Justo Pastor has joined the More Than Bootstraps Advisory Board

Published by New Jersey Stage
11/15/2026

(PASSAIC, NJ) -- The New Jersey non-profit organization, More Than Bootstraps, has announced that Justo Pastor has joined the MTB Advisory Board.

Justo Pastor has spent more than 35 years in the software industry, and along the way he has mentored engineers on teams around the world. The son of Cuban parents and a native Spanish speaker, he was the first in his family to attend college in the United States, an experience that shapes how he works with students today. He has two sons, one a recent college graduate and the other a senior in college. When he’s not working, Justo travels with his family through Europe and Africa, and he values the chance to learn from the people and cultures he meets.

Justo started volunteering with MTB in 2024. He has been a supportive and engaged member of the team of adult mentors who lend support to the college students in MTB.

“I’m glad to be joining More Than Bootstraps and to put my experience to work for its mission,” Justo says. “I know what it’s like to be the first in your family to navigate college and a career, and I enjoy being part of students’ journeys, whether that’s helping them think through a decision or connecting them with people who can open doors.”

“We are enormously grateful to Justo for his commitment to MTB,” said Audrey Fisch, president of More Than Bootstraps. “He has been a huge support to the students he's worked with, and now he will play a bigger role in the organization, helping us do the work of empowering first-generation college students to succeed in college and beyond.”

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Now underway with its seventh year of programming, MTB employs a near-peer mentoring approach. The organization matches high school students with near-peer mentors. MTB works with graduates of the Passaic and Plainfield Public Schools, currently enrolled in institutions from Princeton to Kean University, who mentor their younger high school peers, following a curriculum that focuses on knowledge about higher education and financial aid, communication with families, holistic student development, and the promotion of student well-being and agency.

Grants and donations to More Than Bootstraps fund the monthly stipends that allow the high school and college students in the program some time and space to devote to their professional development and college-going activities while still meeting their financial responsibilities. Interested donors are invited to visit the MTB website: www.morethanbootstraps.org/donate.

More Than Bootstraps is a nonprofit created by educators seeking to level the playing field and remove some of the substantial barriers that first-generation college students encounter in accessing and succeeding in higher education. More Than Bootstraps employs a near-peer mentoring model to create a community of success. College students from the community return to guide their younger peers in the community through the college search, application, and assimilation process. These leaders, working as a mentoring cohort, in turn strengthen their own college-going identities and improve their own chances of success in higher education.

Students are selected based on their desire to attend college and their commitment to the program rather than grade point average or test scores. All students in the MTB program receive stipends, laptop computers, and access to emergency resources to help them with the many non-tuition expenses of higher education.