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Uwca Hr — Leanna (L) and Ashley (R) love making a difference in Birmingham! (Jacob Blankenship / The Bama Buzz)

Recently, the Birmingham-metro area topped the list of the best U.S. metro areas for new college grads, which wasn’t a huge surprise to me as a relatively recent college grad working in the city. The report touted the Magic City’s strong hiring and rapid wage growth (a 2.8 percent hiring rate jump between January 2025 and 2026!), but I think it goes deeper than that.

Birmingham is full of great people and thousands of companies and orgs that make a real difference in local communities—all of which contribute to making our city ideal for new grads.

Someone else who knows a little something about how Birmingham is a great place to grow is Leanna Polk: A United Way of Central Alabama (UWCA) employee who started as an intern and worked her way up to the manager role she now holds.

See how she felt supported in her career path, how the people along the way inspired her and why Birmingham and UWCA was the perfect place for her to grow in her career.

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