Alvarez shared his story with Bwog, discussing his journey, aspirations, and the support that helped him get here.

One of three Kaplan Leadership Program scholars attending Columbia this year, Marco Alvarez has had an unconventional journey in the world of higher education. After attending community college at the age of 18, he spent 17 years away from school to pursue entrepreneurship and consulting, ultimately returning to community college, and finally hoping to complete his education at Columbia. Bwog sat down with Alvarez to hear more about his story, the lessons he has learned, and his aspirations for the future.

Growing Up

Alvarez was born in Mexico to a Mexican mother and a black father. He moved to the United States at a very young age and has lived in New York City for his entire life. Up until the age of nine, Alvarez lived with his parents, at which time he entered the foster system. 

“There was a bit of turmoil with my parents, some challenges with abuse and trauma and neglect,” Alvarez said. “But then I go into foster care where the system is attempting to alleviate some of the challenges, but ends up compounding them.”

Alvarez attended many different schools throughout his childhood, noting that his early educational experiences felt “very fractured.” After dropping out of high school, his foster parents presented an ultimatum: either go to school or leave the house. Alvarez, not knowing how to approach independent adult life, chose to enroll in community college. 

Leaving before earning his associate’s degree, Alvarez began a 17-year stint outside of school. First working in the hospitality industry, he climbed the ladder and eventually became an executive managing over 30 people. 

“And then I decided, ‘you know what? I’m a little over this,’” Alvarez said. He made the pivot to entrepreneurship and small-business consulting, where he has now been for 12 years. 

Working and Learning

His early work in consulting mostly targeted the repair and construction industries. Through consulting with businesses, as well as investing his own money, Alvarez says he learned a lot about the resourcefulness that he possessed and how he could utilize it to further his goals.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Alvarez lost most of his work, leaving him with just one client who he also had to soon close his contract with. This led to a time of reflection for Alvarez where he realized that he was not only helping businesses, but also helping business owners “consider how their personal lives were negatively impacting the way they ran their business,” he said.

Through working with small business and individuals on personal development, Alvarez was particularly struck by a client of his that had a large transformation during their time working together. Through that experience, he decided he wanted to build a framework around that could help other business owners.

“I was sort of inspired to say, ‘hey, you’re supposed to do some of this work for yourself’,” he said. “I felt like why haven’t I asked myself ‘what is my regret? What are some of the things that I wanted to make sure that I [did]?’” For Alvarez, that was finishing his college education.

Initially enrolling in Bronx Community College, Alvarez learned as much as he could and got information about scholarships that could allow him to transfer to a four-year university. The first scholarship he pursued to help him continue his education at Columbia was through Hostos Community College, leading him to transfer schools to become eligible. That opportunity was not afforded to him due to administrative challenges. At that point, Alvarez was considering getting his Associate’s Degree and “moving on.”

That was when he heard about the Kaplan Leadership Program through people at the college and decided to pursue that opportunity. 

The Kaplan Leadership Program helps community college students transfer to top colleges and universities to earn four-year degrees. The 2025 Kaplan class included 11 students attending a number of top universities including Brown, Princeton, and Yale. 

“Because there weren’t many scholarships available to me, because I was a transfer student, but also an older student, I said, ‘why not?’”

Upon submitting his application, Alvarez had not done much research about the Program. It was only once he got to the interview stage that he realized that Kaplan would be able to help him expand his options for the future. 

“The second interview was where I discovered that I knew that I wanted to go for it as well,” Alvarez said. “The types of questions that they asked me helped bring out some things that I wasn’t even aware of about myself.”

In his time away from higher education, Alvarez developed a passion for mental health advocacy, an area in which he hoped to continue working after earning his degree. In order to better contribute to his community, Alvarez sought the “knowledge and frameworks” that school would give him.

Kaplan helped him to navigate the transfer process—researching and visiting different types of schools, communicating stories through essays, and knowing the available options. The program also assisted with applying to other scholarships and provided training so that scholars could familiarize themselves with finances and resumes, among other important facets of personal and professional development. 

In addition to Alvarez, two other Kaplan Leadership Program Scholars are attending Columbia this year: Shaheim Kellum and Joseph Sahap from Borough of Manhattan Community College.

On top of the personal and professional development opportunities that Kaplan provided Alvarez, it also made him feel represented: “One of the things I didn’t expect from this experience was the exposure to people that look like me, but are in very important roles.”

Looking Forward

His experiences in consulting fueled Alvarez’s passion for addressing health inequities, specifically mental health and its impacts. 

In attending Columbia, Alvarez’s mission is to “develop the skills and get the information that will help [him] build the frameworks to address the mental health disparities in [his] community,” he said.

But, rather than focusing on mental health alone, Alvarez hopes his framework will be multifaceted, with the ability to empower people and promote self-sufficiency.

When asked where this interest and passion stemmed from, Alvarez cited his upbringing, reiterating that many of his early childhood experiences were “fractured,” and included a lot of displacement that precluded him from building critical relationships early on and understanding how to navigate some of the adult challenges he would experience.

Alvarez began to acquire a toolbox of skills through introspection and share them on a professional level. “A lot of that comes from the way I grew up,” he said. ”I want to make sure that I could potentially help other people who may be experiencing the things that I experienced.”

At Columbia, Alvarez is hoping to study cognitive science, which he characterizes as an interdisciplinary field that will help him in creating the multifaceted framework he is aspiring to. Aside from his primary goal, Alvarez wants to spend his time at Columbia creating smaller projects in conjunction with other students that can help the community.

“I don’t think I’ve been surprised by anything just yet, but what stands out to me is the diversity here,” Alvarez said. “I appreciate the diversity, the joy, and the spirit of wanting to do something important.”

Story as Superpower

When asked what message he would impart to his younger self, Alvarez responded simply: “be kinder to yourself.”

“I think the biggest lesson that I’ve learned is that my story is my superpower. Back when I was 18, there was a lot of shame involved in how I looked at myself.” Alvarez said. “Part of that inhibited me and didn’t allow me to really explore what I was doing and also engage [with] other people. If I had this exposure with Kaplan back then, I would have made different decisions.”

“I mentioned some of the ugly and more challenging aspects of my life, not to elicit any type of putty or sadness, but rather in the hopes that others see themselves in my story, and don’t feel alone,” he said. In sharing his background and journey, Alvarez hopes to reach people who have had similar experiences so they know they are not alone.

Image via Valerie Kerr