in 2015 my dad was shot twice because he refused to pay an extortion fee and he was in coma for six weeks at that point we decided that the right thing for me to do was to leave the country I was born in emerging Colombia when I came to the US I did not speak any English whatsoever my name is Matteo realize and I'm 21 years old we're in a place in which you're the person who thinks differently with dogs differently you actually need to find for that sense of community that sense of safety and for me that place was not my idea when I first met Matteo I saw a student so engaged and so involved in everything that was going around him the world was not big enough for his hunter 60% of our students are immigrants they live in households of less than $25,000 income and English is their second language we're the most diverse Community College in the most diverse area of the country I was reading the newspaper one day and there was an article that said LaGuardia Community College students many of them had to choose between lunch or an MTA card and Karen and I began a conversation and we developed this program moment needed diversity LaGuardia needs jobs for diverse students first thing we thought of was mentorship that if the people at MoMA have a personal connection to our students they're going to understand what diversity means in a very human way we were committed to them being paid and that these be real jobs operations marketing HR jobs that open real career paths for them I worked at the finance department of MoMA gathering information from different surveys and then using that information and to help multiple departments at MoMA do their business better from this internship I came to mentor and I gained a friend Philip they learned how to be comfortable around really smart people and then I realized that these people thought that my ideas were just as valid as theirs and that's that's quite empowering it was quite empowering for me for the staff here it reminded them of why they got into the arts in the first place for the students they got an amazing injection of confidence matéo just blossomed and his meeting Philip in being at MoMA really changed the whole trajectory of his life I'm studying management science and engineering at Stanford University my plan for the future is to work in operations for an art institution I might become CEO of MoMA or Lincoln Center a part of my motivation was a sense that cultural institutions could do more diversity is in a choice it's what innovative institutions should know must be part of their backbone [Music] programs and mentorships like LaGuardia moment Scholars Program are extremely validating for people like me we need that extra help that will actually set us up on our way to success programs like these do that for us [Music]