 The U.S. Digital Core is a two-year full-time paid fellowship for early career technologists to serve in the federal government. We launched it earlier this year in August from the BIND administration, and it's launched here at the General Services Administration, or GSA, in what is called the Technology Transformation Services. We work alongside other public interest technology groups that you may have heard of, including the Presidential Innovation Fellows, Centers of Excellence, and AT&F. And really what the Digital Core is about is that we know that technology today dictates so much of the public's experience in government, and it's absolutely crucial that we get that right. And we recognize that we need software engineers, data scientists, and data analysts, product managers, human-centered designers, and cybersecurity experts to raise their hands and serve in government. The impact and mission that we have here at the federal level are second to none, and we're really just placing the public in public interest technology. And I can remember when I was an early career technologist coming out of school, and we've heard this from so many people coming out of school, undergraduate programs, training programs, that they were really unclear about how to find and apply for opportunities at the intersection of technology and government. And many of those opportunities for a long time, the ones that have existed, have been for mid to senior level folks, like the Innovation Fellows program in the United States Digital Service. And I experienced that program firsthand, and it led me to start a nonprofit organization that built community and opportunities like summer internships for students to dip their toes in public interest technology. And that program, along with many others, showed that students and recent graduates could have tremendous impact with their technology skills in as short as a 10-week period. And so with the Digital Core, we're building on that. It's a two-year, again, full-time program for early career technologists to bring their skills to the federal government and build a more effective and equitable public sector for all of us. Our program is the first and, as of now, the only government-wide technology recruiting process that will allow early career Americans to build a path in a federal career. One thing that was really important to us that we'll touch on a little bit later in designing the program is that fellows will have that pathway to a long-term career, not just a tour of duty model, so to speak. And so we just closed our application process for our first cohort of fellows. We'll start June of 2022 at a number of agencies working to serve the public, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and right here at the General Services Administration. So the opportunity has big for us, and so we're planning to scale in response. We're starting with about 30 fellows in this first year for our 2022 cohort, and we know that the size of the federal government's technology talent gap will require a solution at scale. And so in building the program, we've been very purposeful to architect toward that and ensure that in our steady state and then in the medium term and then longer term, as we scale from 30 to hundreds and potentially thousands in the future per year, we'll be able to support and retain high volume of talent coming into federal government technology work. And as we think about scale, we're talking about two sides of the coin. So there's a fellow side, the opportunity, the talent side, and also the agency demand side. And so first we're thinking about how we build demand in our talent pool. So we're looking forward to building demand for the fellowship outside of government with students of all ages across the country, looking at degree programs, two and four year graduate school certificate programs. And we've been engaging and deepening our relationships with nonprofit organizations, the civic tech community, affinity groups, and showing up in places like conferences and consortiums to show that we're there, we understand what talent is looking for, and we're providing another opportunity for them to consider federal government. And to support that, we need to make sure that we're both scaling in terms of volume, but that we're also ensuring a strong quality experience for fellows. And so as part of that, we're scaling our program office and we are intentionally investing in ensuring a strong experience. So we're building up that central team to make sure that we have strong onboarding and orientation. We have a learning and development program that will guide fellows throughout that two years, moving from that orientation to the work through strong skills around how to be strong federal employees, how to grow in your skill track over time. And we're building a mentorship program to make sure that they have the support that they need from all sides of the coin. And I think the other piece when we think about, we first talked a little bit about fellow demand and building that up, it's also the agency demand and making sure that we have great placements for these fellows to go. And so that'll be all about identifying the departments and agencies and teams that are using technology to serve the public, making sure there are great experiences, there are high impact projects for fellows to work on, and that we're also providing agencies with the talent that they need to be successful in their work, whether they're helping to, you know, focus on increasing access to student loans or small business loans, their focus on Medicare work. We wanna make sure that we're providing them the talent that they need to be successful so we can overall improve service delivery for the public. So diversity is a core pillar for us in this program, and there are kind of two core challenges that we're really seeking to solve. The first being that the federal workforce currently faces an immediate and very critical early career talent gap that if left unaddressed will end up compounding into a retirement swell. So furthermore, the workforce currently doesn't yet represent the diversity of America. So one example kind of staff we have is only 26% of our employees are identifying as women. And so what we wanna do is really make sure that we get the right folks at the table so that we're both designing and delivering government tech solutions that reflect the experiences of the very people that we seek to serve. Our digital core is seeking to recruit mission driven, high impact technologists from undergraduate, graduate certification programs, and really people looking to build highly skilled, we're looking to build a highly skilled US digital core that again represents that diversity of the United States. And so we are looking to build relationships and meet these folks exactly where they