Our mission
Expanding what students believe is possible.
Our mission is to empower young people of color with the knowledge, stories, and resources to choose careers that build wealth, equity, and power.
Career advancement is the key to wealth creation — and wealth is the key to access. Young people of color face real obstacles entering diverse industries and upwardly mobile professions. Not because of lack of talent or ambition, but because of a profound gap in exposure. They rarely see themselves in the careers they could pursue.
Vitaes exists to close that gap. Through authentic video stories from professionals of color across 38 industries, we give students the visibility to dream bigger and the concrete information to plan smarter. We give educators and counselors the tools to make career readiness part of every student’s journey.
What we do
Three things that move the needle for students and districts.
Authentic stories
Over 240 video testimonials from professionals of color spanning healthcare, law, engineering, finance, creative industries, and beyond. Real people, real careers, unscripted.
Educator tools
Curated story collections, discussion guides, and lesson plans aligned to ASCA mindsets and state CTE standards. Designed to fit into advisory blocks without adding prep time.
Measurable outcomes
Student engagement dashboards and quarterly impact reports that show counselors and district leaders which pathways students are exploring and how intent is shifting over time.
The founder
Stephen Lozano
Master of Universe
Built from 25 years of watching the gap up close.
Stephen Lozano spent 25 years in commercial banking — sitting across the table from clients building businesses, managing wealth, and navigating careers across every industry imaginable. What he noticed, again and again, was a persistent gap: young people of color simply weren’t seeing themselves in those professions.
Not for lack of ability. For lack of exposure.
Most students choose careers the same way they always have — through whatever they’ve encountered in their immediate world. If no one in your family has been a cardiologist, a patent attorney, or a civil engineer, those paths feel abstract at best, invisible at worst. The informational interview — that conversation that unlocks a whole world of possibility — has always been a privilege of the well-connected.
“The informational interview changed my life. Vitaes exists to give every young person of color that same conversation — at scale.”
Steve founded Vitaes to make that conversation available to everyone. Today, Vitaes is a growing library of 240+ career stories across 38 industries, purpose-built for the districts and educators committed to expanding what their students believe is possible. The work is far from finished — but the direction is clear.
What drives us
Four values. Every decision.
Authenticity
Real stories, unscripted. We celebrate honest accounts of the hard parts as much as the wins.
Integrity
We say what we mean and do what we say — for students, educators, and the professionals who trust us with their stories.
Inclusivity
Representation is not a checkbox. It is the foundation. Every story on Vitaes was chosen to reflect that.
Equity
We build for the student who has never met a doctor, lawyer, or engineer who looks like them. That gap is solvable.
Get started
Bring Vitaes to your district
Join the educators and counselors using Vitaes to give every student a window into what their future could look like.