BECA—Business, Economics, Computation, and the Arts—is an organization founded by Stanford Online High School students Hannah Xie, Naiya Mody, and Nascha Martinez in 2023 dedicated to connecting students with volunteer and tutoring opportunities.
Many high school students want to explore their interests and gain experience in the fields they wish to pursue; however, finding these opportunities in their local communities can pose a challenge.
“Our main goal is to help provide students with the opportunities they wouldn’t get in school, especially in an online school. It can be really hard to find volunteer opportunities and projects that you are actually passionate about when you aren’t hearing about them in a school hallway, so having an organization that collects those opportunities can be really helpful,” says Martinez.
While many challenges specific to online students inspired the founders, BECA has opened its doors to participants around the globe. “Our target audience is high schoolers. You can be outside or inside of OHS because we have connections to both sides,” Xie explains.
It can be really hard to find volunteer opportunities and projects that you are actually passionate about when you aren’t hearing about them in a school hallway, so having an organization that collects those opportunities can be really helpful.
— Nasha Martinez
Mody goes on to say, “BECA is open to pretty much everyone because the fields that we’re covering are pretty diverse; they range from STEM to humanities topics, so there’s really no limitation to who can get involved and how you can get involved.”
Interested students can connect with BECA on their Instagram page @beca_initiative or their website. They encourage all interested students to fill out the interest form on their website, and based on the students’ responses, they will connect individual students to specific opportunities.
As the organization continues to develop, Xie, Mody, and Martinez plan to expand BECA’s tutoring services and create a literary publication. “We are working to find the right audience for our tutoring services. We already have a curriculum set, and we have tutors; we are just looking for students who would like to be tutored,” Mody said.
“We are also very excited about the publication aspect because it’s a way to get people researching topics that they are interested in, so expanding the blog and possibly creating a student publication are our current goals.”
However, as a student-led organization, BECA hopes to expand per what students want.
Martinez said, “We’re open to what the students want to do, so if you want to publish a book but have no idea where to start, we’re here. No matter if you’re interested in writing or graphic design, BECA is here to get you those opportunities and connect you with others who can.”