Martin Scholars History

Amanda René Capella

North Seattle College

2021 Martin Achievement Scholar

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him…We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Ghandi

Driven by the belief that our actions contribute to the net outcome of our societal experience, René is an individual dedicated to offering her time, resources, and skills to building a community where every person feels equally safe, creative, and motivated to be their best selves.

Growing up on a 12-acre plot of old farm land, René spent her childhood exploring nature. The solace therein provided space for creativity and introspection which developed into a lifelong pleasure. At Miami University, René studied philosophy, exploring ethics and phenomena. Years later, this rich history and practice of critical thought contributed to Rene’s ultimate decision to step back from the workplace as a professional Software Engineering Lead and commit all energy to scholarship and community.

René currently hopes to study Computer Science and Psychology at the University of Washington to deepen her awareness of possibilities and interactions between technology and the human mind. She attends North Seattle College where she is the Computer Science Club president and Google Developer Student Club Lead for the North Seattle College Chapter. She also actively mentors for all peers in the technology industry. René’s goal is to further the dialogue concerning ethics in technology. She also focuses her energy on creating community with peers to experience how anyone can come together and create positive change.

Outside of school, René is a meditation teacher. She also spends every spare moment with her active and curious children and family who share her passion for improving the lives of their community though service and intention.

René’s near and long-term goals:

My short-term goals are focused on the development of the Computer Science Club’s robustness and role as a rich experience for students and demonstration of community service. Currently awarded the Google Developer Student Club Lead position, I’ve been offered the resources necessary to expand my efforts.

For long-term, my goal is to continue scholarship and community building at the University of Washington with the extra long term goal of dedicating my knowledge and skills to the betterment of my community at home and at large.

René’s tips for future applicants:

Introspection and brainstorming are key to fully answering essay questions. Always searching deeply for your motivations and aspirations is helpful. Also, connecting your motivations to the community (if that pertains to you) is so helpful in conceptualizing and communicating your personal vision to others and how investment in YOU is investment in our community. Your future is everyone’s future. Dream big, dream ethically, and put the effort in :).

Mya Leonhard

Highline College

2021 Martin Achievement Scholar

At the age of 18, Mya has already jumped through many hurdles in life. Her mother had a near-death experience in 2018 with sudden massive hemoptysis lung bleeding, only later to get diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Mya has emotionally and mentally carried those around her while also battling her own mental health struggles. Working two jobs, she helps her family financially especially since her father was laid off in the pandemic last year. Yet, her resilience remains strong.

As a stellar student at Highline College, her next goal is to transfer and graduate with a B.A. in Psychology from UW. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa and works at Highline’s Inter-Cultural Center, showing her emphasis on both studies and getting involved with her community. Her leadership skills as president of the Just a SEC: Social Equity Club led to recruitment by Communities for Our Colleges Coalition. This non-profit organization focuses on racial and economic equity through pushing for better state funding in community and technical colleges (CTCs) where many low-income and/or students of color go to for higher education. She successfully worked alongside legislators to pass a law that provides $33 million for CTCs, which includes allotment to grow mental health counseling services at each college.

Through her life experiences witnessing mental health struggles around her and working in communities to alleviate mental health stigmas and provide resources, she is driven to pursue a medical career in psychiatry after receiving her bachelors. She is passionate in her ultimate goal to become a well-rounded physician that leads with empathy and compassion. She has seen how human connections save lives and keep people going. She has many dreams, but never stops dreaming. She has put those dreams into action and will continue to do so.

Mya’s near and long-term goals:

My main near-term goal includes spending more time with my family because without them, I wouldn’t have had the support to get to where I am today. With my mother and father’s support, I always had supportive people around me that would encourage me to try my hardest in my academic and professional goals. That has translated into my motivations to transfer to the University of Washington for my B.A. in Psychology, continue my education for a medical degree, and leading me to pursue a career in psychiatry.

Mya’s tips for future applicants:

Before sending a request to a letter of recommendation writer, it would be good to prepare a resume, curriculum vitae, or a “brag sheet” for the writer to use as a reference. That way, they will be able to write good and applicable points about you that are on paper, along with their own personal input as well. Additionally, it would be best if a request is sent out around a month in advance to allow for time as many letter writers are quite busy with other tasks. For the personal statement essays, the more time you have, the better! I remember starting the application around a month before the due date and got a nice draft 2 weeks in before the deadline. The last 2 weeks were saved for meeting with my advisors and adding my own edits to make sure that the essay includes all the crucial parts I wanted to add in. The last, but definitely not least, tip of all is to reflect on your story and your life. The Martin Board wants to know all about you, so showing your authentic self is most likely going to be your biggest support in this scholarship application.

Mirian Mencias

Highline College

2021 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mirian Mencias is a first-generation student. She is currently a Passport Peer Mentor with TRIO and a member of the conduct committee at Highline College. She is from Honduras la Ceiba, a multiracial student raised in Miami, Florida. Mirian is the mother of five beautiful girls. One of her desires is to demonstrate to her daughters that it is possible to prevail in life no matter the circumstances. She has encountered many challenges, including a car accident that changed her life forever. Mirian had no choice but to reinvent herself and return to school. Her intended major is in Political Science.

Mirian believes knowledge is power, so the only way to fight is by knowing the rules of the game in society. Taking the time to educate herself is the best investment she has made for herself and anyone can make for themselves. She believes that she will continue to use that energy to help propel her forward because those challenges made her a stronger person.

Mirian aspires to advocate for her community and help in whichever way possible by becoming their voice. She has declared herself a fighter and an advocate for her community. Mirian spends a lot of time reading, trying to learn, and when she is not reading or researching for fun, she loves to spend time with her five beautiful girls. She enjoys cooking, gardening, and teaching her girls how to study. Her plan is to one day help her community change for the better, and perhaps even the world, by continuing to support and help those who feel they do not have a voice. Mirian hopes to one day have the privilege of working with our government to continue to make our community a better place.

