BIOGRAPHY

Gar's Story

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Gar’s creativity began as a form of resourcefulness. Raised by a single parent, he did not always have the same brand-new toys and games as many of his peers. Whenever he was bored, he improvised. With his mother’s encouragement, he made toys from the materials he had lying around and designed games of his own using basic office supplies. When his mother later received a donated box filled with LEGO bricks, his imagination had even more room to grow.

 

As Gar got older, the tools changed, but the instinct remained. He moved from office supplies and LEGO bricks to digital workspaces. As YouTube emerged in the mid-2000s, he began experimenting with photo and video editing in middle school and occasionally creating content of his own.

 

Around the same time, Gar discovered a knack for creative writing. In high school, he gravitated toward games that challenged his imagination and strategic thinking. He also recorded every idea that came to him on his fourth-generation iPod touch—his first smart device, which he still has today.

 

When Gar graduated from high school, he faced a challenge he had long anticipated: he could not yet afford college. Rather than give up on the education he had spent his adolescence preparing for, he took three years to create a path forward. In 2017, he was accepted to Boston University as a member of the Class of 2021.

 

At BU’s College of Communication, Gar studied film and television while also focusing on political science and journalism. His curiosity extended beyond those subjects to astronomy, world music, and especially business. College offered a new sense of independence and a community of like-minded people, but that opportunity came with a financial tradeoff. Throughout his undergraduate years, Gar worked two jobs, carrying what amounted to a full-time work schedule alongside a full-time course load. The demands left him little time to experience the social life he had imagined.

 

During those years, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world. By graduation, Gar faced another decision: enter a workforce still shaped by lockdowns or continue his education. He chose to keep learning. That fall, he enrolled in a graduate management program at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, where he could deepen his understanding of business and strengthen the strategic abilities he had developed over the years.

 

Business school also brought new people into Gar’s life. As he began building a fuller social life, he rediscovered the creative side of himself that had grown quiet during the demanding years of his undergraduate education. The spark came from something simple: an old camera he had never really used.

 

Learning photography with that camera did more than introduce Gar to a new medium. It reopened a possibility he had set aside—the chance to build an independent creative career. In many ways, the camera marked not a reinvention but a return to the instinct that had shaped him since childhood: seeing possibility in what was available and turning it into something of his own.

 

Today, Gar continues to build his creative life from that same instinct, with the hope of making work that lasts and leaves a positive impact on others.