Our Mission
The Ethan Carlos Foundation is dedicated to empowering high school youth to reach their fullest potential by providing college scholarships, aid for passion-driven projects, and funding to mental health charities for teens.
We believe that education, creativity, and opportunity are powerful forces for change — and we are committed to removing barriers and being a catalyst for positive change so that dreams can become reality and goals can be achieved.
Ethan’s Message
“Live life. Have fun. Be yourself. Self love. Never give up.”
Ethan lived, breathed and expressed this message with everyone he encountered every day, through his words and his actions.
To know Ethan, was to love him.
To know Ethan was to feel special, valued and loved in his presence.
To know Ethan was to feel inspired and motivated.
To know Ethan was to experience God’s love in its purest form.
Ethan’s Wisdom
This is one of the most special videos we have of Ethan. He recorded this in his bedroom on December 28, 2024 as a motivational speech to himself. Although this video is deeply personal for our family, we’re sharing it publicly because his message is important for the world to hear and feel.
Like many teens, Ethan had a phase in which he struggled with self-doubt and depression. We had many deep and heartfelt conversations in our family room, full of tears, hugs, prayer and meditation. At times, I would stand up like a motivational speaker and speak life into him and encourage him to love himself. I would tell him that the mind is powerful and that it can easily control us if we don’t intentionally control it. At the end of my motivational speeches, I would tell him that I wanted him to look himself in the mirror and talk to himself to remind him of how amazing he was and of everything that he had to offer this world.
While scrolling through the videos on his phone a couple of months ago I found this video. It brought me to tears and broke my heart. I had no idea that he had actually done what I advised him to. The video especially broke my heart because he always felt that he wasn’t wise enough, yet his beautiful words that effortlessly flow out of him are the evidence of what I had been telling him all along - that he was always wise beyond his years but he just didn’t know it.
At only 15 years old, he’s speaking with the rare wisdom, love and compassion of a great man that has lived a full life. You can hear his humble and loving heart. You can hear the type of loving husband and father that he was going to be. You can hear his love for life, for family, for his girlfriend, and for friends. You can hear his deep gratitude and humility to God for his life and for everything that He had blessed him with. You can hear the leader that he was, and would continue to grow into. You can hear him overcome his struggles and how happy he finally was.
If you listen closely, you can hear the voice of an angel speaking life and wisdom into you.