St. Pete school Indi-ED reimagines education around real-world skills

After 10 years of teaching in traditional schools and 10 years leading St. Petersburg private school Indi‑ED, Christine Laurenzi knows the difference that choice, relevance, and authentic support make in a young person’s development. Indi‑ED’s signature event, St. Pete Standout, distills those principles into a one-day leadership and social skills competition experience that is accessible, energizing, and impactful.

Laurenzi founded Indi‑ED in 2016 with a belief that students thrive when given meaningful work and trusted with real responsibility and a mission to reshape education through individualized and experiential learning. Over the last decade, the nonprofit school has built a reputation for helping young people step confidently into their futures.  

St. Pete Standout, coming up April 18th, expands Indi-ED’s real-world approach to learning to reach middle and high school students from across the Bay Area. Laurenzi says the event brings together 100 students and dozens of business and community leaders for a series of challenges designed to strengthen communication, confidence, and leadership skills. The fast-paced event is intentionally structured to feel more like a professional adventure than a workshop, she says.

The students rotate through three stations, Laurenzi says, “each offering a different opportunity to practice the kinds of interactions that shape college interviews, job opportunities, and everyday professional life.” 

“Skills sprint” pushes them to apply leadership skills in rapid-fire, real-world scenarios created by industry professionals. “Work the room” develops communication skills as students practice introducing themselves and building rapport in a simulated networking environment. “Hot Seat” is an exercise in composure and clarity. Business leaders ask a single thought-provoking question, and students have 60 to 90 seconds to think, respond, and receive quick, specific feedback.

The overarching goal is to give young people opportunities to practice and develop the skills adults often assume they already know: introductions, eye contact, asking thoughtful questions, thinking on their feet, and making a genuine connection with someone they’ve just met. These skills are the building blocks of leadership, yet most teens rarely get to practice them in low-pressure, supportive environments.

The event will be many teens’ first time speaking with a CEO, pitching an idea to a professional, or navigating a networking moment with confidence. The day is structured to be fun, fast, and encouraging, so students walk away feeling capable rather than judged.

Laurenzi says the approach produces results. Students have used the skills honed through Indi-ED programs to earn college scholarships and get into dream schools like Berklee College of Music, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago. Others leveraged their experience to land jobs in competitive fields, Laurenzi says, including a student now working in video production at SONY in Los Angeles.

While St. Pete Standout is designed for students, the experience also resonates with the business leaders and community partners who serve as judges, facilitators, and mentors.

“Most adults want to support young people,” Laurenzi says.”They simply do not know how. St. Pete Standout gives them a clear, meaningful way to help. The time commitment is short. The tasks are simple. But the impact is immediate. Professionals leave feeling energized, impressed, and hopeful. They get to witness firsthand how capable, thoughtful, and resilient this generation truly is. And students get to see that adults are not intimidating gatekeepers. They are allies who want to see them succeed.”

In that way, St. Pete Standout nurtures an intergenerational connection.  

“Students leave with new skills, new confidence, and new connections,” Laurenzi says. “Adults leave with renewed faith in the next generation. And the community gains 100 young people who are better prepared to lead boldly. St. Pete Standout is more than an event. It is a bridge between generations, between education and opportunity, and between who students are now and who they are becoming.”

.St. Pete Standout is 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 18th at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance. Indi-ED has a range of available sponsorship opportunities for the event, from individual student sponsorships starting at $99 to the $25,000 Future Leaders Champion title sponsorship.

For more information, go to St. Pete Standout