Will my work experience count?

You're right, you're not too young. But you definitely do not have enough experience. I am going to be 100% straight with you. Kellogg is one of the most competitive schools to get into. A rep isn't going to tell you not to apply, but you definitely got the party line. She stressed that it's going to be competitive to nicely say what we are telling you. Yes you can articulate your post MBA goals, but you won't be a viable candidate for those jobs without more work experience. As it stands right now all of your experience is campus related. You've basically wrangled kids and performed job duties that a manager at a fast food restaurant would. The students that get admitted from undergrad do so on the strength of going to top schools, having bomb GPAs (3.7+), and interning with blue chip companies.

I'm not trying to be mean nor discouraging, just realistic. These schools will tell you to go ahead and apply then take your $250 app fee with one hand while rejecting you with the other. And you're going to feel like they misled you into thinking you had a fair shot when you never did. You're coming into this with 2 big strikes against you: no work experience and a low GPA. Yes you definitely have a story behind that, but that story alone will not drive you into these schools. You are not the first nor will you be the last applicant (minority or otherwise) who has gone through poverty and difficult circumstances. There will be other people who will tell similar stories and have more work experience and higher GPAs attached to them. Your candidacy would greatly benefit from some years placed between your GPA and your application. Schools will blink once at a weakness in your profile, unless your recommendation is coming from the president of the university a school isn't going to ignore both weaknesses in yours.

Your current experience should help you get the kind of job that would make you competitive for bschool admissions in several years. The problem with your current experience by itself is that it gives you absolutely zero MBA stock. Not so quietly kept, MBA programs (especially the top programs) use your current employer and role as a filter for admissions. The more selective your employer and role the more stock your candidacy has. The jobs you have held would be viewed as "anyone could get that job," not "wow! he must really be impressive to have been hired there." Also schools use their current students as part of the job placement process. MBA programs are really just one big industry/job swap. You have the consultant who wants to go into banking, the banker who wants to be a brand manager, the engineer who wants to go into investment banking, and so on. Students who have already worked in these roles and at these companies play a key role in helping their classmates make contacts at the very company they're trying to leave. You don't have that going for you at all so that's a major contribution that you can't make to the class.

Overall, right now you just aren't a competitive candidate. I would rather see you apply when you really have a chance than encourage you to move forward for this app cycle knowing that there's a 99.9% chance you won't get in. If you don't want to listen to us (even though we've been through this process already) then you might want to at least get a free review from an admissions consultant (many of whom used to be admissions committee members). I'd bet my bonus they will tell you the same thing. Good luck.