Mirian’s near and long-term goals:

I would like to be able to achieve an internship with our local government. Hopefully one day in the future I will work with government to make our community a better place for our children.

Mirian’s tips for future applicants:

You are worth it! So stop questioning yourself, and go for it. Take your time, don’t rush; make sure you give yourself plenty of time to write and review your essay. Read it to yourself out loud, and pour your heart out. Try to convey it in the writing. I know it will be challenging at first, but once you start it will flow and becomes more natural. Write your essay about your own experiences, achievement and challenges. Be authentic, but most importantly, you have to believe in yourself. You belong here. Remember this is beginning, so start by applying. Good Luck!!

Clarissa Perez

Seattle Central College

2021 Martin Achievement Scholar

When Clarissa was younger, domestic violence, poverty, and drug addiction plagued her family. Despite this, she always made the top of her class. She found refuge in studying and doing good in school. However, her ambition came crashing down when depression and suicidal thoughts entered her life. She went from being a star student to barely graduating the eighth grade.

When Clarissa transitioned to Chief Sealth High School, it was a fresh start where she could reclaim the power she felt that she had lost. She was a full International Baccalaureate student and a member of various organizations related to youth empowerment and environmental justice. She also found a love for studying abroad when she got to study in Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and Guatemala- all on scholarship! Her high school experience didn’t come without challenges, though. During her sophomore year, Clarissa’s brother was murdered. In the middle of her junior year, she almost passed away in a suicide attempt. Finally, during her senior year, her mother died of a drug overdose.

Clarissa longed so badly to be a leader in her community that would get into college and have nothing stop her, but the pain was too much. Clarissa’s grades fell and she almost, again, barely graduated her senior year. Although she got admitted to UW Seattle her senior year, she knew that she needed to take a gap year to heal her pain. She took an internship at the Inspiring Children Foundation in Las Vegas, NV.

Clarissa’s internship consisted of helping struggling youth learn mindfulness and meditation tools to help them persevere through their adversity. Moreover, Clarissa has spoken at festivals, community gatherings, and formal settings around the country to give talks on mental health and her personal story. During her gap year, she also applied to seventeen colleges and got rejected from all of them! She decided not to give up and now prides herself in attending Seattle Central College.

For so long Clarissa felt that her circumstances would be the end of her. Now, she aspires to become the first person in her family to graduate from college. She has the dream of going to medical school and becoming an emergency medicine doctor. Clarissa’s story is one that shows that no matter what your past entails, you can always rise above it.

Clarissa’s near and long-term goals:

I hope to be a healthy and happy college student! My long-term goal is to get into medical school and eventually become an emergency medicine doctor.

Clarissa’s tips for future applicants:

Remember to pour your heart out into your essays. It is the time where you are able to share you who are, your passions, and your aspirations. Be honest and open, to the extent in which you are comfortable, with the struggles and barriers you’ve endured in your pursuit of higher education. This is your chance to have your story heard- good luck!

Mussie Tsegay

South Seattle College

2021 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mussie is an immigrant who is chasing the dream of being successful in a country of freedom. He came to the United States from an African country, Eritrea, in February 2019. Growing up in Eritrea was one of the many challenging experiences in his lifetime, as people are stripped of their basic human rights. As a result, Mussie’s life depended on education; the more he learned, the more freedom he could acquire.

To find a change, at age 17, Mussie started his journey to America. He had to cross the Eritrean border illegally on foot. He chose to forget everything he achieved in his education and move to a place he only knew through the media. In addition, Mussie had to take responsibility for his two siblings and protect them from the wild animals and the Eritrean soldiers who secured the border. After three scary days and nights and with the help of some smugglers, he and his siblings were able to cross the border alive. After eight months, he was able to reunite with my parents in the USA.

As an active TRIO member at South Seattle College, Mussie plans to earn his Associate of Science Degree and transfer to UW to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. Growing up in a less developed country taught him that education is essential to solve our world’s problems. Mussie hopes to use his education to improve electric power access and make the world a safe place to live.

Remembering his friends in Eritrea who didn’t have the opportunity to use their talents reinforces Mussie’s strength to finish school. He now takes another step toward becoming the first one from his family to go college and change his future. He plans to face the obstacles and challenge them while enjoying the journey to success that will change life for himself and his family.

Mussie’s near and long-term goals:

Academically, my near-term goal is to get my Associate of Science Degree in South Seattle college and transfer to UW. Additionally, I plan to practice and further my art skills as a hobby. My future goal is to obtain my engineering degree, perhaps including a master’s, as needed. On the way, I want to learn more about this country and further my plan on using my education to be successful and help people in need.

Mussie’s tips for future applicants:

I would advise future students to use the principle of “work smarter, not harder.” Appling to scholarships is much easier than working hard to get the money. Besides, don’t forget the patience and the experience you develop by applying will prepare you for your future. So appreciate all the hardships you overcome and enjoy your success, As success is how far you got from where you started.

Harry Furey-Soper

Pierce College

2021 Martin Honors Scholar

My name is Harry, and I enjoy hiking, lifting weights, and working on cars. My academic interests include physics, astronomy, engineering, mathematics, and computer science. I am currently working on a robotics development project called the Artemis Challenge, hosted by the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium. This fall, I am transferring from Pierce College to the University of Washington to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering.

Growing up, I struggled with ADHD and ASD, and I performed poorly in high school. Pierce College gave me a second chance to turn things around. I was much more comfortable in the college environment, and I worked hard towards improving myself academically. I took on a rigorous STEM-focused workload, served as vice president of the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society, received the 2021 Outstanding Student award for Engineering, and finally graduated with my Associates in Science. I feel that my time at Pierce has effectively prepared me for this transfer, and I am excited to get started at UW this fall.

I plan to major in Aeronautics and Astronautics and minor in Experimental Physics, while taking advantage of the many opportunities for undergraduate research programs offered by the College of Engineering. I also aim to complete a capstone project in spacecraft design during my senior year.

