By Nicole MOORE

For the past few months Logan Liu, a sophomore at Crescenta Valley High, has been an intern at Skillify. Founded in 2014 by Shireen Jaffer, Skillify is focused on student learning in relation to career-readiness. The company currently has 18 extremely qualified interns, with Liu being one of the youngest.

Skillify holds daylong conferences at the USC campus where high school students are able to learn networking skills, ways to better their resume, and how to exude confidence when being interviewed. After the conference has been held, the company offers students a six-month long personalized experience where they are able to explore job shadowing and internships. As of now, there are 4,000 students from 180 high schools who attend Skillify’s workshops and conferences.

Prior to his internship, Liu attended the company’s workshops for almost a year. He was inspired to join Skillify when Jennifer Tang, the company’s Student Success manager, visited his classroom in the ninth grade. Currently, Tang is Liu’s mentor at the company.

“It’s awesome working with Logan. He has a great curiosity about the outside world,” said Tang.

As an intern for Skillify, Liu assists work-shopping students with their learning experiences, specifically helping them write professional level resumes and guide them with their future endeavors.

“The coolest thing about working for Skillify is knowing you are a part of a cause for help-
ing out other people profession-ally. It’s amazing to see what [my] peers are doing. Also working with other interns is motivating [as] we are constantly learning from each other,” said Liu.

Additionally, Liu said he appreciates the uniqueness of the company.

“Skillify teaches you what school does not. [It] goes more in depth with personal goals.”

Along with interning, Liu is currently brainstorming different business endeavors, including finding new ways to deliver food for students at Crescenta Valley High School’s campus.

“At my school there is an open lunch policy but there are only so many places to go to and [still]come back on time. I would like to start figuring out ways to deliver food [on campus] for everyone. This way there would be no lateness,” said Liu.

As for future career goals, Liu would like to either go into the biotechnology field or to create his own start-up company.

“It’s hard to say what I would like to do because I’m a sophomore. I’m at the stage of exploring where I want my focus to be,” Liu said.

Besides working for Skillify, Liu said he enjoys breakdancing and learning more about people.

  Nicole MOORE