The University of Georgia is in the business of workforce development every day. Look Ahead Georgia is a new program created by UGA Archway Partnership™ to focus that effort on rural Georgia communities.

Look Ahead Georgia is a summer internship and career development program that aims to address rural workforce needs. It encourages students to return to their rural hometowns by supporting internships with local businesses. These internships show UGA students the opportunities available to them back home and to help them make connections to jobs and people in their fields of study. This summer, Archway launched the program in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County.

Archway partnered with local businesses, the UGA Career Center and the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development to cultivate an ecosystem for connecting students and employers. Businesses attained critical support through these internships and students were able to learn valuable real-world career skills in their fields. With the assistance of Archway, students were also able to get their first taste of real-world civic engagement, having the opportunity to attend Archway executive committee meetings, as well as community groups like city council and Rotary.

Interns had weekly meetings with representatives from the UGA Career Center and the Fanning Institute to talk about career planning, mentorship and developing soft skills. Students were able to learn more about themselves, their strengths and interests, and learn how to translate this into marketing themselves as employees and hone their continued studies towards these efforts.

Mikayla Wellborn, UGA Veterinary Medicine student and participant in the program, offered a take-away from her experience.

“Embrace the opportunity to build strong community connections. Rural settings often allow for closer relationships with residents, which can be incredibly rewarding both professionally and personally,” said Wellborn, who was placed with Equine Associates & Baker Animal Hospital.

The internships available in Hawkinsville were across a wide array of industries and students were exposed to many facets of their employers, across many departments. Hollingsworth & Vose (H&V), D.M. Vickers & Associates accountants, Taylor Regional Hospital, and Equine Associates & Baker Animal Hospital were the participating businesses for the first year of the program. 

“The students learned a great deal about manufacturing safety and quality,” said Lee Tompkins, human resources manager at H&V and the manager for the intern program there. “Throughout their time here, they interacted with operators, technicians and engineers in a real manufacturing environment.”

Students were not merely observing in their capacity as interns but performing real work to improve the company. One intern at H&V set up Wi-Fi vibration sensor monitoring and another interviewed operators to develop a form for a quality corrective action issue.

At Taylor Regional Hospital, intern Niyal Patel was able to shadow an orthopedic surgeon in the clinic and in the operating room, as well as spend time in the radiology department and surgical services. “Niyal is certainly welcome at Taylor Regional Hospital any time as an intern or practicing physician. We are proud to call Niyal one of our own,” said Dawn Warnock, executive vice president at Taylor Regional.

Brionna Johnson, UGA Career Center associate director of employer relations and Bethany Bagwell, director of the UGA Mentor Program both said the program provided a valuable opportunity to help students grow careers in their hometowns.

“It has been a great experience to work directly with the students on developing their professional skills and connecting them to mentors both in Hawkinsville and across the entire Bulldog nation,” said Bagwell.

The program will continue in Pulaski County next year and will gradually expand to include additional communities.

“We look forward to seeing the Look Ahead program expand to serve more students and businesses, and create even more meaningful connections, next year,” said Johnson.

“A big congratulations and thanks to all of the businesses and interns for leading the way on this exciting new program,” said Michelle Elliott, director of the Archway Partnership. “We look forward to connecting students to more opportunities in rural communities.”

Look Ahead Georgia Pilot Participants:

Owen Coleman – chemistry major, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Nancy Patel – biomedical physiology major, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Niyal Patel – biology major, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Kamryn Ramsey – accounting major, Terry College of Business

Mikayla Wellborn – College of Veterinary Medicine