Meet Tessa Tricarico | Chief Executive Officer of Alumni Tutoring LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tessa Tricarico and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tessa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As a 2020 high school graduate, I began my college experience at Point Loma Nazarene University through a computer screen in my childhood bedroom. While I was a successful student before, graduating with a 4.2 GPA, I quickly realized that I was not able to meet my potential in this educational format. As a result, I deferred my admission to PLNU for a semester and took time away from school. At first, I felt like a failure. However, I quickly realized that I was not alone in this drowning feeling and that, in many ways, I was lucky to have the opportunity to “take school off” when it got challenging. I knew that there were many elementary, middle, and high school students who felt the same anxiety that I did through virtual learning, but had no escape from it. To help these kids, I gathered a few other 2020 graduates from my high school district, called ourselves the “Alumni Tutors”, and began connecting them to current struggling students. Our service was unique in that it offered tutoring from alumni who had just taken the classes, just been taught by the teachers, and just experienced the schools that the students they are mentoring are currently in. The success of Alumni Tutoring surprised me, as it quickly grew to have a respectful reputation in our community. Our group continued to grow and, as of January 2023, I launched the company as an LLC! Ultimately, I went back to school and, now, as a 21 year old business student at Point Loma Nazarene University, I am able to learn new ways to grow my business each day in class.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Starting, owning, and running a business at the age of 21 has been very difficult. Though I am a very motivated individual and confident in my ability to work hard, there have been many times that I have not even known what needs to be done! Luckily, I was connected to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) who has led me through each step of entrepreneurship. From this help, I was able to apply for my business licenses in December of 2022 and declare myself the CEO of an LLC in 2023! However, the challenges of being a full-time student and full-time CEO continue to burden my success of leading Alumni Tutoring. I am constantly torn between spending my time attending classes, doing homework, and studying for tests with filing new hire paperwork from my employees, running payroll, and creating marketing content to keep the revenue coming in. However, I am extremely proud of the progress I have made. Alumni Tutoring is about to reach our 1,000th tutoring session to date and has reached and served nearly 50 families from my high school district!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Having grown up through the Poway Unified School District, I would take a tourist down Poway Road and show them my favorite spots in town! Coincidentally, I have also served on the Miss Poway Scholarship Pageant Court in various positions for the last several years, currently holding the title of Miss Poway, first princess. This leadership role has given me the opportunity to explore my city and fall in love with all it has to offer. First, for breakfast, I would take a tourist to Franco’s Flapjacks, which is a cute breakfast diner on the edge of town. From there, we would spend the day paddling across Lake Poway after renting a boat at the dock. For lunch, we would eat at Taco Taco! where they serve $0.99 fish tacos. In the evening we would visit the Poway Community Library, which is where I hosted interviews for the tutors this year! For dinner, we would eat at Hamburger Factory, a Poway classic where you can get the best orange malt you will ever have, before ending the night walking around Old Poway Park.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to thank my 6th grade math teacher, Mr. Bristow from Meadowbrook Middle School, for always believing in my abilities to help others and follow my dreams. Alumni Tutoring LLC would not be a reality without his support and encouragement. He has always inspired me to know my worth and live up to it.

Website: https://www.alumnitutoring.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alumni.tutoring.sd/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alumni.tutoring.sd/

Other: https://linktr.ee/alumnitutoringsd