Introducing Colorwave’s 8th Fellowship Cohort
This Spring Colorwave proudly welcomes 61 new fellows to our community.
A welcome from our Executive Director, John Roussel.
We’re excited to continue our movement of building a more equitable and inclusive innovation economy with the launch of our eighth cohort! This fellowship cohort brings together diverse talent from more than 12 functional areas and represents 14 states across the nation.
Recent attacks on DEI have pushed companies, institutions, and leaders to recoil from commitments to create meaningful change in society and the workplace. Without intentional action to support underrepresented professionals, this increasing momentum against DEI and racial equality will continue to widen the racial wealth gap and barriers to economic mobility. Amidst these threats, Colorwave is building a community to advance change for underrepresented communities in America’s innovation economy.
Our flagship fellowship is more important than ever, giving our fellows exposure and agency in their careers to help them:
(1) understand how they can contribute in a meaningful way to build strong careers (2) earn higher-quality wages to help close the wealth gap for their families and (3) pay it forward by opening doors for those with similar backgrounds.
For three years, our programming has supported more than 440 diverse fellows by increasing access to jobs and ownership within venture capital, startups, and tech. We have’ continued to enhance the programming experience for our fellows by offering access to greater coaching and support in their respective job searches, connecting participants to key hiring networks and contacts within our industry network, and continuing our support of fellows’ career journeys well beyond the fellowship.
As the Colorwave Family continues to grow, we are thrilled to welcome this new group and look forward to their impact on the Colorwave community and broader innovation economy.
Our eighth fellowship cohort underwent a thorough and data-focused selection process. We screened applicants based on a few key pillars:
- Transferability of skills, career clarity, and start-up readiness
- Market demand of functional expertise
- Alignment with Colorwave’s mission and values.
More about Cohort 8!
- Racial Breakdown: Black/African-American (44%), Latinx (39%), Asian (10%), Two or More Races (3%), Gender Breakdown: Female (61%), Male (39%)
- Leading Functional Representation: Engineering, Data / Research, Operations, Marketing, Program Management
- Geographical Representation: East (49%), West (28%), South (16%), Midwest (7%)
- Companies and Organizations Represented: Allbirds, Amazon Web Services, Chief, CrowDoing, Deloitte Consulting, Goldman Sachs, iFund Women, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, Latinas in Tech, Meta, New York Presbyterian Investment Office, New York Urban League, OneReach.ai, The Knowledge House, Verizon, Wayfair
Once again, welcome to this wonderful group of new fellows! We are honored to support them in their respective career journeys as we build a more inclusive innovation economy.
Much of our work and impact is made possible by our incredible partners. We would like to thank this year’s partnering sponsor organizations for their partnership, contributions, and commitment to broadening access to the innovation economy for our fellowship participants and the entire Colorwave talent community.
Want to help support our mission?
If you’re interested in supporting our work as a sponsor or volunteer, let us know here. Are you interested in becoming a fellow? Complete our interest form here.
Like to connect or keep in touch?
- Learn more about us @ www.thecolorwave.org
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