Mary Zhu
Develop for Good

Personal Bio

Mary Zhu is the Founder and Executive Director of Develop for Good. She's on a mission to ensure that every college student has the opportunity to gain real-world, high-impact tech experience. Mary graduated with both her BS in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) and MS in Computer Science (Human-Computer Interaction) at Stanford University in four years in 2021. In Mary’s early childhood, her family leaned on nonprofit support, catalyzing her commitment to expand economic opportunity. She spoke at TEDxStanford about “Rethinking volunteerism: donating your comparative advantage,” and is an Advisor to Stanford Women in Tech Entrepreneurship.

Project Description

Today, most technology roles require more than a college degree; instead, they also demand prior hands-on experience. Despite real-world experience rarely being required in college curricula, employers cite prior experience as the top deciding factor when evaluating candidates.

Without a portfolio of projects, mentorship, or industry connections, underserved and underrepresented students are graduating from college with tech degrees, but are still unable to get hired because they don’t have the necessary hands-on experience. This ultimately perpetuates generational cycles of poverty and the lack of diversity in tech.

Develop for Good is a tech nonprofit startup that solves this problem by supporting diverse college students as they build software for nonprofits under industry mentorship.