Students, entrepreneurs, scientists, and industry leaders gathered at Cure to celebrate a significant achievement: the placement of the 1,000th student through the LifeSci NYC Internship Program. Designed to prepare diverse talent for careers in life sciences, the program plays a vital role in strengthening New York City’s position as a global hub for innovation.
Since its launch in 2017 by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the program has placed undergraduate and graduate students in more than 220 partner companies, including biotechs, pharmaceutical, digital health and research organizations and startups.
LifeSci NYC is a $1 billion initiative established to create 40,000 jobs in New York City during the next 10 to 15 years. The internship program prepares students from diverse backgrounds for good-paying jobs in the life sciences and boosts the growth of the industry in New York City. The program and other LifeSci NYC initiatives are designed to ensure that the City remains a global leader in innovation while developing the next generation of scientists and researchers from a diverse, homegrown pipeline of talent.
"No breakthrough in healthcare, no innovation in life sciences and no step forward in our collective New York City ecosystem would happen without collaboration. That's the collaboration that we see in this room, between institutions and industry, and between entrepreneurs and researchers" said Viq Pervaaz, Senior Vice President, Life Sciences & Healthcare at NYCEDC, during the ceremony. "We also see collaboration in the LifeSci NYC Internship Program between the mentors and advisors who groom interns to become future leaders of innovation. Their impact on the life sciences and healthcare reaches far beyond New York City."
Cecilia Kushner, Chief Strategy Officer of NYCEDC, noted that the internship began as a pilot program. "We asked ourselves, can we make an impact on building the talent of tomorrow? We didn't know that it would be so successful, and that's really a testament to the collective life sciences ecosystem," she explained. "To the interns: we are rooting for your success and for the success you'll bring to the life sciences in New York City."
The data Kushner shared underscore the internship program's achievements:
Nearly half of the program's graduates received offers to extend their internships or for a full-time job
50 percent of program alumni continue to work in the life sciences in New York City — an impressive retention rate
71 percent are non-white
58 percent are women
43 percent are City University of New York students
35 percent of interns are first-generation college students
Interns receive vital hands-on experience learning about the latest trends in biotechnology, bioengineering and related fields. Annalise Schweickart, PhD. was a 2022 intern for Harmonic Discovery, where she served as a bioinformatics consultant. She earned her PhD from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in November 2023.
She is now a postdoctoral researcher at Weill Cornell, exploring the metabolic landscape of Alzheimer's disease in diverse populations and the impact of weight loss mechanisms on metabolic profiles, particularly as they relate to breast cancer outcomes.
"My LifeSci internship really changed the path of my career. It taught me what it's like to work for a startup, how to get a drug approved, and how AI and machine learning are going to be important for the future of drug discovery," Schweickart told the audience. "But beyond the internship itself, the amount of opportunities the LifeSci NYC internship program provided is unmatched.
"The opportunities are all around you," she added, explaining how attending internship alumni events led to new connections. "Talk to the people who are next to you, because you don't know what may come of it. For me, it made me a better scientist, a better community member and maybe a better New Yorker."
"New York is a growing hub for biotech, so I feel like it's always good to network," said Chinonye Nnajiofor in a video displayed at the Cure gathering. In 2023, she interned at Genspace, a community biology lab in Brooklyn, and is a pre-med student at Columbia University. "The LifeSci internship program is a great opportunity to network at events and connect with more opportunities for my future after I graduate."
The internship program continues to grow in popularity, with a 40-percent increase in applications from 2023 to 2024 alone.
"Congratulations to all the interns, because you are the heart and soul of what we are all about. The impact is going to be measured by one word — cure — the number of lives saved," said Seema Kumar, CEO of Cure.
"I know we are living in a very different environment now and adjusting to change in the overall healthcare landscape. As we do this, we take inspiration from entrepreneurs like you," she continued. "Entrepreneurs are used to pivoting, using constraints and necessity as the mother of innovation. I'm heartened that people like you are going to be the changemakers who are going to pivot and figure out ways for us to succeed."
To learn more about the program, visit: https://lifesci.nyc/internship.