When Paola Mata joined Pursuit as a Fellow in the organization’s inaugural cohort five years ago, she never could have imagined that it would completely transform her career.
At the time, Paola had a job as an administrative assistant. She worked with researchers, data scientists, and programmers — “people who were doing such great things… I, on the other hand, was bored, unchallenged, and lacking a creative outlet to express myself. I wanted more out of my career.”
Captivated by the work of her engineer coworkers and looking to advance professionally, she enrolled in and completed Pursuit’s Fellowship program, where she learned technical mastery, professional skills, and industry fluency. After graduation, she landed a job at Buzzfeed as their first female mobile software engineer.
But it wasn’t enough for Paola to make a better life for herself: she devoted her time to supporting and guiding new programmers. She helped two Pursuit grads, Charlyn Buchanan and Sufei Zhao, also get jobs at Buzzfeed.
Pursuit 2.0 Graduate Charlyn Buchanan and Pursuit Leadership Award Recipient Paola Mata
Together, Paola, Sufei, and Charlyn comprise Buzzfeed NYC mobile’s all-female, all Pursuit graduate team of software developers.
Paola was one of the many Pursuit graduates and Fellows who shared their amazing journeys at Pursuit Bash. The theme of this year’s gala was “Journey to Success.”
Hundreds of tech industry and community leaders, donors, and Pursuit community members packed Highline Stages for the sixth annual gala, the annual fundraiser for the social impact organization and its first-ever Bash as Pursuit (the organization recently rebranded from Coalition for Queens, or C4Q).
An important celebration and annual milestone for the organization, Bash was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the Pursuit community, honor leaders in tech, philanthropy, and public service, and show gratitude to the organization’s many supporters: donors, employers, and members of its Board of Directors and Operating Board.
Sponsors for the evening were Anna Carolina and Soo Kim, Kimberly and Stuart Spodek, Paul Walker, Manuela Zoninsein and Andy Dunn, BlackRock, BNY Mellon, The Inherent Group, and TFCornerstone.
Guests sipped cocktails, enjoyed delicious food, posed for gifs at a photo booth, danced, and networked as Pursuit’s dynamic ‘Transformation Wall’ displayed inspiring stories of Pursuit Fellows and grads.
Left to Right: Paola Mata [1.0], Sufei Zhao [2.0], Charlyn Buchanan [2.0]
Pursuit honored:
Paola Mata with the Pursuit Leadership award
Paul Walker, a New York City technologist and philanthropist, former co-head of technology at Goldman Sachs, and longtime Pursuit supporter and Core 3.0 commencement speaker, with the Pursuit Pioneer award.
Jonah Goodhart, co-founder and CEO of Moat, with the Pursuit Path finder award.
James Patchett, President and CEO of New York City Economic Development Corporation and a co-partner of Pursuit’s Long Island City development project, with the Pursuit Communityaward.
The honorees were introduced by Pursuit graduates, who shared their journeys of grit and perseverance:
Charlyn Buchanan (Paola), a 3.0 graduate and former human resources professional who combined her love of helping people with her love of technology to forge a career as a software developer at Buzzfeed.
Sky Davis (James Patchett), a 1.0 graduate who was raised by her grandmother in Harlem along with five siblings; she later became a product developer at Philosphie.
Wesnie Marclin (Paul Walker), a 3.0 graduate who was struggling with the high cost of living in New York City and a dead-end job search before becoming a software developer at JP Morgan Chase.
Jose Vila (Jonah Goodhart), a 3.0 graduate who spent his career working minimum wage jobs before landing a position as a SDK engineer at Moat and an instructor at Pursuit.
Jukay Hsu, co-founder and CEO of Pursuit, kicked off the dinner with remarks about the mission of Pursuit and its impact.
“Our mission is simple: We create transformation where it’s needed most to enable equality of opportunity and a more prosperous society for everyone,” he said. “We do this by training people with the highest need and the highest potential to become software engineers. We do this by helping people achieve their dreams of having a well-paid job and a meaningful family-sustaining career.”
Jukay noted that Pursuit defines transformation in a number of ways: by the way it empowers Fellows to increase their salaries from an average of $18,000 to $85,000 a year and grow their careers through Pursuit Commit; by the way it connects talent with opportunity to make the tech industry more inclusive; and by way it’s revolutionizing how nonprofits fund job training so that they can scale their services to more people in need.
Observing that there simply isn’t enough philanthropic funding to serve the millions of working class Americans who want to better themselves and their families, Jukay declared that Pursuit has a solution that is “performance-based, market-driven, and scalable.”
Jukay Hsu, Pursuit co-founder and CEO, speaking about the organization’s impact
That model includes Pursuit Bond, an initiative which funds Pursuit’s services by aligning students’ job outcomes with investor returns; and Pursuit LevelUp, an initiative in which Pursuit partners forward-thinking employers such as Blue Apron and Managed by Q to train their employees to become and get hired as software engineers at their companies.
Pursuit presented a short video featuring the inspiring story of Tasi Twinamaani, a 4.0 graduate, single mother, and former Blue Apron kitchen associate who was trained and rehired by the company as a software engineer.
