In recent years, internships have become more common for high school students. Previously, internships were only necessary for college graduates to secure employment. Later, internships became a popular way of building a strong resume during college summers. Nowadays, it’s common for students attending top 20 universities to have completed some form of internship during their high school years.
Usually, students secure internships through personal connections, such as when a parent knows the head of a lab or a family friend’s business needs social media help. Unfortunately, these connections tend to favor those who already have an advantage in applying to competitive schools. The issue is compounded by the fact that colleges tend to favor students with previous professional experience as it is linked to lower levels of graduate indebtedness, a critical factor in US News college rankings. This leaves students from rural areas, first-generation college students, and the children of immigrants relying on cold outreach to find these opportunities. However, cold outreach is often fruitless due to strict policies from most companies that do not hire individuals under 18.
A program called StandOut Connect, founded by Estelle Reardon while she was a student at The University of Chicago is changing the dynamic for gifted high school students who struggle to find internships in their area of interest. Estelle, the child of immigrants from a small town in Maine, had limited resources for finding professional opportunities. Despite facing rejection from competitive programs, she was able to secure three internships in high school, at NASA, and at legal and medical companies. These experiences helped her realize her true interests and inspired her to study economics and business in college, pursuing her MBA from Chicago Booth as a Dougan Scholar while working for two venture capital firms during her undergraduate. As a byproduct of her venture capital experience, she soon found herself connected to hundreds of CEOs. Alongside a team of other UChicago students with a venture capital background, she began connecting these companies with high school students looking for internships. Starting in 2020, the team matched over 500 local high school students with opportunities. The success of the program led them to receive over $30,000 in funding from The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Innovation in 2022 to expand the StandOut Connect program globally, and create the largest existing database for high school internships, StandOut Search.
The StandOut Connect program prepares students thoroughly for interviews with companies in their field of interest, ultimately making sure each student secures a internship position. The curriculum also focuses on teaching students how to implement relevant modern technologies such as Chat GPT within their work day. StandOut Connect partners with age-appropriate companies across various industries, from law and social justice to neuroscience, genetics, and clean energy, making it a suitable option for students of any interest area. Unlike other experiential learning programs that offer simulated internship experiences, StandOut Connect ensures that students are hired by real companies to tackle substantial projects. Upon completion of the internships, students leave having built lasting relationships with experienced professionals who they can reach out to for assistance in finding future opportunities.
One summer 2022 participant, Lisa, joined with hopes of gaining real-world legal experience. She was fortunate enough to be chosen as an intern for a company founded at Harvard that employs AI to assist startups in drafting contracts. When asked about her experience, Lisa remarked that her internship equipped her with the necessary skills to become a lawyer at a time when the job description is rapidly evolving. During her internship, she created a blog that educates others on how AI will impact the legal industry and met with several startup lawyers to understand their anxieties and hopes about new technology. Lisa is hopeful that her ability to educate older professionals on the technology that is taking over their field will give her an advantage in the future.
Brihu, another previous participant, has aspirations of pursuing a career in neuroscience. He was recruited by a StandOut Connect partner company founded at UChicago, which is developing a platform that uses machine learning algorithms to analyze brain data. This platform provides personalized insights and recommendations for improving mental health. Brihu shared that his internship has been challenging but rewarding. He commented that he gained a practical understanding of how the knowledge he learned in AP biology can be applied through technology to positively impact people’s lives. Brihu decided to continue his internship part-time throughout the school year and is now more confident that he wants to study computational neuroscience at Hopkins in the fall.
Estelle, when commenting on StandOut Connect‘s growth over the last four years, expressed satisfaction with their progress. However, she acknowledged that there is still work to be done to ensure accessibility for all students. When she began the program, she never imagined that it would receive over a thousand applications per month, necessitating that the team turn hundreds of talented students away. In the future, she hopes to recruit more companies to better meet the demand from ambitious students.
