Paul W. Bryant High School junior did something a lot of high school students can only dream about: a paid internship the summer after his sophomore year in the field of artificial intelligence.

Sherman Devers first became interested in computer science when he took a class at Bryant his freshman year. Now, he's in his third year of computer science classes and hopes to study it in college and turn it into a career.

He first learned about the internship at QuantHub in Birmingham through his computer science teacher, Destiny Langford. The Alabama-based company specializes in data literacy, data science, and analytics instruction and assessment and has partnered with the Alabama Department of Education. As part of the internship, he worked remotely, and beta-tested different skills relating to AI. He also discovered he had a particular interest in data storytelling.

"Our goal with this program is to provide a direct pipeline for students interested in data careers to explore that further by gaining relevant skills and job experience," said Evangeline Schepper, director of Learning Experience at QuantHub.

The state of Alabama is expected to see a continuous rise in data careers over the next several years, with a 1-3 percent rate just in the next year, according to QuantHub.

"These careers are high earning and usually hybrid or remote," Schepper said.

It's something that Sherman hopes to pursue, as he wants to eventually attend The University of Alabama to major in computer science, and hopes to one day work in AI. He said he hopes the internship is another step in that direction.

"I feel like the experience helped me to do more research, especially about certain topics, to be able to use AI more effectively and to be more specific on the prompts," he said. "I like to be able to tinker with stuff and be able to change how things function."