From Ad Tech to Senegal: tvScientific Executive Heeds the Call to Build Schools Abroad – Beet.TV

AMENIA, NY – Thirty years after a college term abroad planted a seed in his mind, Jay Sears founded a school-building charity. Now, one of his former colleagues is finally ready to pick up a shovel.

Heather Carver, chief customer officer at tvScientific by Pinterest, has been quietly supporting the Team Diya Foundation, a developmental and charitable organization focused on internships, training, and empowering youth, for years through donations. This November, she is taking the next step: flying to Senegal for a week to help pour foundations, dig, and paint alongside local masons and community members. Her message to others in the industry who feel the pull of philanthropy but haven’t acted on it is blunt: just do it.

“There’s always a reason not to do something,” said Carver, speaking with Beet.TV at Beet Retreat. “I find that it’s just better if you’re really motivated by something to actually take the time and just go for it.”

The roots of Team Diya

The foundation was started by Jay Sears, whom Carver worked alongside for five years at Rubicon Project. Sears had spent a term abroad in Nepal during college and, by her account, always intended to return and give back to the community. Three decades later, he made good on that intention, establishing Team Diya in 2018 and opening his first school in 2019.

The name itself carries weight. “Diya in Nepali actually means kindness, which I think is so incredibly fitting,” Carver said. The foundation has since built 11 schools across Malawi, Nicaragua, and Senegal, with two more currently under construction.

Carver said she learned about the foundation gradually, donating money over several years while waiting for the right moment to participate more directly. With her children a little older, she decided the moment had arrived. “I signed up. I didn’t really think too much about the logistics behind it and just booked my plane ticket,” she said.

What a week in Senegal will look like

The Senegal trip will be Carver’s first school build, and she acknowledged she isn’t entirely sure what to expect beyond hard physical work. The volunteer group will work beside local masons, pouring the foundation, digging, and painting, contributing labor rather than just funds.

But the experience, she suggested, is about more than construction. “A big portion of it too is getting involved with the community and participating in their local events,” she said. “Really being integrated into their day-to-day life.” She described the prospect of spending time with the children the school will serve as “very, very meaningful,” and said she hopes to understand the long-term impact the building will have on their lives.

She added that she hopes to eventually bring her own children on a future build, should Team Diya continue its work in the years ahead.

Advice for the philanthropically hesitant

Carver had counsel to colleagues who feel drawn to community service but haven’t found their way in. Start where you are: find something that resonates, talk to people already involved, and let those conversations build momentum. She credited conversations with Team Diya participants for pushing her from passive supporter to active volunteer.

“People are busy with their lives and children and work and traveling,” she acknowledged. “I think it’s first finding something that speaks to you that you’re passionate about.” The financial entry point, she noted, doesn’t have to be dramatic. Her own involvement began with modest donations before escalating to a transatlantic flight and a week of manual labor.

For Carver, the motivation is partly a sense of professional obligation. “Especially in this industry, a lot of people have had very successful exits or have been successful in their careers, and I feel like it’s partially my responsibility to give back,” she said. “To be able to have the opportunity to give a future, build a school for others, is such a great opportunity.”