 2022.
The City will highlight new investments in instruction, advising, and internships as well as industry commitments to meeting this goal at a Partners Summit on October 23rd.  
About Cornell Tech
Cornell Tech brings together faculty, business leaders, tech entrepreneurs and students in a catalytic environment to produce visionary results grounded in significant needs that will reinvent the way we live in the digital age. The Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute embodies the academic partnership between the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell University on the Cornell Tech campus.

From 2012-2017, the campus was temporarily located in Google’s New York City building. In fall 2017, 30 world-class faculty and about 300 graduate students moved to the first phase of Cornell Tech’s permanent campus on Roosevelt Island, continuing to conduct groundbreaking research, collaborate extensively with tech-oriented companies and organizations and pursue their own startups. When fully completed, the campus will include two million square feet of state-of-the-art buildings, over two acres of open space, and will be home to more than 2,000 graduate students and hundreds of faculty and staff.

About CUNY
The City University of New York is the nation’s leading urban public university. Founded in 1847, the University comprises 24 institutions: 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, the William E. Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, the CUNY Graduate School Center, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY School of Law, the CUNY School of Professional Studies and the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. The University serves more than 272,000 degree-seeking students. College Now, the University’s academic enrichment program, is offered at CUNY campuses and more than 400 high schools throughout the five boroughs. The University offers online baccalaureate and master’s degrees through the CUNY School of Professional Studies.

About the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline
Launched by the Mayor in 2014, the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline is the City’s tech Industry Partnership, designed to support the inclusive growth of the NYC tech sector and prepare New Yorkers for 21st century jobs. Incubated and supported by the NYC Department of Small Business Services, the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline works with 175 companies, 16 local colleges, and additional public and private partners to define employer needs, develop training and education models to meet these needs, and scale solutions throughout the City, delivering quality talent for the City’s businesses and quality jobs for New Yorkers. Learn more information at http://www.techtalentpipeline.nyc/ or email team@techtalent.nyc.

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