Birmingham Promise: Free College and Paid Internships for High School Students in Birmingham
In our last article we talked about why waiting until senior year to think about your future is too late. We looked at the research showing that students who explore careers early, gain real work experience, and learn about money while they are still in school end up in a much better place after graduation.
But knowing that is only half of it. The other half is knowing where to go.
Birmingham Promise is one of those places.
What Birmingham Promise Is
Birmingham Promise is a nonprofit organization based in Birmingham, Alabama. It was launched in 2019 by Mayor Randall Woodfin and welcomed its first participants in 2020. The mission is straightforward: connect students from Birmingham City Schools with workforce experience and post-secondary opportunities that can improve their economic future.
Mayor Woodfin has described it as not just the largest economic mobility program in Birmingham but the largest of its kind in the entire state of Alabama for high school students.
Since it launched Birmingham Promise has given more than 1,600 graduates over 15 million dollars in tuition assistance and connected more than 347 students with paid internship opportunities through more than 100 local employer partners.
Who the Program Serves
Birmingham Promise serves graduates of Birmingham City Schools. That includes students from seven public high schools in Birmingham as well as one virtual school. Almost all of the students the program works with are people of color and many are the first in their families to attend college.
In 2024 Birmingham Promise also launched a program called Promise Pathways for former Birmingham students between the ages of 16 and 24 who are not currently in school or a job training program. Promise Pathways is free and helps young people connect with career opportunities and training resources.
The Scholarship
The Birmingham Promise Scholarship covers tuition and mandatory fees at any public two-year or four-year college or university in Alabama for up to four years. It is what is called a Last Dollar Scholarship which means it kicks in after the Pell Grant and any other scholarships have already been applied. The goal is to make sure students are not leaving money on the table and are not taking on debt just to get through school.
To be eligible students need to graduate from a Birmingham City School, enroll as a first-time full-time freshman in the fall right after graduation, complete the FAFSA, and apply by the deadline. The deadline for students planning to attend a four-year college is February 1. For students planning to attend a two-year college the deadline is May 1.
Each scholarship recipient is also assigned a Student Success Coach who helps them navigate college, stay on track, and handle anything that comes up along the way. That support starts in senior year of high school and continues all the way through graduation. Coaches work with students on real life skills too including financial literacy, resume building, and navigating the challenges of college life so students are not just getting help paying for school but are also building the habits and knowledge that help them manage money and plan for their future.
The Internship Program
This is where Birmingham Promise connects directly to everything we talked about in the first article.
High school seniors in Birmingham City Schools can apply for a paid internship through Birmingham Promise and earn 15 dollars an hour while gaining real work experience before they ever walk across the graduation stage.
Students are placed with more than 100 local employers across a wide range of industries including technology, healthcare, financial services, nonprofits, and more. While they are interning they also go through more than 17 hours of professional development including interview preparation, orientation, and workshops designed to build workplace skills that actually transfer.
About 90 out of every 100 internship participants also receive scholarship funding from Birmingham Promise which means most students are walking into college with both work experience and financial support already in place.
One student who interned at UAB put it simply. She said she gained professional skills and work experience that helped her when she was studying finance and looking for opportunities after the internship ended.
How Does This Connect With Seniors?
In the first article we made the case that real work experience matters more to employers than a diploma and that students who start building their careers early end up with better jobs and higher pay for decades after graduation. Birmingham Promise is a direct answer to that problem.
It gives students paid work before graduation. It covers the cost of college after graduation. It teaches them what to do with the money along the way.
Freshman retention rates for Birmingham Promise scholarship recipients improved from 66 out of 100 students in 2021 to 74 out of 100 in 2023. Students are not just getting in. More of them are staying in and finishing.
This is exactly the kind of work that Brickers Foundation exists to amplify. Programs that address youth development, career access, and financial stability all at once and do it in a way that is grounded in the community they serve.
How to Get Involved
If you are a student in Birmingham City Schools or know one Birmingham Promise is worth looking into right now. Not after graduation. Now.
You can learn more about the scholarship, check eligibility requirements, and start the application process at birminghampromise.org. Applications for the scholarship open October 1 alongside the FAFSA.
If you are an employer in the Birmingham area and want to host an intern Birmingham Promise makes that process straightforward. Employer partners mentor students across seven core competencies and are invoiced for intern payroll at the end of the semester.
And if you want to support the broader mission of connecting young people with programs like this one Brickers Foundation is here for that too.
