AI4VA for Students
AI4VA provides UVA students with the opportunity to complete a virtual consulting project with a Virginia small business, organization, or nonprofit. Along the way, you will gain free industry-recognized credentials courtesy of Grow With Google, as well as hands-on experience to add to your résumé or use in interviews.
Why participate?
As AI skills become more in-demand for employers, students need experiences that help them responsibly and efficiently hone AI skills. However, between coursework, extracurricular experiences, sports, and part-time work, many students are unsure where to start. AI4VA aims to bring critical career-connected experiences to you while helping Virginia small businesses build AI capacity and literacy.
As part of our broader Career Academies initiative, AI4VA will pair industry-recognized AI skill certificates via Grow with Google with employer projects on the Riipen platform.
The best part? AI4VA is entirely asynchronous, virtual, and free of charge. Over the summer, you will pair with fellow students and work with a local employer on a schedule that works for you, all while gaining practical AI know-how and experience.
Project Tracks
AI4VA projects fall into five categories, or tracks, tailored to your unique skills and businesses' strategic needs. Click on each header to learn more about what each track entails and what a potential project may look like.
AI in Organizational Strategy & Impact
- Dig into workflows and financial processes to spot where AI can help leadership make smarter, more confident decisions.
- Build a roadmap for using AI to anticipate future needs and allocate resources and grants more effectively.
- Research and recommend AI tools that can unlock new growth opportunities or expand the organization's impact.
Example project:
- Analyze a specific workflow or decision-making process to identify where AI could add value.
- Benchmark 2 to 3 AI tools against a defined organizational need (e.g., resource allocation, market analysis) and recommend a path forward.
AI in Data & Analytics
- Evaluate AI tools that can clean and organize messy data (i.e donor records, program data) to cut down on manual entry.
- Explore how AI can help summarize complex data and power dashboards that make decision-making clearer and faster.
Example project:
- Evaluate AI tools to clean, categorize, or tag a defined dataset (e.g., donor records, sales logs) and recommend an approach to reduce manual effort.
- Consult on a Generative AI approach to summarize a specific data set or build a lightweight dashboard concept for decision support.
AI in Operations & Process Automation
- Map out time-consuming workflows and recommend AI tools that can reduce bottlenecks and free up staff time.
- Identify opportunities to simplify administrative, HR, or hiring processes and help teams collaborate more efficiently.
Example project:
- Map one to two time-consuming manual workflows and recommend specific AI tools to reduce bottlenecks.
- Evaluate automation tools (e.g., AI-powered scheduling or document processing) for a single high-impact use case.
AI in Marketing & E-Commerce
- Assess tools that make marketing more personalized and targeted for the right audiences.
- Identify drop-off points such as abandoned carts or weak search visibility where AI can quickly improve results.
- Find repetitive tasks (like writing ad copy or product descriptions) that AI can handle at scale to speed up content production.
Example project:
- Evaluate tools to enhance marketing personalization for a specific channel or campaign.
- Audit one manual creative workflow (e.g., ad variations, product descriptions) and recommend Generative AI tools to scale it.
AI Literacy & Enablement
- Create resources and clear guidelines to help employees use AI tools responsibly and effectively in their day-to-day work.
- Coach teams on prompt writing, responsible AI practices, and building confidence with new tools.
Example project:
- Design a starter set of AI usage guidelines for a specific team or function.
- Support a pilot group with prompt engineering basics and responsible AI practices.
Resources
Feel free to bring the following resources to club meetings or use them to explore how AI4VA can help you build career readiness on your own time.
Student AI4VA One-Pager
Visit this one-pager to learn more about how you (or your club) may get involved in this fall's iteration of AI4VA.
Signups for fall 2026 are now closed.
To hear about future opportunities, please fill out our interest form.
AI4VA is an initiative of the Office of the Vice Provost for Online Education and Digital Innovation at the University of Virginia.
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AI4VA
Learn more about our AI4VA initiative, including details and resources for employers and students alike.