After completing my undergraduate program, I hope to remain at UW to obtain my MSAA, which will propel me towards my goal of becoming a NASA astronaut. While working for NASA, I wish to assist in researching advanced propulsion systems that will help mankind explore further into our universe than we have ever gone before. I also intend to help research and develop cleaner propulsion systems, which could allow us to move away from reliance on fossil fuels and work towards a healthier planet.

Harry’s near and long-term goals:

As for short-term goals, I hope to make connections with my classmates, professors, and professionals in the aerospace industry while completing my undergraduate program. I also wish to involve myself in research programs at the UW, such as the plasma science department. My long-term goals include remaining at the UW to pursue a graduate degree in the sciences of aeronautics and astronautics, which will allow me to achieve my dream of becoming a NASA astronaut.

Harry’s tips for future applicants:

Start your essays early, read the prompts thoroughly and carefully. Your essays are used to evaluate your candidacy, so it is important to put a decent amount of time and effort into writing them. If your community college has a writing center, don’t be afraid to ask them for help with proofreading and syntax.

Susan Muthoni

Highline College

2021 Martin Honors Scholar

My name is Susan Muthoni and I am a first generation student studying a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. I look forward to working towards getting a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and partaking in research, and innovations from a global health lens so that I can increase the accessibility of healthcare services to third world countries and remote areas.

Growing up in a small town in Kenya, I witnessed firsthand how access to healthcare services is hindered by factors such as lack of awareness, finances, proximity to healthcare clinics and shortage of workers. At the age of 19, I immigrated from Kenya without any immediate family. Thus, I did not have a safety net for when things went wrong and lived paycheck to paycheck. I had to overcome mastering a whole new system, finding a place to live, eating and working all by myself.

Once I stabilized, I enrolled at highline College to study an associates in Pre-Nursing. However, during the pandemic, I found myself couch surfing and facing food insecurity as I took my core science classes. However, I was able to graduate with honors. While at Highline College, I was part of the TRIO program, engaged in research through the Honors program and was a member of Phi Theta Kappa. In my community I volunteered with different organizations such as Kingdom Mysteries International and Seattle Gospel Mission in supporting the homeless community.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” – Kofi Annan

Susan’s near and long-term goals:

Ultimately, I hope to pursue higher education and acquire a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). I hope to use the opportunity to engage in research and equip myself so I can serve my immediate community in Seattle to bridge access to healthcare services to minority communities. My long term goal would be to help my home country and other third world countries in gaining more access to healthcare services.

Susan’s tips for future applicants:

Do not be afraid to tell your story. Be willing to be vulnerable and talk about your life experiences and how they have shaped you. Choose a topic that matters to you when it comes to essay writing. Practice your interview, be prompt and listen to the questions carefully.

Sam was born in Everett, Washington in 1985, has an older brother, and was homeschooled by his mother. He chose not to enter college immediately after high school because he was unsure of the career he wanted to pursue. In 2015 he was exposed to articles Nikola Tesla had written a century prior regarding Tesla’s thoughts and ambitions related to electricity. Realizing that electricity is now involved in almost every aspect of modern life, Sam decided to join the electrical industry by becoming an electrician.

Before he could begin that journey, however, Sam received critical injuries in late 2015 and he needed extensive medical care for the following year. Along with needing to rebuild his physical strength from scratch, including the ability to walk, nerve damage and joint stiffness left him with a disabled arm. After recovering, Sam assessed his situation and realized that his best career choices would now need to rely on his mind and not his physical capabilities. He decided to become an electrical engineer and began attending Everett Community College in the fall of 2018.

Within weeks of starting his first quarter he joined STEM Club where he was elected as the club’s vice president. Throughout the year he supported the club’s several engineering project teams, helped arrange events and tours, and consolidated the club’s communication and documentation systems. After being nominated by his peers, Sam was selected as EvCC’s 2018-2019 Club Member of the Year.

At university Sam intends to focus his electrical engineering studies on the power and energy field. He’s interested in improving how we generate, transmit, and utilize electricity and has a particular interest in wireless energy transmission. He hopes advancements in those areas will have beneficial ripple effects throughout society.

Sam’s tips for future applicants:
Show how you are committed to your education as well as anything that may be unique about you and your journey. Take advantage of the essay prompts that allow you to share who you are, what you’ve gone through, and where you hope to go in the future. Talk to your advisors. They have a wealth of information and would love to help you succeed.

Allegra Keys was born and raised in the Central District of Seattle by a strong single mother, while her father was in and out of prison, battling his addictions. As an infant, Allegra was diagnosed with a degenerative neuromuscular disease that had a prognosis of two years. Her mother was told to “just take her home and love her,” but instead she fought the prognosis and set Allegra up for a life of challenging expectations and flourishing in the face of adversity. By the age of two, Allegra was one of the youngest people in the state to have a power wheelchair that she was able to drive herself.

Despite frequent hospitalizations and only being able to utilize two fingers, Allegra always excelled academically. In 2010, she graduated high school with honors and was set to be the first person in her family to go to college. However, due to a life-threatening hospitalization prior to starting her freshman year at UW Seattle, she was not ready for the academic and social stressors and left school after two quarters.

At this point, Allegra was nearly two decades past her life expectancy and she decided to spend the next several years checking items off of her bucket list – she traveled to new countries, lived independently and began passionately writing and publishing her poetry. Two years ago, Allegra began receiving the first FDA approved treatment for her type of muscular dystrophy – a dangerous and painful ongoing treatment that has reversed the progression of her disease. With hope and health abundant, Allegra enrolled in college with the final goal of Master of Fine Arts; she has already seen some of her writing published in literary journals. Allegra strongly believes that the voices of marginalized populations – women, people of color, and people with disabilities belong in the literary world.

In her free time Allegra volunteers with Crisis Text Line, because if her life has taught her anything, it’s this: we all just want to be heard.

Allegra’s tips for future applicants:
Though it’s hard talking about your hardships, those are the things that make you unique so don’t be afraid of talking about them. Also, don’t try to write everything at once, take your time. Lastly, just be authentic and honest.

