Who We Are
Max Marshal
Hello! My name is Max, and I am a rising senior in a suburban town within Wisconsin. As a student who sought after marketing internship positions, I understand the long, enduring process it can take students to connect with business. My goal is to ensure that prospective high school students will have the resources to connect with local business owners to gain the experience they seek.
Sophie An
Hello, my name is Sophie An, a rising junior in high school based in New York City. My passion for marketing stems from growing up in an immigrant family that ran multiple small businesses — from grocery stands to nail salons to taekwondo studios. While the services were top notch, I witnessed how the lack of effective, on-trend marketing often stood in the way of success. This realization inspired me to explore marketing more deeply. I’ve competed in DECA’s Integrated Marketing Campaign, earning first place in New York, and continue to seek opportunities to channel my passion for marketing.
Lara Destani
Hi, I’m Lara Destani, one of the co-founders of SkillBloom and a high school student based in Dubai. I’ve always been interested in how ideas grow into real projects, which is why I enjoy both the creative side of marketing and the more analytical side of looking at data to understand what works. At SkillBloom, I focus on building content strategies, supporting design work, and analyzing data so that businesses can connect with their communities and students can gain meaningful experience. I helped create this platform because I’ve seen how challenging it is for students to find internships that matter, while small businesses often need support they can trust, and I believe bringing the two together makes a real difference. Outside of this, I enjoy music, sports, reading, and finding new ways to learn from every project I take on.
Ryan Lin
I’m Lin Ryan and I’m a high school senior in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. I’ve been interested in game development, web development, and all other things programming. I’m the lead software developer at SkillBloom, and my goal is to make sure everything runs smoothly and bug-free for our students and businesses while building cool new features for the platform.