Living Legacies: Atlanta students honor Andrew Young with innovation showcase

The lower level of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights became a stage for the city’s youngest innovators Thursday morning, as students from the City of Atlanta’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) unveiled AI-powered projects honoring the legacy of Ambassador Andrew Young and Mrs. Carolyn Young.

The Living Legacies Showcase capped four weeks of work through The Innovation Studio, known as iStudio, a program powered by The Legacy Line in partnership with Time2Give, Inc. Students used Replit’s AI-powered software to build interactive experiences combining artificial intelligence, augmented reality and immersive storytelling, all designed around the Youngs’ decades of civil rights and diplomatic work, accompanied by real life-merchandise ranging from Andrew Young themed mugs to puzzles.

Mayor Andre Dickens opened his remarks by noting that the students were compensated for their four weeks of work through SYEP, along with leadership training.

“You’ve already been having an exciting summer filled with learning and friendship exploration, and it doesn’t hurt to get paid,” Dickens said. “Someone’s getting paid to do this, so it’s pretty good to have a good time.”

Dickens told students in the room that Young’s influence reached him long before he held office.

“When I was 16 years old, I believed I could become mayor. That was my dream,” Dickens said. “He was the mayor at the time, when I was 16, and I got inspired to become the mayor, and I articulated it. I said it. I told people that’s my goal.”

Dickens, who noted the current SYEP participants are between 14 and 17 years old, pointed to Atlanta’s role in hosting FIFA World Cup 2026 matches as another piece of Young’s imprint on the city.

“It would be a very slim chance that we’d have had the FIFA World Cup had we not had the 1996 Olympics, largely because of this man’s hard work,” he said.

Laron Walker, founder of Time2Give and co-founder of The Legacy Line, said the program traces back to his own path out of Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood and through a scholarship that got him to Tennessee State University.

“Born and raised in Atlanta, I grew up in a neighborhood called Pittsburgh, around the corner, within probably two miles from here,” Walker said. He recalled that a $1,000, 3.0 GPA scholarship opened the door to college, where he learned to code HTML in 1996. “I told myself one day when I was able, I would kind of address that, repay that back,” he said.

That promise became Time2Give roughly 25 years ago, Walker said, starting with book scholarships before evolving into a broader push to connect young people with technology, mentorship, and access. Thursday’s showcase marked the fifth year of the program’s partnership with the city.

“How do we take time to give and not just focus on scholarships, but focus on things that make a difference,” Walker said. “Build sustainable communities through tech, through exposure, and through access.”

Brandon Middleton, head of education at Replit, told students the technology now lets young people move from idea to product in days rather than years.

“A kid from the south side of Chicago or from Atlanta can actually have an idea and express that idea all in the same day and take that idea to market and build an actual product around it in a couple of days or a week,” Middleton said. He framed his vision for education around building and entrepreneurship rather than testing and memorization. “What if, instead of going to college to get a job at the end of your college graduation, you actually build a business while you’re going to school, and you impact your community while you’re actually learning things,” he said.

Dr. Charity Rowe-Marshall, executive director of Time2Give, opened the program by asking the audience to rally around every student team, including those less eager for the spotlight.

“No one should be louder celebrating more than one team,” Rowe-Marshall told the crowd, encouraging attendees to support innovators who “happen to be on the shyest side of things.”

Five student teams presented projects during the showcase, each structuring their pitch as a full business built around a physical product, complete with a target demographic and business model. The lineup ranged from marble coasters to a commemorative mug to a puzzle, each tied back to the legacy of Ambassador Young and Mrs. Young.

One team built a set of marble coasters paired with a digital companion and art book honoring Carolyn McClain Young, Ambassador Young’s wife. Another team, presenting as “All Stars,” introduced a commemorative mug designed to activate Young’s legacy through augmented reality, describing it as a way to bring history into an everyday morning routine.

The program included a formal recognition ceremony and pinning for the Youngs, along with a student-created gift presentation, before moving into an exhibition and networking reception where guests could view the student projects firsthand.

For Dickens, the day carried a message he hoped would outlast the morning’s presentations.

“You may have something in your spirit, in your heart, telling you, I want to be a pilot, I want to be a CEO, I want to be a whatever, a mayor,” he said. “Don’t let that be suppressed. Build that up. Tell somebody, tell your parents and teachers and the leaders of the programs you’re in, because they can help nurture you till indeed you get to the spot where you’re trying to get to.”

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