Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) has been fortunate to work with many college and graduate school students through our internship program. The benefit to having interns are twofold: one, they provide a great service to you by assisting with projects and tasks and two, it gives you an opportunity to teach a new generation about the function of county government.

Interns perform many vital tasks at ACCG. If your county has used our guidebooks or DVDs, chances are an intern assisted in compiling that information. Our Counties and the Law publication is written and researched solely by our legal interns. The content and supporting materials for our recently released Pandemic Flu DVD was produced by two of our policy interns. In addition to providing research assistance, our interns also help to coordinate and staff policy meetings and study committees, conduct surveys and write articles for our magazine and e-newsletter. Interns perform different duties depending on the time of year they participate in our program. For example, interns working during legislative session assist the policy staff by tracking bills and attending committee meetings, whereas summer interns are more focused on research projects.

ACCG is not the only place where students can learn about county government. The best source of information comes directly from working for a county. Over the course of our internship program, we have received applications from students majoring in nontraditional studies such as mechanical engineering, chemistry and urban studies that have expressed an interest in working in county government. Although working for ACCG will help these students learn about county issues from a policy perspective, it will not give them the practical experience, in their areas of interest, of dealing with the day-to-day issues that counties must face.