Why I Launched Papaya

How did it all start?

I was over the moon when I received my offer letter from my dream job at Accenture. I got a full time position in Los Angeles CA (another dream) with a starting salary of $90K (including bonuses). It was all a dream, but reaching my goal or dream position was not smooth sailing, I had many obstacles along the way. Let’s talk about one in particular…..Java.

While I was still a student, I decided to take an extra coding class to prepare for the technology world. Side note: I really wish I had a mentor to tell me that programming is not the only skill you need to thrive in the tech world. I was way too confident in my abilities to study well in advance for classes like Math or Science, so I did the same for JAVA…. And…. let’s just say it was a humbling experience. Java was a whole other language, it seemed like Mandarin to me. I did not understand anything. The class was online, a pre-recorded class with no real human interaction, which made it even worse. So I panicked! I no longer saw my future as bright as I had previously.

Other times, I would have waited till it was too late to ask for help, but I could not afford to do so this time. Therefore, I went to my university and tried to find someone that could help me. I found a female tutor who was great, but her availability was limited and her services were too expensive for me. I was a student struggling to put myself through school.

Let’s give some context here, so you can understand why I did what I did. I am from Peru, and there is a University for Engineering that is popular for having genius students. People go by foot from other universities to find tutors from there, so I did the same (almost). My little cousin was going there, I asked him to find me someone, which he did. It was the most amazing tutoring experience ever.

I passed my classes, and my friends asked me for my tutors. I gave them the names of my tutors, and they passed their classes. And the rest is history.

Well not quite. I remember feeling almost guilty that he would never have the same opportunities that I did because he did not have parents that could get him a Visa to enter the USA. I felt like he almost deserved that opportunity more than I did. I realized life is not fair. That feeling never left me, and it got bigger and bigger. I quit my job at Accenture last year, and decided to do something for those bright engineering students in underdeveloped countries.

Papaya Tutor was created to help these amazing students in underdeveloped countries by helping them with jobs, while they help American students primarily from low income, marginalized communities.