Riya Yadav’s journey was filled with many challenges and difficulties, but her passion for computers helped her succeed. She resides in Mumbai and is pursuing computer science and engineering at the Lokmanya tilak college of engineering. Growing up in Mumbai, Riya comes from a very financially unstable background due to the demines of her father at a very young age which brought in financial constraints. The family also saw an unforeseen death of their eldest daughter early this year. The only source of income in her family is the rented-out shop from her father which makes about INR 5000 per month. Despite these challenges, the family has been quite supportive of her education and works hard to pay for it.

Riya always was inspired by her cousin, who also pursued computer science and engineering and went abroad for further opportunities. being passionate about computers, Java was her focus, but limited knowledge held her back. She wanted to gain more exposure to learning Java but could not find any relevant courses and was short-handed with money. While pursuing her bachelor’s, she was introduced by her professor to TNS India Foundation’s Campus to Technical Careers Program which offered learnings into various technical streams, including java, and she saw this as an opportunity to wider her knowledge,  also with an additional benefit of the course having no charges. Her family was quite supportive and encouraging in her decision to join the course.

Today she works at IBM as an assistant system manager and is determined to reach a position in the company where she is able to lead a team. She also plans to pursue a master’s degree, but her priority is to make the family financially stable. She is grateful for the learning provided by TNS India Foundation, which helped her contribute to her household income.