AJC Rookies Appreciation Showcase: What Happens When Local Business Leaders Say Yes to Student Talent

A Room Full of Business Leaders, Ideas, and Encouragement

On Monday, August 17, AJC Company hosted the AJC Rookies Appreciation Showcase at Dubsdread in Orlando. The event brought together local business leaders, advisors, friends, and supporters who had participated in or encouraged Lucia Jones’s summer research project.

The evening was part thank-you, part research readout, and part community conversation. It was designed to recognize the people who gave their time to the project and to share what Lucia learned after interviewing 23 Central Florida business leaders about local opportunities, business challenges, AI adoption, and the possibility of professionally managed student project teams.

Watch the Event Video

You can watch the AJC Rookies Appreciation Showcase video below!

Why AJC Rookies Started

Andrea Jones opened the evening by explaining the real-life problem behind the project. High school and early college students often want meaningful paid work, but traditional summer jobs can be difficult to fit around family travel, sports, school commitments, retreats, and other scheduling realities.

At the same time, many businesses have useful projects they would like to complete, but they may not have the time or capacity to hire, train, and manage short-term help.

Because AJC Company already runs fractional, project-based work for businesses, Andrea wondered whether a similar model could work with high school graduates, late high school students, and early college students. Instead of assuming the answer, she asked Lucia to research it directly in the market.

Lucia’s Research Process

Lucia conducted 23 interviews with local business leaders. Seventeen were in person and six were virtual. Each interview followed a consistent set of five core questions, while still allowing room for open conversation.

The interviews explored each business leader’s background, current opportunities and challenges, openness to professionally managed student project work, reactions to possible AJC Rookies project ideas, and potential next steps.

Lucia also shared a few behind-the-scenes realities of conducting live business research: showing up in the wrong place for a virtual meeting, running out of printed event flyers, adapting on the fly, and learning to “breathe through it” when logistics did not go exactly according to plan. Honestly, that may be the most accurate business lesson of all.

What the Research Found

Before asking whether AJC Rookies could help, the research first looked at what local businesses were trying to accomplish.

One major finding was clear: many businesses are actively looking for ways to use AI for internal efficiency. More than half of the interviewees raised AI efficiency as a current opportunity or challenge. Some named specific platforms. Others talked about AI more generally, which Andrea described as the “Kleenex version” of AI: the tool may vary, but the behavior is becoming mainstream.

The research also surfaced familiar business challenges around talent, time, capacity, marketing, customer connection, and operational improvement. In other words, local businesses are not short on ideas. They are often short on bandwidth.

What AJC Rookies Could Do

The strongest project ideas were practical and focused. Social media support received the most interest, especially because it can serve different business purposes depending on the industry. For some businesses, social media is about marketing and visibility. For others, it is about recruiting, culture, and reaching the next generation of workers.

Other ideas that resonated included AI-assisted research, AI-search website optimization, in-person event support, customer appreciation projects, competitive research, and customer feedback research.

One idea Andrea and Lucia both highlighted was customer appreciation. In an era when more business communication is automated, handwritten notes, thoughtful follow-up, and personalized appreciation can stand out. AI may help organize the work, but the human touch still matters.

The Biggest Objection: Training

The most common concern was not whether young people could do useful work. The bigger concern was whether the business would have to train and manage them.

That discussion became one of the most valuable parts of the evening.

Several attendees pushed back on the idea that training has to be the barrier. If the project is scoped clearly enough, the work can be structured so that students are bringing fresh thinking, energy, and execution support without requiring the company to absorb all of the management burden.

That point matters because it is central to the AJC Rookies model. The value is not simply “students available for work.” The value is professionally scoped student project work with oversight, structure, and clear expectations.

The Conversation Shifted Toward AI, Human Skills, and Real Experience

The group discussion moved naturally into a bigger question: what should young people actually be learning as AI becomes more capable?

One of the strongest themes was that growing up with technology does not automatically mean someone knows how to use it well in business. The same was true of social media. Being a social media native did not automatically make someone a strong marketer. Likewise, being an AI native will not automatically make someone good at applying AI to real business problems.

The conversation kept coming back to the human layer above AI: communication, judgment, networking, curiosity, follow-through, and the ability to show up in a room and make connections.

That may be one of the biggest takeaways from the event. AJC Rookies is not just about helping businesses with tasks. It is about helping young people experience how business actually works.

What Lucia Learned

For Lucia, the project was more than research.

She practiced professional outreach, scheduling meetings, writing agenda-based calendar invitations, conducting interviews, sending thank-you notes, writing personalized LinkedIn connection notes, presenting findings, and answering questions in front of a room full of adults.

She also had the chance to visit businesses in person, tour facilities, and see industries she had not previously understood. During the event, she shared that hearing each leader’s business story was one of the most interesting parts of the whole project. It opened her eyes to how much is happening in the local business community that students may never otherwise see.

That experience may be the real magic of AJC Rookies.

A Different View of AI

One of the final questions of the evening focused on why some young people may resist AI or see it mostly as a homework shortcut.

Lucia’s answer was simple: experience changes perception.

Before this project, her own view of AI was mostly tied to ChatGPT and school assignments. Through the project, she saw how AI could help organize research, analyze information, build presentations, and support business work in a much broader way.

That is exactly the kind of exposure students need. Not theory. Not panic. Not “AI will take your job” doom confetti. Real experience using modern tools to solve real problems.

What Comes Next

AJC Rookies is not being rushed into a full-scale launch. Lucia is starting college, and Andrea is taking a practical approach to what comes next.

In the short term, AJC may draw on available students for specific needs, especially event support or other clearly scoped project work. Longer term, Andrea plans to revisit the model next summer and continue evaluating whether it can be sustainable, useful, and genuinely needed in the market.

The research showed strong interest. The event showed something equally important: local business leaders are willing to encourage, mentor, challenge, and open doors for young people when the opportunity is structured well.

That is worth building on.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who participated in the research, attended the showcase, asked thoughtful questions, and encouraged Lucia.

AJC Rookies started as a summer research project. It became a live example of what happens when young people are trusted with real work, supported by adults who care, and invited into the business community before they have everything figured out.

That may be exactly the point.