ECEM

I co-founded ECEM in 2021, during the pandemic, with a classmate at ETEC (a Brazilian technical high school). It started small — free tutoring for friends in our class who were falling behind. It grew organically: other classes, other courses, morning and afternoon shifts. I served as co-founder, peer mentor and tutor until early 2023.

• Java
• Spring
• React
• HTML/CSS/JS
• Portugol

During and after the pandemic, classmates at ETEC were falling behind. Technical subjects required hands-on guidance that remote class and generic online material couldn't give — and the students who got the content didn't have an organized way to help those who didn't.

• Remote classes during the pandemic opened wide gaps in technical subjects like programming.
• Online material is generic — it doesn't answer student X's specific question in course Y at ETEC.
• Help between friends happened informally but with no rhythm, material or follow-up.

1. 01

   Started small — tutoring friends

   My classmate and I offered free tutoring to friends in our own class who were struggling. No grand plan — just helping the people right next to us.

2. 02

   Grew to other classes, then other courses

   It picked up traction in the Software Development course, spread to other classes, and then crossed into completely different ones — gastronomy, business administration, tourism. We opened morning and afternoon shifts.

3. 03

   Stack guided by teachers and the market

   Since we were both working as freelancers, we brought what the market was actually using. ETEC teachers and coordinators helped us calibrate: Java + Spring, React, HTML/CSS/JS, and Portugol as a logic foundation.

4. 04

   Tournaments and hands-on learning

   Beyond classes, we ran programming tournaments and group dynamics — to push the more advanced students and give practical context to the beginners.

5. 05

   Partnership with EACH USP

   We had a partnership with EACH USP (the eastern campus of Universidade de São Paulo), which brought us programming logic and math content and made room for our group to study inside the USP campus. The environment there felt very much like ours — students helping students.

6. 06

   Following each student from zero toward the market

   We followed each student with tips, study plans and direction — from those starting at zero to those almost ready for their first opportunity.

• 01

  Free by choice, not by accident

  Keeping it free was a deliberate call. The project came from a real problem between classmates — charging would have changed its nature.

• 02

  Grow by demand, not by plan

  We never built an expansion roadmap. Each new course and shift came up because someone asked for it — we just answered real demand.

• 03

  Active freelancer mentor, not distant teacher

  Because my classmate and I were working in the market in parallel, the content reflected what was actually being used in real projects — not the textbook version.

• 04

  Institutional backing without becoming a department

  Teachers and coordinators helped with stack suggestions and visibility, but we kept the project light — not a formal subject.

Scope indicators from my time leading the project — 2021 to early 2023.

ETEC courses reached

4+

Shifts covered

Morning and afternoon

Main stacks taught

Java/Spring · React · JS · Portugol

Model

100% free · peer-led

Academic partnership

EACH USP — logic and math

• A project born from a real problem and grown organically goes further than one drawn on a slide. The people asking show you the path.
• Content taught by someone actively in the market is worth more than perfect didactics from someone out of touch. Freshness matters.
• Institutional backing opens doors, but a community project only survives if it stays light — over-formalize and it dies.

What started as free tutoring among friends became a multi-course project inside ETEC, with two shifts, institutional backing and a partnership with EACH USP — which brought us logic and math content and opened up the USP campus to our group. I stepped back in early 2023 and the project kept running with new people leading — the most honest signal that the model worked without depending on us.