are with various organizations that are looking to serve technologists from those traditionally underrepresented communities. So with that, we've spoken at conferences, we've had booth set career fairs, we've networked with individuals who are interested in learning more. One concern that people do raise is about salaries and pay inside of the federal space. So we have worked very hard to make sure that for example, somebody working in Washington, DC will have a salary of $80,000 in their first year. So it's not necessarily dollar for dollar with private industry, but we've worked diligently to make sure that it is a competitive salary that makes it accessible, makes this program accessible to those who are interested to serve. We are extremely committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility throughout every aspect of the program. We are thinking about it end to end in where we recruit, how we recruit, how we outreach, how we select and where we're going to place folks. And we're going to be really ensuring financial accessibility for all with that competitive salary and benefits. The biggest piece of advice I would give early career technologists is to really put yourself out there, take your career in your own hands and really go for it. There is so much work to be done, we are looking for you. We need as many folks to get involved across the federal space. There's a lot of high impact, exciting work that's happening. So definitely don't hesitate to reach out to people whether it be on LinkedIn, people you meet. There's a lot of volunteer organizations to get involved in, especially if you're still in school. There's more and more internship programs, if student clubs, there's ways to engage with the faculty. The list really doesn't end and don't hesitate to play the student card people really like to mentor and support students in their journey, especially in their early career. So I myself, I'm a Presidential Innovation Fellow. So I came into the federal space as a mid to late career technologist. But what I've seen through this program is that other Presidential Innovation Fellows or other folks who have more experiences across the federal space are really seeking to support students and early career folks and really help them understand what it is to have a career in the federal space. So build both your technical and non-technical skills for the Digital Core. We're looking for people who have training and knowledge in five specific areas. So if you are interested, the five tracks are software engineering, data science and analytics, product management, design, as well as cybersecurity. But we know that the strongest public interest technologists are effective communicators and translators. So definitely seek out skill sets, again, both technical and non-technical and learn from those who are making themselves available via coffee chats or other support networks. Five years feels, I think, simultaneously like a long time in the future, but also not that long at all. And when I think about this, I reflect back five years ago. Personally, I was still a student who was trying to explore my interests in technology, in public service and civic engagement. And I really frankly did not see many intersections. I felt that those were mutually exclusive and that one day I'd have to pick one or the other. But now, just five short years later, I'm excited that someone who's in my shoes, someone like you that might be watching this has concrete opportunities like the US Digital Core that are attractive and fulfilling for people early in their career. And I think what the Digital Core is doing is showing that this work is not only important, but that it is accessible and you don't have to have five or 10 years of experience under your belt. And so I think building on that trajectory, I think five years from now, I'm hoping not only are public interest technology opportunities accessible, but they become seen more as a sense of civic duty. I think what is happening and what we are doing is changing the conversation on college campuses, changing the conversation when it comes to the types of opportunities that people are pursuing. Very similar to how the field of public interest law did for legal profession in law schools just a couple of decades ago. And now today we see that for many students clerking for a federal judge or for Supreme Court justice is seen as an honor and a duty to serve. And so I think there's no reason that we here in the public interest technology space can't have something similar. I think today a lot of people are saying that our field is in our quote, unquote teenage years. And we've developed from communicating the importance of having technologists in government to focusing on how we can invest and keep these people in government for longer than perhaps a year or two. And so another thing that we're so focused on here with the digital core is building those longer-term pathways and career trajectories. We're investing in people, in mentorship and support and growth opportunity use, an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility and make sure that people really feel comfortable bringing their whole selves into the public interest technology space into work and feel respected and empowered in doing so. And I think in the next five years we wanna go beyond public interest technology opportunities just in the government, but embed the values of fairness and equity, the ethos that we have as a field into all the technology that we built, public, private and everywhere in between. And I think this is an exciting time for public interest technology because this is an administration. So many of our leaders here in the federal government recognize how crucial technology is to having an effective, equitable government that works for the people and that recognizes that service delivery, making sure that government is delivering on its promises and its policies via technology, making that a focal point. And we've appointed senior advisors for technology and delivery to cabinet secretary, senior officials that are really bringing the work of public interest technology into the rooms where they happen. And so I think these growing tech teams here in government and the nonprofit world will all need technologists at all levels to code, deploy, ship and maintain. And I think the digital core is just one great opportunity for people to get involved. And so we hope that our program will play a large part in continuing to shape what public interest technology looks like in the next five years and encourage you to keep in touch with us by joining our mailing list, following us on social media. And really most importantly, we need you to be a part of public interest technology. So whether it's through the digital core or other programs, we really hope that you get involved.