Leveling the Playing Field

“Ever since I was a child, something inside me has kept me moving forward,” said Joan Bolanos Martinez ’21. Yet in 2007, at age 22, that momentum seemed to stop abruptly. Bolanos Martinez, a passionate soccer player from Venezuela, was in a serious car accident. After surgery, he contracted a life-threatening infection, leading to the amputation of his left leg. “If only I can make it to tomorrow, if only I can make it to the next step,” he recalled wishing at the time. “I thought, ‘If I ever get a chance, I’ve got to take it.’”

And Bolanos Martinez didn’t just take the chance—he ran with it. He moved to the U.S. and enrolled in Suffolk Community College, where he graduated with the highest distinction. While there he discovered amputee soccer and reignited his soccer dreams. In 2016, he joined the U.S. Men’s National Amputee Soccer Team and later served on its board of directors. By the time he enrolled in GS in 2018, he was sprinting ahead in sports, business, and academics. “GS adopts you like a family,” he said. “I felt they were invested in my success.”

That investment paid off. As the Students with Disabilities representative, Bolanos Martinez helped students access video and audio class recordings during the pandemic, winning the Columbia GS Change Agent Award in 2021. Since graduating, he has continued his advocacy, always asking himself: “What can I do to help people with ‘diversabilities’ have more opportunities?”

To that end, in 2023 he founded the United States Amputee Football Federation (USAFF) to create opportunities for women, men, and children with limb differences and to introduce the sport internationally. Bolanos Martinez also participated in the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia—all while working full-time as a senior financial analyst at Amazon. Last fall, he began studying for his MBA at the NYU Stern School of Business as a Consortium Fellow. He also recently became a member of the General Studies Alumni Association (GSAA) Board.

“I am here because so many people support me,” he said, “but I also feel like I don’t see people like me at the top of the mountain. That’s why representation matters.” Whatever path he takes, Bolanos Martinez aims to “show that someone with a ‘diversability’ may not fit one role but can excel in many others.”