StandOut Connect Fall
The only global program matching high school students with meaningful internships.
The Structure
StandOut Connect is a two-part online experience spanning three months. In the first part, students will participate in a month of interactive weekend workshops paired with collaborative homework. Weekend workshops will occur on Sundays and contain one hour of course material, followed by optional office hours where instructors answer individualized questions. Workshops are non-mandatory and will be recorded for students who cannot attend. Homework in preparation for workshops will take no more than two hours. Students will be taught how to build their resume and story for both college admissions and internship recruitment by alumni from The University of Chicago and other top universities who have broken into fields such as finance, medicine, law, and technology. They will also be taught how to incorporate essential modern technologies, from Excel to artificial intelligence, into their workflows. Finally, they will interview with companies until they accept an internship offer. Each student in our program is guaranteed an internship offer.
In the second part, students are given the opportunity to participate in a two-month remote asynchronous internship at a company sourced from the entrepreneurship ecosystems of top universities (i.e., The Yale Entrepreneurial Society, Stanford’s Cardinal Ventures) and accelerators that accept the top 1% of companies (i.e., Techstars and Y Combinator). During their internship, students will have the chance to create a project with real impact as well as receive a recommendation letter and an optional return offer.
Students are generally expected to contribute at most 10 hours per week on average to their internships during the school year.
Student Outcomes
Future Internships
80% of students receive optional return offers. Students also frequently use the network from their internship to find their next internship or start building the network to recruit into competitive fields such as finance during college.
Meaningful Impact
During their internship, students are given responsibility for spearheading a project. Previously, they have created websites, led sales calls, created social media accounts reaching a million+ customers, and helped bring in $5 million+ in investment.
College & Beyond
Our students have gone on to receive full scholarships from local universities and attend top universities globally. 97% of our students say they felt better prepared to pursue their career interests during college after completing the StandOut program.
Curriculum & Dates
Dates are flexible, and we have leeway to work around the conflicts and requirements of individual students.
Weeks 1-5: Professional Training
Sept. 1st
The first weekend workshop will cover internship and college application strategy (how to pitch yourself with a compelling story and build a college-level resume and LinkedIn presence).
Preparation materials spanning no more than two hours will be given one week in advance of workshops and due before the workshop starts.
Students will be assigned a student partner within their cohort to work with on assignments and support each other throughout the experience.
Sept. 8th
The second weekend workshop will cover interview and networking best practices.
Students will participate in mock interviews and learn how to network for various industries they may want to recruit into during college.
Sept. 15th
The third-weekend workshop will cover general professionalism and how to succeed during an internship. Students will learn appropriate etiquette for digital communications and meetings, how to approach problems independently, and when to ask for help.
Students will begin interviewing with companies to find an internship match.
Sept. 22nd
The fourth-weekend workshop will cover the software stack used by most innovative companies today and how to integrate tools such as OpenAI into workflows.
Students will receive internship offers this coming week or the week after. Companies will select students based on their interests, previous experience, and interview performance.
Sept. 29th
The fifth and final weekend workshop will cover how to approach specific tasks students might be given during internships, such as web design or lead generation.
Weeks 6-14: Internship
Sept. 30th - Dec. 2nd
Students are given the opportunity to participate in a two-month remote, asynchronous internship at their company match.
They will have the chance to spearhead impactful projects within their organization and receive recommendation letters from company founders who have attended top universities internationally.
Please note that this is only a suggested timeline, and actual dates may vary slightly; most students receive return offers and have the option to continue their internships into the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions
Answer
Who is eligible to apply?
How does the admissions process work?
How much is the program tuition?
Any student who will be 15 or older by August 2024 can apply. International students must have demonstrated English fluency and be willing to adapt to a US time zone.
Our Early Application Deadline is July 8th, and our Regular Application Deadline is August 4th. All students will receive their admissions decisions via email by September at the latest. If you do not receive an email about your application, this means we were unfortunately unable to grant admission. However, we highly encourage you to apply again in the future and will take note of students who show continued interest.
$1,950. This covers the cost of our program, including instructors, company sourcing & vetting, as well as our scholarship program for low-income students. We will be extending as many scholarships as possible and highly encourage you to apply regardless of your financial status! Please indicate in your application if you will need financial assistance to participate.
How much is the workload?
Students will generally be expected to contribute at most five hours per week during September and at most 10 hours per week on average once their internships start in October.