Kayla can be best described as a highly driven scholar with an entrepreneurial spirit. She is set on making an impact in her community and, one day, the world. Born and raised in Queens, New York, Kayla comes from a low-income family who has struggled to break the cycle. Working tirelessly at different jobs, spreading herself thin between the office and the demands of being the head of her family, she knew something had to change. So last year she decided to move to Washington and now calls it her home. However, a change of location couldn’t be the only difference made.

As a former high school drop-out, she went on to complete her diploma online. Soon after, applied to Highline College and now is working on earning a BA in Communication Studies. Throughout Kayla’s journey, she has overcome many obstacles in the pursuit of her degree, including being a first-generation college student from a single-parent household. But the reward of achieving her goals and being someone that not only her family can look up to but others as well keeps her resolve strong.

Kayla’s natural business talents have lead her to accomplish several professional achievements. She has also already begun working on some of her book ideas, seeking to fulfill her goal of being a public speaker and notable author. However, her ultimate goal is to inspire the community with her leadership skills, to make positive changes, whether it be in someone’s personal life or at a higher level. Strong integrity and devout passion to help others permeate her work.

Kayla’s tips for future applicants:
Get it done! I admit as the deadline for this scholarship was approaching I was uncertain if I was going to participate. I experienced some setbacks and was unsure whether I had the time or drive to finish it. So don’t doubt yourself! Make the decision to commit to completing your application and give it your all. Use it as an outlet to express yourself and your goals. A place to reflect on the struggles you rose above. But more importantly, start counting your accomplishments and be confident there’s more to come.

Cassie hopes to transfer to the University of Washington to pursue studies in civil engineering and education.

Moving to Seattle at age 17 sparked her interest in transportation engineering, when she gained access to more well-developed public transit systems and the ability to travel around the city with ease. After having lived in an area dependent on cars as transportation for most of her life, she was grateful to be able to use the bus. It allowed her to experience rush hour traffic without the stress of driving, but also see Seattle neighborhoods and the importance in having transit access in all communities. This sparked her curiosity in how transportation planning worked, and the ways public transit or traffic systems could be improved to support those in the Seattle area that depend on their development.

However, it took a lot of effort for Cassie to unlearn self-doubt and insecurities in her ability to succeed in both school and STEM. After unwelcoming experiences with STEM and difficulty connecting to formal education, neither felt like her path, despite interest. Like many teenagers, she struggled with how to define her future and her own identity development, while also experiencing the sudden loss of her father in high school.

After being welcomed into a youth development program not long after, she found a valuable community and experience that helped shape her future pathways and confidence in her ability to succeed. It made her passionate about developing quality curriculum and programs that engage with youth, particularly to support those who endure challenging circumstances in school and feel a sense of non-belonging. She hopes to promote opportunities to young people interested in STEM that are welcoming, culturally inclusive, and utilize informal teaching strategies – and incorporate both her passions of study into future work.

Cassie’s tips for future applicants:
Don’t convince yourself it’s not worth applying, and try not to compare yourself to other potential applicants. Everyone’s history is meaningful, so find a way to share yours in essays and what matters to you. When you do decide to apply: reach out for help and resources when you need it, and spend ample time working on those essays!

Camila is a computer science student at the University of Washington who is inspired to put her learning into action by volunteering for different organizations. For her, it was a moment of enlightenment when she decided she wanted to become a Software Engineer. Growing up, mathematics, science and technology were far from her reality. She was born and raised in a low-income family in the Southeastern part of Brazil and decided to move to Seattle six years ago.

In 2017, while working tirelessly in a full-time job she enrolled at college to be the first person in her family to acquire an associate degree. Unsure of the career she wanted to pursue, it wasn’t until a year later that she found her passion for technology during a conference that connected young women to companies in the Seattle area. After losing her childhood friend to cancer and having her mom being diagnosed with cancer twice, Camila decided she wanted to pursue a career in which she could make an impact in the lives of others. She decided to become a Medical Software Engineer.

Through her passion for computer science and diversity & inclusion, she learned how she can make an impact in her community. She volunteered at Girls Who Code – an international non-profit organization dedicated to close the gender gap in technology – serving as a role model to the young girls. Furthermore, she is the former president of Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) where she focused on enhancing the experiences of women in STEM by creating a collaborative and supportive environment and she volunteered at a mobile food pantry in Burien providing nutritious food to low incoming individuals diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

Camila’s tips for future applicants:
Believe in yourself, applying for a scholarship can be stressful and overwhelming but you can do it. Start early, get organized and have a second pair of eyes to check your application. When writing your essay, reflect about your story, past experiences and make sure to share what matters the most to you. You got this!

Audrey is a woman who is compelled to help others and is inspired by a genuine love for all people. As a young girl, her grandmother predicted that she would grow up to become a healer, something that Audrey has dreamed about ever since. Now, she is fulfilling that dream by pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree to become a registered nurse in an emergency department.

However, it wasn’t always an easy road to get to the University of Washington. During her first year of college after struggling to graduate from high school, she overcame an abusive relationship, survived sexual assault, and faced homelessness. Unsure of what she would do with her life, her grandmother’s words resonated within her and she persevered. She clung strongly to the belief that she could and would be able to heal others and make a difference in the world. After tapping into her inner strength, Audrey achieved her Associate’s degree with high distinction, all while working and becoming a wife and then a mother to two beautiful young children.

Today, as she takes the next steps towards accomplishing her goals, she ensures that she still follows her heart’s passion to serve the community by volunteering at You Belong Community, a safe place for women who are transitioning out of homelessness or foster care who may be pregnant or raising children, and a local food bank. When she is not volunteering, she makes it a habit to take the time to encourage and bring joy to those around her. She is a firm believer that no matter what obstacles you may face in life, you always have the choice to grow from it and empower others along the way.

Audrey’s tips for future applicants:
Before applying, have the confidence in yourself that you can write powerful essays, believe in everything that you have accomplished in your life, and share your story. As for the application itself, make sure that you allow enough time for the essays, be respectful of other’s time (especially when asking them to write letters of recommendation for you), and make sure that you reflect on everything you have achieved and talk about your goals. Take a deep breath and remember you CAN do this.

