Dariel Vasquez says he got lucky. Growing up in the Manhattanville public housing complex in Harlem, he had a supportive household, excelled in high school and benefitted from mentoring programs.

Vasquez became the first in his family to go to college, when he enrolled at Bard, a liberal arts school north of the city, on a full academic scholarship. However, transitioning to a predominantly white institution was a tough adjustment. Vasquez says he contemplated dropping out during his first semester.

"I had to think about what got me there in the first place, and it was having those support networks,” Vasquez says.

The more he talked about his situation, the more he realized he was not alone. Other students of color faced challenges as well.

That's when Vasquez founded Brothers at Bard. Initially, it provided an on-campus support group for fellow students, who soon began to thrive. He expanded the program to provide college-age mentors to young men of color in a nearby high school. That's when Vasquez says he found the "secret sauce."

“Everyone is trying to figure out, 'How do we get more young men of color to graduate college who come from neighborhoods like this?'" he says. "And we kind of stumbled upon that answer and put them in front of the room and have them lead.”

The program is now a part of the larger Brothers@ organization, which connects high schoolers with college-aged mentors. Upon graduating in 2017, Vasquez received a state grant from the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative and also formed a parternship with the JP Morgan Chase Fellowship Initiative, turning his passion into a full-time career.

“We’re the best to do this work, we’re the best position to do this and maybe furthest from the resources, but we know how to do it and we can solve our own problems,” Vasquez says.

As with so many other community-based organizations, the pandemic threw Brothers@ a curve. Despite the challenges, Vasquez was able to move the mentoring online during a time when young men of color needed more support. He says in this age of social distancing, youth engagement is more important than ever before.

Meanwhile, high school students who have benefitted from Brothers@ have brought the program to colleges across the country, serving nearly 200 young men of color. Vasquez sees himself eventually moving on and positioning alumni of the program to take over one day, but the need is great, and he is not done yet.