Matthew Garcia

Why you should listen

Matthew Garcia is a social innovator who founded two nonprofit organizations that provide free, virtual educational opportunities to students from underserved communities. His first organization, Through the Staff, provides music lessons to young musicians in second through twelfth grade who wouldn't otherwise be able to access such an education. While studying human developmental and regenerative biology at Harvard University, Garcia founded his second organization, the Pre-College Research Institute, which trains high school juniors and seniors of color in the foundations of academic research. Garcia's passion for social innovation started when, as a 2018 Bezos Scholar, he was invited to the Aspen Ideas Festival to learn how to create community change projects.