AI Youth Corps: Building Future-Ready Skills Through Real-World AI
ABOUT
Sponsored by:
Real skills. Local impact. Future-ready students.
AI Youth Corps helps students build future-ready skills by connecting artificial intelligence learning with real community and workplace needs.
Through hands-on projects, students explore how AI works, how to ask better questions, how to use trusted information, and how to apply technology responsibly. They then partner with local businesses and community organizations to identify challenges, design solutions, and present their work through a student showcase.
The program gives students practical experience in problem solving, communication, critical thinking, and emerging technology, while helping local partners imagine new ways AI can support their work. AI Youth Corps reflects NCW Tech Alliance’s commitment to preparing young people to live, work, and lead in the communities they love.
How it Works
AI Youth Corps is a hands-on learning program that brings together students from across North Central Washington to build AI literacy, develop real-world problem-solving skills, and support local businesses and community organizations.
Over six training days, students move through three phases:
1. Learn AI Foundations
Students build confidence using AI tools, explore responsible AI use, and learn how technology can support people, workplaces, and communities.
2. Solve Real Business Challenges
Students learn how to listen to business needs, map workflows, identify pain points, and find opportunities where AI tools can improve communication, scheduling, customer service, or access to information.
3. Build, Pitch, and Showcase
Students design AI-powered solutions, receive feedback from professionals, and present their projects during a final showcase with community and business partners.
AI Youth Corps Student Presenters
Cael F. of Wenatchee High School partnered with Chelan PUD to explore how an AI agent could make app information easier for the average user to understand and apply. His project showed how complex app language and data could be translated into clearer, more useful answers, helping people find information such as safer swimming areas, boat launch depths, and other recreation details.
Eithan V. of Quincy High School partnered with Boulder Landscaping to explore how an AI agent could support customer communication and appointment booking. His project showed how an agent could help customers learn about the services offered, clarify which services are not available, identify the areas they serve, and make it easier to request or schedule appointments.
Brooklyn A. and Alessandra G. from Quincy High School partnered with iClean NCW to design a custom agent that could support day-to-day business needs, including helping with booking requests, improving how pricing information is shared, and making customer communication more efficient.
Ruben G. of Wenatchee High School partnered with Cosmos Cleaning Services to explore how an AI agent could help streamline appointment booking, support scheduling, and improve day-to-day efficiency. His project showed how an agent could help customers request services, answer common questions, organize booking details, and reduce back-and-forth communication.
Torrin S. of Eastmont High School partnered with Eastmont Lanes to explore how a website agent could help answer common customer questions that are often handled by phone. His project showed how an agent could provide quick information about hours, pricing, lane availability, events, and other everyday questions, helping save staff time while making it easier for customers to get the answers they need.
Connecting Youth AI Skills with Project iLumina Businesses
AI Youth Corps also builds on our Project iLumina, a rural resilience and digital inclusion initiative designed to bring practical technology resources to rural communities and small businesses.
Through Project iLumina, local entrepreneurs build digital skills in areas like online communication, websites, payment systems, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence so they can improve visibility, communicate with customers, and strengthen day-to-day operations.
AI Youth Corps extended that impact by connecting student innovators with local businesses, including Cosmos Cleaning Services, Boulder Landscaping, and iClean NCW. Students listened to each business’s needs and explored how AI-powered agents could support everyday operations, from booking appointments and answering common customer questions to explaining services, improving scheduling, and making business information easier to access.
For students, the experience created a real-world opportunity to practice problem solving, communication, and responsible AI use. For local businesses, it offered fresh ideas for using technology to save time, improve customer service, and grow with confidence.
Together, Project iLumina and AI Youth Corps show what is possible when digital skills, entrepreneurship, and youth talent come together to support rural communities.
Teresa Zepeda Sosa of iClean NCW, Yazmin Pedraza of Cosmo Cleaning Services, and Juan Castro of Boulder Landscaping celebrate their role as local business partners at the AI Youth Corps Showcase, where students presented AI-powered ideas to support their small business needs.
“Artificial intelligence is another tool I’m going to use, and share with others, because it can be useful for work, health, medicine, and many different parts of life. I hope NCW Tech Alliance continues to grow and support more people like me, who came here with effort and hope to build a better future for our families, and to support these brave young people working to make a better world.”
— Juan Castro, Boulder Landscaping