Student Profiles: Honoring Hispanic Heritage Month at Foster, Part 2

In commemoration of Hispanic Heritage month, we asked Foster MBA students how they honour their heritage and who they would like to recognize during this month. In our first post, we had elaborated on the significance of Hispanic Heritage Month and featured Myrna Barrera-Torres. Next, we put the spotlight on Kevin Strand, a Foster MBA student from the Class of 2022.

Kevin Strand

Kevin Strand, Foster Class of 2022

• Where did you grow up?

Berea, Kentucky

• What did you do before pursuing your MBA? 

Operations & Data Management in K-12 Education at Match Public Charter School in Boston, MA.

• What’s your cultural background?

Bi-racial, half-latinx. My mother comes from La Ceiba, Honduras, and moved to the US at age 10. Father was born and raised in the US.

• How do you connect to your heritage?

I call my mom at least 3x a week to stay connected. She is the only person from her side of the family that we know and is alive. We mostly connect to our Honduran heritage through food when she teaches me how to make traditional frijoles negros, tapado, arroz con pollo, tostones, etc… That is the way that we both stay connected with our culture. 

• What leader, cultural figure, or historical moment would you like to recognize during this month and why? 

I would like to recognize all of the refugee and asylum seekers both past and present who have struggled and made serious sacrifices to seek a better life and more opportunities–those who dare to dream. We as Americans need to recognize these dangers and difficulties that our compatriots go through in order to cross the border. Everyone has a right to seek a better life, and we need to recognize their struggles and efforts to improve opportunities for their families — no hay nada más americano o latinx que eso.

For the next post in this series click here.

To learn more about the Foster community, please reach out to our Student Ambassadors or Admissions Team.

Aarin Murray, Foster Class of 2022, and Christine Pham, Foster Class of 2022 and VP of Diversity at Foster, co-authored this post.