Kleiner Perkins names the 12 college student participants of its inaugural Design Fellows program

Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced today the 12 college students who have been admitted into its Design Fellows program. This is the first batch for this program and each individual has been paired with one of the firm’s portfolio companies where they’ll gain experience and relationships to succeed in the technology industry.

KPCB Fellows is a fairly new initiative by the VC firm that has funded the likes of Flipboard, Klout, Nest, One Kings Lane, Spotify, Twitter, Square, and Zynga. In 2012, the program was dedicated towards engineering students and there were 30 participants in that class.

With the Design Fellows Program, students will receive mentorship, leadership and community while also learning about the interconnectedness of design and technology in building out products and services. KPCB says that supporting this initiative was necessary because many of its partners have spent their careers working on design and technology while also leading teams at established companies like Twitter, Square, Electronic Arts, and Palm.

Here are the 12 design students participating and the KPCB-portfolio company they have been assigned:

• Kai Kight, Stanford University – Shopkick
• Viraj Bindra , Stanford University  – Nest
• Matt Safian, Connecticut College  – Luvocracy
• Amrit  Mazumder, Rhode Island School of Design – Flipboard
• Zachary Hamed, Harvard College  – Jawbone
• Aaron Otani, Illinoise Institute of Technology (IIT)  Institute of Design – Opower
• Alex Moffit,  Yale  –  Jawbone
• Heather Tompkins, Academy of Art University  – Klout
• Willa Tracosas, School of Visual Arts –  Twitter
• Jocelyn Lui, Rochester Institute of Technology  – Luvocracy
• Zachary, Yale  –  Square
• Louis Harboe, University of Chicago Lab School – Square

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The KPCB Design Fellows program lasts for three months and each student will be paid a competitive rate, although the specific amount will based on negotiations between them and the company.

In its inaugural year, this program received more than 300 applicants from the 100 design schools, including from Rhode Island School of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, the Academy of Art, Stanford, and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images