Atlas Juniors - The Atlas award

Cultivating the Next Generation of Israeli Innovators

Atlas Juniors is a flagship educational initiative of the Atlas ecosystem, designed to identify, mentor, and empower exceptional high-school students from Israel’s geographic and social periphery — and connect them directly with the world of cutting-edge entrepreneurship and technology.
Our mission is straightforward and ambitious:
to bridge elite innovation with untapped talent — early, deeply, and meaningfully.

Why Atlas Juniors Exists

Israel’s innovation economy thrives on talent – yet much of that talent remains undiscovered due to geography, limited access, or lack of exposure. Atlas Juniors was created to change that reality.

We work primarily with highly motivated, intellectually gifted students (ages 15-18) from Israel’s southern periphery, including communities in the Gaza border region (Sha’ar HaNegev), Sderot, and Ashkelon – areas rich in human potential yet historically underserved in access to high-tech ecosystems.

Students are embedded in real startup environments long before university or military service, where curiosity becomes capability and potential turns into achievement.
The program is now positioned to expand to additional regions across Israel, scaling its impact while preserving its depth and rigor.

What Makes Atlas Juniors Different

Not a simulation. Not a summer camp. Not theory.
Atlas Juniors is built on direct engagement with real companies, real problems, and real standards:

Hands-on projects inside leading startups
Long-term mentorship by founders, CTOs, and senior engineers
Exposure to product thinking, R&D, AI, robotics, Food and Agricultural technologies, cyber, and deep tech
Media, communication, and leadership training alongside technical work, in collaboration with Israel’s leading business television channel
Periodic in-depth Atlas Juniors Hub sessions with senior content experts and successful entrepreneurs, designed to broaden perspective and deepen understanding
Atlas Juniors Pro enables outstanding students to apply for formal internships, undergoing standard HR interviews and working as contracted interns during school breaks and after-school periods Students are treated not as “participants,” but as junior interns — expected to think, contribute, and grow accordingly.
Atlas Juniors Research — a research track conducted in collaboration with academic experts and industry specialists, in which students carry out applied research projects formally recognized by Israel’s Ministry of Education, earning matriculation credit and strengthening their graduation credentials

Read more about the project's development and growth on the Atlas Juniors website. See Atlas Juniors Brochure.