WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Partnership for Inclusive Innovation launched the sixth annual PIN Summer Intern (PSI) program in May with an event at Fort Valley State University’s location in Warner Robins, Georgia. The program is shaping up to be the biggest yet.
This summer, 103 students are working on 51 projects across 27 communities in Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, and Texas. Selected from nearly 700 applicants — a 73% increase over last year — these students are tackling real-world challenges ranging from AI applications in North Georgia to Native American initiatives in Whigham, Georgia, and Bracketville, Texas.
By pairing students from different years, majors and institutions, the PSI program gives the next generation of innovators hands-on experience addressing complex challenges while delivering practical solutions to communities across the region.
A collaboration with the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC) has funded 17 projects in several counties in Middle and South Georgia and is a large part of the program’s expansion this year. The opportunity to make an impact across a broad swath of Georgia is part of why the SCRC was interested in working with PIN, said SCRC Executive Director Christopher McKinney.
“From my perspective, [this work] was important because of the reach,” McKinney said. “It wasn’t just focused in one county, it was focused across a large part of our footprint in Georgia. And they are doing deep, impactful work.”
Cody Cocchi, PIN’s student engagement manager, also talked about the importance of the work with SCRC. “We want to ensure that we’re serving every corner of Georgia that we possibly can,” he said. “SCRC’s service area includes some of the more rural parts of Middle Georgia and South Georgia. Being able to serve our middle- and small-sized communities, and rural counties is a big benefit to this program and to the Southeast.”
In another first this year, a student designed her own project with the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta (CFGA). Elisabet Ortiz, who graduated from Emory University in May, worked as an intern at CFGA in 2024 on a project to provide grants to help individuals pay off their student loans. This year, she and intern Brandon Scarlett, also from Emory University, are continuing to work with CFGA on research into transportation around Atlanta and on ways to bring this kind of research to other campuses.
“The thing I love about PIN is that they place a lot of college students within organizations all over Georgia,” said Amy Clarke, CFGA’s director of community impact systems. “We were able to interview a lot of great candidates and were able to add Elisabet to our internship for the summer. We want to create a pathway for new leaders in philanthropy, and an internship allows us to do that.”
Ortiz and Scarlett are also interested in getting more students involved in service with their project this summer.
“Our main goal is to put together a framework in which other students can be involved in this sort of research and in which community organizations in Atlanta can utilize that research in the projects that they’re doing, in the charitable giving that they’re doing, and the choices that they’re making,” Scarlett said. “As the city grows, there are a lot of new challenges that are coming to the forefront: transportation, housing, [and] with FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) coming to Atlanta.”
These issues are important to both the residents of Atlanta and to college students, he said. Creating an outlet for students who are interested in service, in getting to know more about Atlanta, and who are interested in applying their findings is the goal for the end of the summer, he added.
“PIN is the perfect combination of actually making this type of work accessible to students and really helping to guide students while they’re doing that type of work,” Ortiz said.
The kickoff event was an opportunity for interns to connect with others, for project leaders to share best practices, for interns to learn more about the ins and outs of the summer, and for speakers to inspire the students.
KeAndrea Rivers, the PIN student engagement associate, spoke to interns about what to expect over the course of the internship.
“We pride ourselves on our offerings of professional development, experiential learning, and mentorship,” Rivers said. “We have about 15 virtual professional development workshops this summer that our interns will be invited to.”
The mentorship offering has been revamped to pair PIN Fellows, people early in their careers, as mentors to the interns. “It will be an awesome opportunity to have the PIN Fellows walk as a guide on the side of our PIN Interns and give them real talk, real conversation, real guidance,” Rivers said.
Other speakers at this year’s kickoff included Timothy Hatchett, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Fort Valley State University; Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick; Rep. Bethany Ballard (District 147); Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Christopher Nunn; Heaven Whitby, Fort Valley State’s Fab Lab manager; PIN Executive Director Debra Lam; Joseph Henning, president and CEO of the Henry County Chamber of Commerce; and McKinney, executive director of SCRC.
In addition to the speakers, Fort Valley State opened up its Fab Lab for students at the event to laser engrave wood and acrylic key chains that had been fashioned in the lab.
The closing event, the Emerging Innovators Celebration, will be held Aug. 1, 2025, at Kennesaw State University, which is hosting two PIN interns this summer on its 911 mental health crisis response project. Learn more or register.