Morel was born in Yaounde, Cameroon, a country located in Central Africa. In an environment where parents were skeptical about putting their children through school, and would rather have them work in their farms, his parents still decided to invest in his education. After seeing his desire to learn more about how machines they were using for their farms work internally, they introduced him to one of their friends, Mr. Gweth, a Computer Science graduate.

After spending a summer in 11th grade with Mr. Gweth, and bothering him with millions of questions about how electronics work, Morel fell in love with Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. One of Mr. Gweth’s goals is to provide a more concrete way of teaching engineering, so he experimented with that teaching style on Morel. They spent the whole summer breaking down old machines and building circuits from the remaining parts. Although he could not fully understand everything, he knew that with this knowledge, he would be able to build devices that could better the lives of the people around him.

His parents, understanding his eagerness to learn and impact his community, did everything possible to send him to the US, where he would be taken care of by his uncle. Unfortunately, his uncle passed away two years after he moved. As he was trying to emotionally cope with the circumstances, he was faced with the reality of having to provide for his family back home, so he dropped out of school and started working full time.

To stay connected with his education, Morel spent his time off work mentoring and teaching international students, as well as high school students from Cameroon. But to get to the point where he is fully motivated to pursue his education and achieve his goals, he had a lot of help from his friends and family. As his journey at the University of Washington as a Computer Engineer is about to start, he is now looking forward to accomplishing those goals: building technology that would improve the lives of his community in the medical and agricultural fields.

Morel’s tips for future applicants:
The number of essays and rounds can discourage you to apply, but you miss all of the shots that you don’t take! Besides, this scholarship is not principally about your academic achievement. The Martin Family Foundation is really making an effort to know you as a person and understand what you have to offer to your community and the world. So, pour your heart on those essays and be confident!

My name is Yonas Abraha and I was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Eritrea. As long as I can remember I have always gravitated towards mathematics and science, tinkering with electrical appliances and fixing some of them that needed repair. The country where I grew up, Eritrea, had shortage of electricity and so every household was allowed to have only 12 hours per day of access to electricity and so I was using candles to do most of my home work. One time, when I was only 13, I attended a seminar about solar energy, and I was fascinated by the technology and so with the ambition I had to solve the shortage of electricity, I see solar energy implementation as my new path to solve the problem and that is why I wanted to pursue an Electrical Engineering career. But I had to flee my country because my faith was abandoned by the government of Eritrea and I had to live in a refugee camp in Sudan and finally moved to the U.S. after passing through several South American countries.

Once I got into the U.S., I was given the opportunity to seek asylum and I was granted to stay here and was excited to pursue the American dream. I was accepted for who I was and the once glimpse of hope of fulfilling my dreams came to reality. My parents spend their whole life encouraging and supporting me to acquire education so I can be of great contribution to my community. So, I grew up knowing the importance of education and I value it above anything else and so I resumed my education at Seattle Central to pursue my childhood dream of becoming an Electrical Engineer with a focus on power and solar energies.

Besides my regular job as a driver, which helps me cover my expenses, I am an active member of MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) and the African Association Group at Seattle Central. I also volunteer as a Math tutor for underprivileged people who didn’t get to graduate high school at Goodwill Seattle. It feels extraordinarily fulfilling to be able to change the lives of people and impact them with a positive energy at a nonprofit organization which provides people with employment training and community services to better their lives at no cost to them.

Yonas’ tips for future applicants:
Don’t think your story is embarrassing or isn’t worthy telling. Everyone has their own struggles in life and so don’t be afraid narrating them on your essays. And apply for as many scholarships as you can and you will definitely win some of them. Give your back to giving up!

Raymond Haug
Everett Community College
2019 Martin Achievement Scholar

My teen years were challenging. I became involved in the juvenile legal system when I was 14 years old, began struggling with addiction issues before age 15, and dropped out of high school after 9th grade. At that time, I never thought I would enter a classroom again. Nine years later, the day I was released from Monroe Correctional Facility, I walked from the local transit station to Everett Community College in my state-issued gray sweatsuit and enrolled in my first classes. My greatest challenge was not adapting to the academic culture, but overcoming my feelings of shame and misplacement; I didn’t think I belonged on a college campus. After months of keeping my head down, I mustered the courage to apply for a job at the college tutoring center. I explained my past to the hiring board and they still hired me. Encouraged by my success, I applied to and received my first foundation scholarship, which gave me concrete proof that my past no longer had to hold me back or define my future. My self-discipline, study habits, and focus on achievement drove me to accept an invitation into the Everett Honors Program. Personally, I want my professional and academic achievements to set an example for those coming up behind me who face the same struggles that, they too can overcome hardship and social stigma. I want my story to also serve as an example to the broader community that change is possible in everyone. Professionally, I want to become a mechanical engineer and work in the automotive industry. My passion is motorcycles, and I would like to attain a career position in performance motorcycle design.

Raymond’s tips for future applicants:
Get involved in your college community: attend a club recruitment festival, network with fellow students, apply to an honors program. All these opportunities broadened my knowledge of what resources were truly available to me. Secondly, be real in telling your story. The events and situations in your life which you think may have held you back are actually strengths which you can build upon to carry you forward.

Christopher Ponce
Highline College
2019 Martin Achievement Scholar

Chris is currently an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with aspirations of one day becoming a physician. The idea of becoming a doctor never seemed feasible, especially as a first-generation student navigating through the academic process without proper guidance.

Chris was raised in South Central Los Angeles. Although his parents split up when he was young, he always had their continued support. During his junior year of high school, he met his wife, Teddy. Coming from a low socioeconomic status, he thought he wasn’t mentally capable of handling the rigors of college, so he enlisted in the Marine Corps as a Rifleman to try and become successful. A year later, he married Teddy. They now have a lovely three-year-old and are expecting another child.

