TechCongress is committed to building an ecosystem of diverse, cross-sector technology policy leaders. We are proud to be the first organization in politics to offer a Diversity Referral Award, which, according to Kapor Center Founder Freada Klein, makes “a statistically significant difference in decreasing unfair treatment and increasing retention.” We give $500 to someone who refers a candidate from an underrepresented community to TechCongress’ fellowship program if that candidate is accepted and joins the program. This includes underrepresented people of color, women or nonbinary individuals, and veterans and transitioning service members.
Lack of diversity in Congress stems from many places- especially among staff. In 2023, only “18 percent of top [Congressional] staff for new and returning members are people of color, according to data compiled by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies,” as opposed to people of color comprising of 40 percent of Americans nationwide.
As an organization that places technologists on the Hill, and as an organization dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion, we are committed to using our platform to ensure that the voices of all orientations, races, abilities, socioeconomic status, and genders are represented in government.
We are proud and grateful to give diversity referral awards to the following people who have referred accepted fellows since 2022:
Joshua Kravitz
Victoria Adofoli
Jennie Kam (2023 and 2024)
Marissa Gerchick (who donated their award to Black in AI)
Daniel Schuman
Conor McGlynn
David Cook
James Gimbi
Anoushka Bose
Jonathan Mayer
Victoria Houed
Aditi Somani
We started our referral award in 2018. Since then, we have awarded a total of $14,000 in awards.
We thank these award-winners– and all of those who have encouraged underrepresented groups to apply to TechCongress’ fellowship– for helping carry out our core values. If you know somebody from an underrepresented demographic who may be interested in TechCongress’ fellowship, please nominate them so that we may continue to foster diversity in government.