Transitions and New Beginnings

It’s an interesting time to be at Code for America right now. November marks the formal beginning of the “transition” phase for the 2012 Fellowship Program. Fellows are hard at work transitioning their applications, transitioning the relationships they’ve established in City Hall and in their communities – and transitioning themselves into exciting new chapters in their personal and professional lives.

With a little more than a week left in the 2012 Program all this hard work is mixed with feelings of both excitement for what lies ahead and a bit of melancholy that this intense and intensive year is slowly coming to an end (in actuality, one’s relationship with Code for America never comes to an end, just simply morphs into a new shade and texture). As we begin to look back on the past 11 months, we’re both inspired and grateful for what the fellows and their cities have accomplished together this year.

In the midst of all this transition, we are also inspired by another new beginning – the selection of the 2013 Fellows and 2013 Cities who, on January 4, 2013, will form the next Code for America Fellowship class. A new group of Fellows, 29 in all, who will bring to this experience immense talent, diverse skills, broad experiences and more than a little passion. And a new group of cities and counties, 10 in all, who are innovative, hard charging, and care deeply about making their cities better.

This new group of Fellows, 18 men and 11 woman with diverse backgrounds in government, non-profits, and industry and broad skills in programming, design, urbanism, data science, and project management, will work with the likes of Kansas City, Mo.; Kansas City, Kan.; New York; South Bend, Ind.; San Francisco; Louisville, Ken.; Oakland, Calif.; Las Vegas, and the counties of San Mateo, Calif. and Summit, Ohio – to tackle opportunities in areas as diverse as criminal justice, economic development, social service access, city procurement, recreational activity access, and city revitalization. With all of this talent, experience and passion, it is shaping up to be another remarkable year.

So as we slowly wrap up 2012 and begin to welcome 2013, we feel a strong desire to celebrate – to celebrate the remarkable achievements of this past year (those of you who participated in the CfA Summit, know what we mean) and to celebrate the promise of remarkable achievement next year. I hope you join us in the celebration.

And I hope you will join us in recognizing the 2012 fellows and 2012 cities for all their amazing work this year and welcoming the 2013 Fellows and 2013 Government Partners with whom we’ll work next year.

And as the 2012 Fellows prepare for the next step in their bright careers I know they would appreciate hearing from any of you who are aware of exciting opportunities for which they might be interested (please let us know by emailing bob[@]codeforamerica.org).

Transitions and new beginnings – a natural cycle that brings celebration and the promise of great things to come.

Questions? Comments? Hit us up @codeforamerica.

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