Chris’s family gave him a strong foundation, but the Marine Corps molded him. The Marine Corps gave him a strong work ethic, enhanced his character, and gave him confidence. With this newfound confidence, Chris realized he could do anything he sets his mind to. Chris wants to show his children that the possibilities are endless with the proper mindset, and that’s when he decided he wanted to obtain a college degree.

After witnessing a fatal motorcycle accident, and feeling helpless, he decided he wanted to complete an EMT course. During the course, he discovered his attraction to medicine. His experiences as an EMT have only solidified his desire to become a doctor.

Chris is now attending Highline College majoring in Biology in hopes of transferring to the University of Washington to finish his pre-medical studies. Chris is involved in TRiO’s Student Retention Program, where he is receiving the proper guidance he was missing and is volunteering at the local fire department as an EMT to give back to his community.

Christopher’s tips for future applicants:
When writing your essays, give yourself an ample amount of time to write them, use as many resources as you can to help with the process, and do not sell yourself short when telling your story!

Sreynin Sam
Highline College
2019 Martin Achievement Scholar

Sreynin Sam is a newcomer to the United States. Her family moved here as immigrants in 2018 from Cambodia.

As an 18 years old girl, Sreynin has encountered so many life challenges. She is a first-generation student. She has strong hope with education. After her parents got divorced when she was 6, Sreynin was the only one focused on excelling in her educational pursuits. Her family members hold a very traditional view of the role a female should play in the household and becoming educated and self-reliant are not a part of their transitional mindset. Despite this, Sreynin kept pushing forward, and earned one of the top scores in Cambodia on her National High School Diploma Examination.

After arriving in the United States, she decided to attend Highline College and get her Associate Degree in Communication as her starting point. Being in Washington for 8 months by herself away from her family, who live in Massachusetts, she not only maintains a good GPA, but also is an active member at TRiO, Phi Theta Kappa, AANAPISI, Center of Leadership and Services at Highline. She is also an outreach ambassador at Asian Counseling and Referral Service, a member of Cambodian American Community Council in Washington, and volunteers in the community over the weekends.

Even though she is a young girl, her dream is to make a great impact to the world by running a non-profit community organization to help students who just entered the U.S. like her, cultivating their potential again. With passion and hope, Sreynin will involve more in communities, help the society and develop herself to be a potential woman in United States. She desires to help make the world better by cultivating the abilities and perspectives of youths in developing countries so that they will be able to make their countries grow.

Sreynin’s tips for future applicants:
You can do more than you might think. If you found that this scholarship is a good fit for you and motivates you to keep doing what you are doing right now, please do not hesitate to apply. Do it with your true passion, and seek help from resources provided in your college as much as you can. Also, do not forget to share your story and your goal. You will make it.

Virginia Burton
South Seattle College and Shoreline Community College
2019 Martin Honors Scholar

I am a 46 year old mother of three. I am also an adult first generation college student. As a young child I believed my destiny was to become an attorney. Little did I know I would spend decades in the criminal justice system as a defendant. After years of domestic violence, addiction and incarceration, I made the decision in 2012 to change my life no matter what it took.

After being clean and sober 4 years I was victimized by my husband in my home. Not knowing if I would recover from the event, I decided to take charge of my life and return to school in 2017. I passed each quarter with honors while supporting a family by supervising three programs with Catholic Community Services and attending trial to testify against my husband. It was during this time I recognized the power I held in my own life and my obligation to change the system. I knew in my heart that without help, my husband would walk out of prison the same as he went in. This is when I knew I needed to change the system.

I am passionate about creating hope, changing lives and prison reform. Because of my own transformation, I know it is possible for others to overcome life circumstances. In the midst of my life challenges I decided I needed to aid in changing the system that is affecting so many lives in our country. It is my goal to change the way prison time is structured and help people create lives that are sustainable and independent of the prison system. In order to do that, I must move forward and obtain a degree in Law, Society and Justice at the University of Washington.

Ginny’s tips for future applicants:
Take your time and put your heart into your essays. Don’t be afraid to share about yourself, your life, your struggles and your accomplishments.

Ardi Madadi
Tacoma Community College
2019 Martin Honors Scholar

Ardi Madadi was born in Bern, Switzerland. At the age of 7, he and his family were forced to turn a visionary trip to Iran into a permanent move when his father was not permitted to leave Iran and return to Switzerland. As a child, Ardi became enamored with technology while watching Knight Rider. Obsessed with the idea of an autonomous vehicle, he found himself sitting in a K.I.T.T. prototype, speaking to it as a best friend. As K.I.T.T. evolved in the show, so did Ardi’s ideas. He imagined a spaceship that could converse with him. Each night he would hop into a spacecraft (his bed) and give it verbal commands before “blasting off.” Now, he dreams of programming robots that will roam other planets.

A decade after moving to Iran, Ardi and his family moved to Turkey, convinced that serving in the Iranian military would put his life in danger. The move would prove pivotal in his life as he later converted to Christianity, becoming actively involved in refugee aid efforts and training underground Iranian church leaders. This meant that going back to Iran was not an option. With his Turkish visa soon to expire, he applied for refugee status with the UN and was accepted into the United States. In the summer of 2016, Ardi’s efforts and involvement with refugees was recognized by the State Department when they invited him to speak in Washington, DC.

After moving to the U.S., Ardi began pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Tacoma Community College (TCC). In March 2019, he worked with the TCC robotics team to compete in the ASME competition, where the team ranked in the top 16 nationally.

Ardi aspires to develop software that would run on flight systems and robots and ultimately, help make interplanetary habitation possible for humans. He enjoys volunteering with Girls Who Code, where he focuses on inclusion of minority communities and empowering young women to become independent thinkers.

Ardi’s tips for future applicants:
Start early and do a lot of free writing. Contact your references as soon as you decide to apply. Try to schedule multiple times in a week when you write as opposed to just one or two sittings. Have your friends or family members read your essay multiple times throughout the process.

