Get matched with a real company. Build an AI solution to a problem they actually care about.
Over 10 weeks, join a small student team working directly with a company on a real problem.
You won’t be handed busywork or left alone to figure everything out. Launching Pad AI mentors guide your team every week, helping you learn the AI tools, product thinking, research, data analytics, and problem-solving skills you need to do meaningful work.
By the end, you’ll present your work directly to the company and leave with a project you can demonstrate and discuss on your resume.
Explore what students do, how they are supported, and what they leave with.
What this looks like
3-5 students
Matched based on interests, skills, and experience
Mentor experience
Many students have already taken a coding class, experimented with ChatGPT, or built something on their own. This fellowship gives you something different: the experience of joining a real company project and being responsible for solving an open-ended problem.
You’ll work on a challenge selected by a company, interact with the people who actually care about the outcome, and use AI tools to research, prototype, test, and build a solution.
But unlike many early internships, you aren’t expected to figure everything out on your own.
Launching Pad AI mentors work alongside your team throughout the 10 weeks, teaching you what you need when you need it, challenging your thinking, reviewing your work, and helping you turn an ambiguous problem into something you can actually solve.
Example company challenges
Every project comes from a real challenge faced by one of our partner companies.
Case study 1
A nonprofit spends hours every week sorting recurring requests and figuring out which ones need attention first.
Understand how the team currently works, identify where AI could help, and build a prototype that makes the process faster or easier.
Case study 2
A startup sees customers adopting new AI tools and wants to understand what its product should do next.
Research user behavior, identify an unmet need, design a solution, and build a prototype the company can test.
Case study 3
A company wants to know whether an AI agent could take on part of an existing workflow.
Understand the workflow, define what the agent should and shouldn’t do, build a working prototype, test it against real scenarios, and recommend next steps.
You’re not completing a classroom assignment. Instead, you are matched with a company and given a challenge the organization genuinely wants to explore.
You’ll learn how the organization works, understand the problem from the people closest to it, and receive feedback throughout the project.
We are not an internship matching program or a hands-off outsourcing setup. We focus on AI literacy and project-based learning. There is no busywork in these projects.
Depending on your company, you might work with AI agents, large language models, vibe-coding tools, research tools, automation platforms, APIs, or rapid prototyping software. You’ll learn when AI is useful, when it isn’t, and how real teams evaluate whether an AI solution actually works.
Work closely with experienced engineers, product managers, designers, founders, and operators from leading universities, Silicon Valley companies, and AI-native startups.
Your mentor is deeply involved, helping your team break down the problem, learn unfamiliar tools, overcome roadblocks, improve your work, and prepare for your final presentation.
Instead of spending an internship doing administrative work, you’ll spend the fellowship tackling one substantial problem from beginning to end.
You’ll leave with something you can actually show and explain: the problem, your personal contribution, what you learned, and why you made the decisions you did.
Students who successfully complete the fellowship receive a Certificate of Completion and written documentation of their project experience.
Exceptional students may also request a mentor recommendation.
In some cases, partner organizations may invite exceptional students to explore additional opportunities after the fellowship.
Four stages
Start
You’ll be placed on a small team based on your interests, experience, and project fit. At kickoff, you’ll meet your partner organization, learn why the challenge matters, and understand the relevant users, constraints, and goals.
Build your toolkit
You don’t need to arrive knowing how to solve the problem. We teach the AI, research, product, prototyping, and collaboration skills required for your specific project right when you need to apply them.
Core project work
Your team investigates the problem, explores approaches, and builds. Weekly mentor sessions help you review progress, learn new techniques, and improve your prototype. Your partner company provides context and feedback at ongoing checkpoints, including a midpoint review.
Final presentation
You’ll present directly to your partner organization, explain what you discovered, demonstrate what you built, discuss important tradeoffs and limitations, and recommend what the organization should do next.
Tell us about your interests, experience, and goals.
Discuss your background, curiosity, and what you hope to learn.
Selected students review available partner-company challenges and share their preferences.
We form teams of 3-5 students with compatible interests, experience, ages, and time zones.
No. Projects are matched based on students’ experience, and we teach the tools needed to complete the project. Curiosity, initiative, and willingness to learn matter more than already knowing everything.
During the school year, expect approximately four hours per week, including mentor meetings, team collaboration, and independent project work. Most project work can be completed flexibly around school schedules.
The fellowship is fully remote. Mentor sessions, team meetings, and company checkpoints take place online.
Most AI programs begin with a curriculum and give every student similar assignments. We begin with a real problem. Your team is matched with a company facing a genuine challenge, and you learn the AI tools and skills necessary to solve it. The goal isn’t simply to learn about AI. It is to use AI to produce something useful for someone real.
High school interns are often expected to work independently or complete whatever tasks happen to be available. The fellowship gives you the experience of working with a real company, while Launching Pad AI teaches the relevant skills, provides weekly mentorship, and supports your team throughout the process. You receive meaningful responsibility without being left on your own.
Tuition covers the educational and mentorship components of the fellowship: instruction, experienced mentors, weekly team support, project guidance, feedback, and preparation for the final company presentation. Students are paying for Launching Pad AI’s learning experience and support, not for a job or paid internship placement.
Get matched with a company. Solve a real problem with AI. Learn from people building technology in the real world.
And leave with a project you can carry into your next internship or college application.