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About us
We exist so anyone can discover, name, and own their hard-earned skills.
About Hidden Skills
Hidden Skills started from a conviction: young people are already building the durable skills that shape a career.
Communication, adaptability, perseverance: these durable skills hold their value even as AI reshapes the workplace, and young people are building them every day in internships, jobs, fellowships, volunteering, group projects, and co-curriculars. Much of it simply goes unseen. A young person finishes a demanding experience and remembers it as something they did, without yet naming the skills they built.
Young people build the skills. Hidden Skills names them.
We created Hidden Skills to make those skills visible. It is a tool, not a program. It sits on top of any experience a young person is part of, guides them through a reflective conversation with questions that help them look closely at what they did, and surfaces the skills in their own words. An experienced educator reviews what surfaces before it reaches the young person, and that impartial human judgment keeps every skill accurate and grounded. Nothing is invented, and nothing is inflated. Every skill we name traces back to something the young person actually said and did.
We hold what young people share with care, and delete it within thirty days of a program's close.
Young people earn these skills, and what they earn is theirs to keep. The educators, institutions, and organizations who create these experiences see what their work produces, so they can build on what is working and show their communities the value of what they offer. And each young person owns their skills outright, ready to name them with confidence and to keep building.
The Team
Jennifer Henry
Founder and CEO
My career spans nonprofit and corporate education leadership, including founding one of the country's earliest teacher residency programs, leading program strategy at New Leaders, and building career services at Trilogy Education Services and 2U that served 40,000+ students across 50+ university partnerships.
Why Hidden Skills?
I deeply believe in the sophistication of young people. I have seen up close the skills they demonstrate in the activities that mean the most to them. Skills like leadership, collaboration, resourcefulness, and problem-solving. It's been my life's work to help people see, claim, and use their hard-earned skills, in any context, in pursuit of any dream.
Wali Hairan
Head Engineer
I've worked as a software engineer across the stack, in big tech and small, in edtech and research: eBay, Penguin Random House, Lebanese American University, Stanford Code in Place, and elsewhere.
Why Hidden Skills?
I always wished for a genie on my shoulder, a caring aunt or mentor who could see the durable skills I was building in and out of the classroom, then help me name them and tame them; the kind of skills that open doors to schools and jobs. Hidden Skills is that genie. We are building it for millions of students, and for me it's where my skills and values finally converge.
Shaté Hayes
Delivery Lead
My career spans over a decade as a professional dancer followed by several years of workforce development leadership, including building the career programs team at 2U alongside Jennifer, where we supported the career goals of thousands of learners across university partnerships nationwide. For over a decade, I’ve written profiles and career stories for global publications like Dance Magazine and Pointe, helping professionals see, claim, and articulate the value their work brings to the world.
Why Hidden Skills?
I believe everyone deserves to have a sense of purpose and pride in their work. Hidden Skills is a game-changing tool that will help more of us achieve that, and I'm honored to be on this mission — helping students and working adults uncover what's already within them and use it to open the doors that matter most.