Caroline Paxton
Skagit Valley College and Everett Community College
2019 Martin Honors Scholar

Caroline’s love of space travel stems from a lifelong love of science fiction. As a young child, while other kids would make up faeries and animals as imaginary friends, she always imagined hers to be robots and aliens. At eight years old, she declared to her family that she would one day be an astronaut. When the government retired the space shuttle in 2011, she felt the hope for a spacefaring future dwindle; however, she held on to her dream and decided to do something about it. Throughout high school she devised a plan to learn how to design better spaceships. She knew she wouldn’t have to travel far to do it. UW’s Aeronautics and Astronautics program offered exactly what she needed to achieve her dream.

Caroline graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 2016 and enrolled in the local Skagit Valley College satellite campus, where she started the foundation courses for her aerospace engineering degree. She quickly excelled in these courses and became a tutor, helping other students learn chemistry and math. She then moved on to enroll in Everett Community College’s more expansive engineering program, which gave her the necessary prerequisites to transfer into UW’s Aeronautics and Astronautics program. There, she joined STEM Club, where she became involved in their rocket project, a multi-year plan to build a twenty-foot-long hybrid rocket and launch it in the Spaceport America Cup. In May 2019, she launched her first high-powered rocket and became a Level 1 certified rocketeer through the National Association of Rocketry.

Caroline aims to work in aerospace research and development to develop the next generation of reusable spaceflight vehicles. She is passionate about STEM outreach and wants to ensure that students of all ages and skill levels have the opportunity to join in on the incredible journey of exploring the universe.

Caroline’s tips for future applicants:
Never self-select out of a scholarship. Applying for scholarships can be daunting when you see previous winners who seem far more accomplished and interesting than yourself, but you never know who else is applying this year. Regardless of how your background compares to others, your story is worth telling.

Mohammed Mahdi Alghezi
Shoreline Community College
2018 Martin Honors Scholar

Mohammed’s dream to become a neurosurgeon is not a mere childish fantasy. While he was an avid and curious reader during his childhood, it was in October 2009, when his uncle was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease that his passion for neurobiology was ignited. His dream began to see the light after receiving a scholarship to Damascus medical school, the most prestigious school in Syria. However, during his first year in medical school, the civil war broke the harmony of his life. His college studies were in constant conflict with the movements of fear and changing nests. Eventually, unable to attend school, he started tutoring high school students in the morning and worked at his uncle’s clinic by day. Being deprived of his studies and needing to escape the suffocating silence of the night, where sounds of children’s peevish whines mixed with the echoes of angry bullets, he found solace in self-studying.

Despite his efforts to break the chains of despair with the strength of resilience, his family was forced to succumb to the successive death threats by terrorists and were forced to leave home. He crossed the Syrian borders and watched as he grew further away from the tenderness and warmth of his homeland. Living among a community of orphans, elderly and destitute people, he wanted to find a way to share the warmth of optimism. So, he found an opportunity to volunteer as a paramedic with the Lebanese Red Cross inside the camp, where he delivered necessary medication to the patients. In return, the hymns of joy and happiness quenched his desiccated soul.

After 5 months of being a camp refugee, he was fortunate to be embraced by the kindness of Seattle where he returned to college with renewed focus. At Shoreline Community College, he pursued an Associate degree in Biology with honors. He has been the vice president of the pre-med club for a year. He currently volunteers as medical interpreter and caregiver for senior and Alzheimer patients. Throughout his experience with the American health system, he realizes the urge to provide patients, regardless of their ethnicity or immigration status, with affordable medical assistance. Therefore, his goal is to be an active member of public health organizations that devote themselves to the health and well-being of the unfortunate communities.

Liban Hussein
Highline College
2018 Martin Honors Scholar

Born in Columbus, Ohio to Somali immigrant parents, Liban never thought he would earn an Associate’s degree in engineering or be accepted into the University of Washington’s Electrical Engineering program. With many life-changing events occurring frequently, moving from state-to-state seeking better opportunities became a norm and adjusting to unfamiliar academic and social settings proved to be all the more arduous. The road has been extremely difficult, with obstacles constantly obstructing Liban from reaching his goals. After all, he was a first-generation Somali-American student with little to no understanding of how to go about navigating the turbulent academic waters that would soon make themselves apparent.

College was an ideal instilled into Liban at a young age as his own parents’ education had been limited in Somalia. To let the challenges ahead get to him and quit meant not only failure for himself, but for his entire family. He believed that to quit meant that he was not putting in 100% of his effort into the very thing his parents had so desired for his family, namely, an education to help not only Liban succeed as an individual, but for the many generations to come. To truly make good of the sacrifices his parents made for him, Liban had to make use of every opportunity that presented itself.

Liban joined the Running Start program at Highline College as a junior in high school, as well as the ACE Mentor Program in which high school students like himself worked on a year-long project with actual engineers and present their final projects to local engineering companies and business executives. Furthermore, he worked as a Math Academic Excellence Workshop Facilitator in the Highline College MESA, where he created weekly workshops to address student confusions and concerns. At Highline College, he took advantage of many other opportunities, such as working as a Mathematics Tutor, as well as serving as the President of the National Society of Black Engineers Chapter, the first of its kind in a Washington community college. In addition to this, Liban conducted laser research with a team of 5 students and his physics professor to build a Fabry-Perot Interferometer. As for social work, Liban has worked as a lead junior event organizer and interpreter for non-profit organizations, working to help individuals like himself around the world receive basic necessities.

It seems that a tide is turning and that the possibilities are endless for Liban to pursue his dreams. Liban’s goal is to ultimately use his degree in Electrical Engineering to rebuild his homeland in Somalia, namely by revolutionizing the renewable energy sector. Although electrical engineering is Liban’s highest aspiration, he wishes to do more than this, namely by bridging the gaps between different cultures and peoples. At Highline College, he has been involved in several dialogues and tribal talks, bridging gaps between Somalis, Ethiopians, and many others. We live in a troubled world, and Liban has learned through his dialogues with students and staff alike, positive change can spring into existence, regardless of the discussion’s length. Education is key to making a positive impact, and by earning a degree in Electrical Engineering, Liban will work to not only make the lives of those easier in the Horn of Africa, but, ultimately, the world.

