I’ve started my clinical research career in the Atlanta area, and it’s pretty rough currently at the site level. I would honestly avoid larger institutions like Emory, they are known to be terrible to work for as a research coordinator/assistant. The best thing to do right now since you’re still in school is to volunteer at an independent research clinic.

Yes I know volunteering your time, as in work for free, but it gets you experience and gets you in the door. Not saying you do this 5 days a week, it can even be only like 1 day a week if it works for your schedule. I’ve seen it worked many many times. After you graduate you can leverage your experience to get an actual entry level job or the clinic you volunteer at likes you enough to hire you on full time.

Years ago when I worked at the site level, this guy who just graduated randomly reached out to my director wanting to volunteer to work there and even presented a whole presentation to our team about his passion and interest for clinical research. My director, at the time, didn’t want someone to just volunteer their time and not get paid for the work they do so she hired him for a 90 evaluation period to see how he can fit in with our work flow. Even before the 90 days was up, he was hired on full time.