Origin of KV Consulting and KV Admissions

We met in 2019, in Vermont, sitting side by side in a conference room filled with young people from across the Caribbean. We were 15 at the time, part of a U.S. State Department youth exchange program run by World Learning. Two teenagers trying to make sense of the world and our place in it.

Kenya was the only student there from Grenada. Vish had traveled from Guyana.

The air was cold, the days were packed with workshops, and the nights were filled with quiet conversations and handwritten journal entries under dim hostel lights. That week, something shifted for both of us. For the first time, we were in a space where global education didn’t feel like a distant dream. Surrounded by driven, curious peers from the Caribbean like us, we realized that studying in the United States wasn’t reserved for students from elite schools or wealthy families. It could be real for us too.

After the program, life moved fast. We stayed in touch on WhatsApp, becoming best friends and eventually each other’s sounding board throughout the college admissions process.

Kenya applied Early Decision to Cornell. When the deferral email came, it felt like the floor dropped. But she regrouped, took a breath, and pivoted to Vanderbilt for Early Decision II. She was accepted with financial aid. Vish applied to several schools during his final year of secondary school and was rejected from every one. The silence that followed was brutal. But he didn’t give up. He took a gap year, started over, and together we reworked everything—his essays, his school list, and his overall strategy. The following cycle, he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania.

We had no college counselors, no test prep, and no blueprint. What we had was each other and a lot of late-night Google searches. It shouldn’t have to be like that for every Caribbean student.

In the summer of 2024, we reconnected in person in New York. That December, our phone conversations turned serious. We kept seeing the same thing. Families from home were reaching out to ask for help. How do I apply for financial aid? Is this essay strong enough? Can you read this for me?

In January, we met again in Miami. Over a meal at Outback Steakhouse, we started sketching out what a real solution might look like. Not a someday idea. A plan. A structure. Something we could build. That was the beginning of the Caribbean Admissions Initiative, or CAI.

By May, we realized this was bigger than college applications. What we were building needed a home and a future beyond one bootcamp. That is when we created KV Consulting, a parent brand designed to hold not just KV Admissions, but a growing ecosystem of programs focused on access, equity, and mobility for Caribbean citizens.

KV Admissions is our first venture. It is modules designed to walk students through the entire college admissions process. From writing personal essays to understanding scholarships, financial aid, and student visas. It is structured, honest, and built from lived experience. This is not about promising overnight results or elite college guarantees. It is about replacing guesswork with strategy. It is about making sure Caribbean students are not left behind simply because they did not have the right information or support.

KV Consulting is our response to the barriers we lived through. KV Admissions is where we are starting. But we are not stopping there. In the future, we hope to launch programs that support young people in career development, entrepreneurship, and the creative industries. Talent exists in every corner of the Caribbean, and it deserves more than a lucky break.

We first met in Vermont, carrying the quiet weight of our countries on our shoulders. We are still carrying it. But now, we are building something that will make the road easier for the students coming after us.

No one should have to figure it out alone.