Look Ahead Georgia

You know your hometown better than anyone else — but do you know what it could become? Look Ahead Georgia connects UGA students with paid internships in the very communities that raised them, so you can put your education to work where it matters most, at home.

How We Got Here

Archway Partnership launched the Look Ahead Georgia pilot in summer 2024 in Hawkinsville, Pulaski County, as part of a broader commitment to workforce development in rural Georgia. Since then, the program has grown into more Archway Communities across the state, matching UGA students with internships in local businesses, governments, and nonprofits.

Why Students Join

Too often, students graduate and move away without ever discovering the career, financial, and social opportunities waiting for them back home. Look Ahead Georgia closes that gap. As an intern, you’ll:

• Gain real-world, career-launching experience in your field — almost every major has a home here
• Earn a $5,000 stipend for your work
• Take part in civic activities like community listening sessions and civic clubs
• See your hometown through a new lens, as a place you could lead
• Build the kind of civic know-how that turns graduates into future community leaders

Why It Matters

Rural Georgia loses talent every year to the same pattern: students leave for college and never come back. This costs communities their next generation of teachers, entrepreneurs, nonprofit directors, and elected officials. Look Ahead Georgia interrupts that cycle. Every student who returns — even for a summer — builds a bridge back to opportunities they didn’t know existed, and every community that hosts an intern gets a fresh look from someone who’s ready to invest in its future.

Partnership Is Key

Look Ahead Georgia works because it’s a partnership. We work alongside local employers, the UGA Career Center, and the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development to build an ecosystem where opportunity and talent find each other. For employers, that means recruitment support at little to no cost. For communities, it means a pipeline of young leaders who already know the place — because it’s their home.