Archway Partnership

06/11/2026

A warm welcome to the 2026 Look Ahead Georgia intern cohort! 🎉

Over the past few weeks, communities across Georgia have gathered to celebrate and support these talented students as they begin a summer of learning, leadership, and service close to home. From Hart County to Thomson-McDuffie County, Washington County, Dublin-Laurens County, Pulaski County, and Colquitt County, local leaders, employers, and community members came together to show what makes these places special.

As these interns spend the summer gaining hands-on experience, building professional connections, and engaging with their hometown communities, they are also helping strengthen the future of rural Georgia. Programs like Look Ahead Georgia demonstrate the power of community investment and the impact of creating opportunities for students to learn, lead, and grow where their roots run deep.

We’re excited to see all this cohort accomplishes in the weeks ahead. Thank you to the host organizations, community partners, and supporters who are making this experience possible. Here’s to a summer of growth, connection, and meaningful impact! 🌟

06/09/2026

We're glad to be a part of welcoming students like Becca home for her summer internship. The 2026 Look Ahead Georgia cohort is off to a great start and we can't wait to see what everyone accomplishes!

The City of Dublin is proud to announce Rebecca “Becca” Brantley as its 2026 Archway Summer Intern through the Dublin-Laurens County Archway Partnership.

As part of the partnership, the community has the unique opportunity to host a summer intern through the Look Ahead Georgia Program, an initiative funded by the Georgia Department of Labor. The program connects University of Georgia students with paid internships in their rural hometowns to help build career pathways and strengthen local communities.

This summer, the City of Dublin is excited to welcome Becca, who is interning within the City’s Engineering Department.

Becca is well known throughout the community as the salutatorian of the West Laurens High School Class of 2024. Many residents may also recognize her from the Dublin Theatre, where she has performed alongside her family during the annual Easter Eve Gospel Sing.

Currently, Becca is continuing her academic journey toward becoming a Mechanical Engineer with a focus in aerospace engineering. Through the 2026 Look Ahead Georgia cohort, she is gaining hands-on, career-focused experience while remaining connected to her hometown.

Becca shared that participating in the internship has been especially meaningful. “I’m excited to be home for the summer while continuing to work toward my career goals,” she said. “By working in my hometown, I’m able to attend my sister’s softball games and continue going to Disney World with my family.”

The City of Dublin is proud to support Becca as she continues her path toward a career in engineering and looks forward to the impact she will make both locally and beyond.

📸: Lillian Ballance

05/28/2026

All eligible adults are welcome to participate in Cognitive Screenings at the Thomson Depot on June 3 and June 8. Many thanks to our partners with UGA College of Public Health and UGA Extension McDuffie County for their support of this event.

For your Information.

05/14/2026

We're honored to be part of this recognition! 🎉 UGA has been reaffirmed as an Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Engage Innovation and Economic Prosperity University — and the Archway Partnership is proud to play a role in that work every day. Across the state, our team is embedded alongside local partners, tackling real challenges and creating lasting impact. None of it happens without incredible collaboration across UGA's public service and outreach enterprise. Here's to the work that connects a great university to every corner of our state.

https://news.uga.edu/uga-reaffirmed-as-aplu-innovation-and-economic-prosperity-university/

05/12/2026

Our Look Ahead Georgia internship program is returning to Hart County this summer! We're thankful for our campus partners, UGA Fanning Institute for Leadership and the UGA Career Center for their support!

05/08/2026

🎓 Congratulations to our 2026 Archway graduates! Meet the incredible graduating students who helped make our mission possible this year. Through their dedication, they helped connect Georgia communities with the resources, expertise, and energy of the University of Georgia — addressing real, locally-identified needs and making a lasting impact across the state. We couldn’t do this without them and are so proud of everything they’ve accomplished. Swipe to celebrate each one of them!

05/06/2026

From a former canning plant to a vision for the future — UGA Engineering students spent the past year working alongside the Colquitt County School District to explore what's possible.

Starting in the fall, a team from the The University of Georgia College of Engineering dove into a feasibility study for renovating the former Colquitt County Canning Plant into a multi-use Student Services facility. Over several months, they assessed the building's structural integrity, infrastructure needs, and long-term sustainability, and developed multiple floor plan options accounting for office space, storage, meeting rooms, and ADA accessibility.

When the team presented their final recommendations this April, school system stakeholders praised the quality and depth of their work — calling their findings actionable, insightful, and a strong foundation for informed decision-making.

Rondesha Williams, Ed.S., Director of Student Services for the Colquitt County School District, captured the heart of the project well: "This space will serve as a central hub for support, connection, and opportunity — ensuring every student has access to the resources they need to succeed both in and out of the classroom."

Student team member Ajay Singh echoed that sense of purpose from the engineering side: "This project helped me better understand how engineering decisions tie into real constraints like cost, feasibility, and working within an existing system. It was a great experience being part of a project with a real-world impact."

Thank you to the Colquitt County School System for your partnership throughout this project, and congratulations to this incredible team of students on work well done! 🎉

05/05/2026

Join us for Leadership Matters Live this summer, a no-cost webinar series that addresses leadership needs for evolving communities.

See more information from our partners at the UGA Fanning Institute for Leadership below and sign up today!

04/27/2026

Support the work of UGA Public Service and Outreach and receive your very own Hairy Dawg memento! Your giving supports the work we do every day, one community at a time 🤝

Your desk called. It's missing something. Give a gift of $70 or more and get your very own Hairy Dawg — 114 blocks of pure Bulldog Spirit.

When you designate your gift to Public Service and Outreach, it’s a win-win-win. You get your own set of exclusive Bulldog Blocks, communities throughout Georgia benefit from greater collaboration with the University of Georgia, and students get experiential learning opportunities in the state they call home.

Show off your UGA pride and get your Bulldog Blocks today! https://gail.uga.edu/giving/cdag/fy26-bulldog-blocks?des=2db1d4dd-0ef4-4534-8547-841811f6eab4

04/17/2026

What if the sound of water could make you healthier? 💧

Noah Dilday is on a mission to find out. Noah recently presented his thesis research — "Urban Water Features: Their Sound and Effect on Human Restoration and Physiology" — at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) conference in Cincinnati.

His work explores how different types of water sounds (think: a babbling brook vs. a rushing fountain) affect our mental restoration and physical recovery. The goal? To one day identify an optimal aqueous sound that designers can intentionally incorporate into urban spaces to improve human health and well-being.

For Noah, this research is personal. He's always found the sound of water to be particularly rejuvenating and he wants to help create that same experience for people living and working in cities.

We love seeing research rooted in something real. Can't wait to see where this work goes. 🌊