Steven Lozano was a BEST Kids mentor from 2007-2011. He is committed to helping youth who suffer from neglect. His own experiences have enabled him to empathize with youth who need a helping hand. He and his three brothers were raised by a single mother. He credits his well-being and success to the formal and informal mentoring he received from a wide variety of role models. These role models included the kind-hearted elderly couple that lived across the street and tutored him during his junior high years, the priest from the college campus ministry who provided him with spiritual direction, and the professional colleague who helped him obtain a promotion.

With the encouragement he received from his “mentors,” Steven graduated from Santa Clara University with a B.S. in Political Science and earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Washington’s Graduate School of Public Affairs. For the past 16 years, he has been employed at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C. His current position is Assistant Director, Strategic Issues.

As a resident of Washington, D.C. for more than 19 years, Steven has been both saddened and frustrated to see that so many youth have turned to violence and criminality or become self-destructive as a result of neglect or marginalization. He says that being a mentor can be his contribution to address this continuing crisis while giving him the opportunity to honor the role models in his life.