For many high school students, landing an internship can feel like an impossible loop, you need experience to get experience, but there’s nowhere to start.

That’s the problem Obra D. Tompkins High School student Ridhi Rentala is working to solve.

“I saw how difficult it was for high schoolers and college students to break into internships,” Rentala said. “A lot of people my age want real experience, but the door feels closed before they even get a chance to knock.”

The idea for what some call a “Tinder for internships” came from her own experience.

“I was trying to find internships and kept hitting dead ends,” she said. “It felt like this impossible loop.”

The platform, still in development, is designed to match students with internships based on their interests and potential rather than experience.

“The idea is to create a space where it works both ways, students can find internships tailored to them, and small businesses can find students they’d actually want to bring on,” she said.

Despite the nickname, the app won’t rely on swiping.

“It’s more about smart matching than split-second decisions,” she said.

Unlike traditional job platforms, the project is built specifically for high school and early college students.

“This is for people who are just starting out and need a platform that meets them where they are,” she said.

Even before launch, interest has been strong. Rentala said she’s received hundreds of messages asking when it will go live.

“That kind of unsolicited interest tells me there’s something real here,” she said.

The current focus is on finalizing the website, with a planned launch as early as March or April.

“My goal is for it to start small and grow over time into something much bigger,” she said.

For now, the mission is simple, give students a starting point, something many feel they’ve been missing.