Birmingham schoolgirl Lara Jeetley interns with UoB start-up Studystash

Lara Jeetley hit the headlines back in 2019 where at the age of 11, she was recognised as a child genius scoring a higher Mensa score than Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.

Birmingham Mail Sutton Coldfield schoolgirl,11, is brainer than Einstein.

Fast forward 4 years, and Lara has been given the opportunity to work closely with University of Birmingham Computer Science students Ben Ward and Jonathan Graham through an internship project.

The UoB duo have recently built a new AI-powered education startup designed to revolutionise studying - they are also part of the latest cohort of business joining UoB Elevate at The Exchange. Lara reflects on her experience working with StudyStash.

Lara: Hello! I’m Lara, a 14-year-old student, and I recently had the incredible opportunity of a two-week work experience placement with the incredible StudyStash team, an education powered start-up.

It was my first ever internship so I wasn’t sure what to expect but the two weeks were filled with various exciting activities.

Jonathan Graham and Ben Ward (left) founded Studystash

I was introduced to commerce at the age of 6 when I made 50 badges with a badge maker I received at Christmas and sold all of them in a day at school for charity. 

I then learned how to use Wix to build a website and blog about My Little Pony at the age of 8 where I would type mini-stories. 

I began my first real business venture at the age of 11 selling bookmarks for book readers in the UK of all ages. It began at school - I started designing bookmarks for myself with inspiring quotes to empower and uplift me so every time I opened my book to read, I would be reminded of my strengths.

Soon family members asked if they could buy my motivational bookmarks and urged me to sell them to a wider audience to inspire more people.

Starting a small business was fun. The best part is that you can make sales even when you aren't working (ie asleep or at school), however the most difficult aspect of running a business for me is dealing with customer complaints. 

Although there are only a few, it can be quite frustrating to give refunds for damaged items caused by delivery companies when I had packaged them correctly. Also, at 14, I am responsible for every aspect of the sale and I'm not used to being accountable.

One thing I wish I knew before I started an online store was how much tax there was to pay; the second is that you have to reinvest your profits back into the business to buy more stock. I assumed the money would just go straight into my personal bank account.

The biggest takeaway from my experience is the realisation that you don't make sales every day and that if you want many sales, you have to do a lot of marketing such as paying for ads.

During my work experience at StudyStash, I witnessed the magic behind the scenes and got to design, test and code website pages which went live on their platform. I built test features on their front-end and learned enterprise skills by engaging in business meetings.

Being exposed to StudyStash and how they design was a fantastic experience which I will never forget. From day one, I was entrusted with responsibilities to work on crucial aspects such as their AI models and front-end programming, using React, Next.js, Figma and Tailwind. 
 
I was eager to tackle tasks head-on, knowing that my contributions were making a real impact on StudyStash's live website.

I'm super grateful to have spent two weeks with Ben & Jonathan at StudyStash and for taking a chance on me and accepting a 14 year old as an intern, for coaching me and giving me invaluable insights of life as an entrepreneur. 

With this experience under my belt, I'm more determined than ever to pursue my dreams and use tech to make a difference in the world.

Written by Lara Jeetley (With thanks to Ben and Jonathan)
Added by Bob Lee