About StandOut Connect

We help the brightest students of our generation realize they are more than exam scores or college acceptance rates.

StandOut Connect is a program that matches high school students with internships at innovative companies, so they can create a real impact in the professional world.

Our History

From UChicago to a global program.

01
2020
StandOutSearch was founded in 2020 by students at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Booth School of Business. They were frustrated by how little high school prepared them for the internship and professional recruitment process, especially for competitive fields such as finance, consulting, and FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google). They noticed that more and more students were doing internships in high school before coming to UChicago (70%, according to UChicago consultancy PRISM) and that these students consistently had better outcomes applying to student professional organizations and internships. The problem was that most students only found internships through personal connections, which not every family has.
02
2021
To solve this problem, StandOut's founders started using the Chicago Booth entrepreneurship network to match local Chicago students with internships. The program quickly grew, thanks to partnerships with entrepreneurship ecosystems at other universities such as Harvard Ventures, The Yale Entrepreneurial Society, and Stanford's Cardinal Ventures.
03
2022
In 2022, StandOutSearch won second place in UChicago's College New Venture Challenge, receiving investment from UChicago and the University of Illinois.
04
2023
In 2023, the founders used this funding to create the largest existing database for high school internships. The program where students are matched with internships became StandOut Connect, an independent program within the StandOutSearch database that is now available to students globally.

Program Directors

Who you’ll learn from.

Estelle Reardon

Program Director

Estelle Reardon is a University of Chicago and Chicago Booth School of Business alumna with a background in venture capital investing at New Stack Ventures and .406 Ventures, where she also ran recruiting for a fellowship for student entrepreneurs. She founded StandOutSearch, the largest existing database for high school internships, and helped secure its investment from UChicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Estelle started her career at age 15, completing three internships in high school, including at NASA. In 2025, she was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 for her contributions to education. Her mission as an instructor for StandOut Connect is to help other students discover their goals from a young age and start on the path to loving their profession.

esteller@standoutconnect.org

Elizabeth Chen

Program Director

Elizabeth Chen holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Chicago and an M.A.T. in English Secondary Education from New York University. She is currently working towards another Master’s in Creative Writing from Harvard University.

Elizabeth began teaching in a classroom during her first year of college, where she developed a passion for differentiated instruction and individualizing content according to student passions. She completed her M.A.T. within a year and taught in one of the top school districts in Connecticut before transitioning to private household education. She was also a private admissions consultant. Her mission as an educator is to inspire students to cultivate their voice and passions, both academically and creatively.

elizabethc@standoutconnect.org