Alabama’s HBCU Students Connected with Startups, Accelerators, and Innovation Hubs Across the State

Special to The Times The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) recently celebrated the graduation of its Spring 2025 HBCU Innovation Internship cohort. The event featured professional development, presentations from interns regarding their work, and dynamic pitches and group interviews with intern candidates for Fall Semester 2025. The HBCU Innovation Internship program, in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, Inc., and the Innovate Alabama, connects students from Alabama’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with leading startups, accelerators, and innovation hubs across the state. Now entering its fourth cohort, the program continues to expand. A total of 29 students have been placed across both the spring and fall cohorts in 2025—nearly doubling the number from 2024, when 16 students completed the program. Designed to increase representation of HBCU students in Alabama’s innovation economy, the internship provides hands-on experience in entrepreneurship, investment, and startup operations by embedding students directly within high-growth organizations. “This internship completely reshaped how I see Alabama’s startup ecosystem. I used to think there wasn’t much happening here, but now I can genuinely see myself building a career in this state,” said Munachimso Arubaleze, a spring 2025 intern at the HudsonAlpha AgTech...