Aaron Alvarez

Aaron Alvarez was born in August of 1988, in the city of Uruapan in Michoacan, Mexico. Aaron – or Bocho, as every one knows him – immigrated to the United States in 2001, where he started at McKinley Middle School. He then went on to Summit Prep High School in Redwood City where he graduated in 2007. He is currently at Canada College working towards getting his Associates Degree in Teaching. He hopes to transfer to a 4-year college.

Aaron heard about the Riekes Center through a neighbor who had gotten him a scholarship with the Project CARON program. When he first started at the Riekes Center, his goals were to work out and get “buff,” as well as to develop his skills in soccer. After working out for a year at the Riekes Center, Gary Riekes offer him an opportunity to help other students by taking them through their workouts during the summer. During that time, he started working with Justin Shelter to become a better trainer and mentor. As we all have come to know, the Riekes Center is more then just a gym. Aaron was introduced to Spike, one of the best drummers he has ever known. The next second he started playing beats and learning how to play drums, and Gary asked him if he could teach some students how to play the drums as well.

While he was working and taking students through their workouts and teaching drums, Aaron was introduced to David Sailor, one of the best and funniest artists in the Bay Area! Aaron took lessons from David, and 10 minutes before the lesson was over, they would go play some music. That’s when Aaron wanted to be just like him. Nowadays he keeps doing art such as painting, sculpting, doing clean graffiti and making murals. Aaron is also teaching private lessons. During all this time, Aaron Alvarez started one of his favorite hobbies, photography. Aaron has been doing photography for the past 5 years and he has some skills that cannot be compared. He teaches photography to Summit Prep high school students.