Consortium Membership Application Essay
What have you done pre-MBA in your business, personal, or academic life to demonstrate commitment to this mission? (2,000 characters)
Throughout my life, I’ve been committed to helping Black and Latinx youth to find their way through the opportunity gaps that unjustly limit their academic and career options. I came to this work through my first love, soccer. As a high school senior in City X, I was only an average player, but I was nonetheless recruited to the soccer team of a small, elite liberal arts college. It felt unfair knowing that I was going to play college soccer when so many of my more talented friends weren’t.
During my first year at Elite College, I began leading soccer clinics in local Rust Belt communities. There, I saw a familiar pattern - talented young people without a clear vision of their future, lacking the support they needed to reach their goals. Over four years of work and partnership building, I went from organizing soccer clinics to founding and leading an organization, Urban Soccer. Urban Soccer connected under-served youth in the Rust Belt with opportunities and resources through Elite College, serving over 250 young people annually. In the process, we increased college access for hundreds of students of color.
In 2015, I relocated to Atlanta to work at Education NGO, a nonprofit dedicated to creating educational opportunities in Title 1 high schools. Over 90% of our students identify as Black or Latinx. I lead our 12th grade Team, which has increased the college enrollment rate from 30% to 78% for over 1,000 students each year, established an Emergency Fund for students in need, and launched a Fellows initiative to hire and train Education NGO college students as staff, ensuring that our students are well connected and prepared for college success.
Outside of Education NGO, I continue to lead public school sports programs that use soccer to connect student-athletes with educational possibilities, helping place over 50 young men in college last year alone.