Liban’s Tips for Future Applicants:
Be genuine and passionate when reflecting on the required essays! Tell your story, detailing past struggles and how you’ve overcome them. Many of our journey’s have been bumpy, and we’ve needed help along the path from others, among them loved ones and friends. Mention how these individuals have helped you in the process of achieving success.

Christopher Leyva Vera
Skagit Valley College
2018 Martin Honors Scholar

Originally from Tijuana, Mexico, Christopher and his family moved to Whidbey Island in 2003. He went on to graduate from high school in 2012. He took some time off from school until finally deciding to head back to school in 2015 after becoming a DACA beneficiary.

Christopher enrolled at Skagit Valley College in the Fall of 2015 and quickly became involved on campus, serving on various clubs, committees, and other organizations on campus. He served as Student Body President of the Whidbey Island Campus of Skagit Valley College. He was also the Vice President and Secretary of his Phi Theta Kappa chapter. Other clubs he was involved with included Rainbow Alliance, DREAMers Club, and Journalism Club. Committees were also of importance, and that is why he served as a student representative in the following: Student Tech Fee Committee, Services & Activities Fee Committee, Diversity Committee, as well as Student Services Committee. He was employed on campus too, serving as a Program Board Coordinator under the campus’ Student Life office. As a student leader he lead several projects that helped his local community, organizing food and clothes drives to help those who needed it the most. His schedule kept him busy but his grades never suffered — he maintained a 4.0 throughout it all, making the honor roll every quarter he attended Skagit Valley College, winning a President’s medal from his college for this achievement.

He received the highest honor at Skagit Valley College, going on to win the Yates “Student of the Year” Award. His scholastic work resulted in a departmental award from the Social Sciences department at Skagit Valley College as well. Christopher was also a part of the 2018 All-Washington Academic Team; he was a top ranking member and received a medal from the Governor’s office. He has accumulated over 1,500 hours of community service work while attending school full-time. Due to his scholastic and community service endeavors, he has gone on to win various scholarships and other awards — both local and national.

Christopher credits his parents with inspiring him to go above and beyond just simply being a student. He watched as they worked tirelessly to provide both him and his brother with a future in this country. All of his achievements thus far are because of those sacrifices his parents made early on. He aims to succeed in all that he does to show not only his gratitude, but also prove to them that their hard work was not in vain and has paid off — his success does not only belong to him, but also to his family.

Christopher has been admitted to the School of Social Work and hopes to graduate with a Bachelor’s in Social Welfare, double minoring in Human Rights and Law, Societies, and Justice. He wants to continue working and being a part of programs and organizations that provide services that focus on helping disenfranchised minority groups, working towards a much more inclusive perspective that aims to connect individuals of all diverse backgrounds and experiences with the tools necessary for their own success within our society.

Christopher’s Tips for Future Applicants:
Opportunities, no matter how small they may seem to you, can open up doors for your future. Get involved both on campus and off to differentiate yourself from others. Being a great student goes far beyond just grades, it’s about how you apply all that you’ve learned in the classroom in the endeavors you choose to take on in life outside your classes.

Cara Stacy
Highline College
2018 Martin Honors Scholar

Cara recently graduated Highline College with her Associate of Arts, emphasizing in chemistry. She began at Highline to earn her high school diploma through the Pathway to College program. Throughout her freshman and sophomore years, Cara actively participated in the TRiO Student Support and Retention Program. She was asked to join TRiO’s student staff as Lead Tutor, working with low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities. Cara has trained with Highline College’s Math Resource Center and earned certification as a Level Three Master Certified Tutor. She seeks to be involved with biochemical research, and is planning to major in biochemistry when she transfers to the University of Washington. Her ultimate goal is to improve the lives of others, particularly in marginalized groups, through research and service.

Cara had started her journey at Highline College as a high school dropout, having overcome substance abuse and homelessness. After reaching rock bottom, she received treatment and began her life over again with a renewed sense of purpose. Cara has been involved with Oxford House Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides housing to those in recovery from substance abuse. For this nonprofit, she has served as secretary of Chapter 15 in Washington State. Additionally, Cara has been a member of Justice Scholars Society of Change, a club at Highline that encourages community and campus involvement in students impacted by the justice system. Through overcoming her personal struggles, Cara has developed perseverance and integrity that has contributed to her educational success. Cara hopes, by sharing her story, to eliminate the stigma associated with substance abuse. She seeks to continue serving others as she transitions to the University of Washington, and is excited to discover where her journey will take her.

Cara’s Tips for Future Applicants:
Take advantage of on campus and off campus resources. Do not be afraid to share both your successes and your failures.

David Zarate
Yakima Valley College
2018 Martin Honors Scholar

David Zarate was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia. After the passing of his father, Zarate’s mother decided to move his family to the United States – first settling in East Wenatchee, WA and later Miami, FL. After graduating from high school in 2010, he worked a series of jobs and was unable to pursue higher education due to his immigration status and financial burdens. When president Obama signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in June 2012, Zarate saw an opportunity to do more. He enrolled part-time at Miami Dade College and began working on his prerequisite courses to pursue a degree in chemistry. After having relocated to different parts of the country and having attended different community colleges, Zarate’s experiences as an immigrant and minority showed him a new goal: to pursue a degree in Computer Science with a focus on Data Science as a way to create change in the community. Zarate deeply believes in the power of information, and how this can help tear down barriers and narrow the divisions in our country. On June 2018, Zarate graduated with a DTA in Computer Science from Yakima Valley College and starting this fall will be pursuing a degree in Computer Science at the Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.

Jade Cutter
Tacoma Community College
2018 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jade’s passion for atomic physics and space flight began at a young age, spurred by Brian Greene and her grandfather’s innovative work as a manager for Boeing. As a child, she sat on the kitchen counter multiplying fractions to bake half-recipes with her grandfather, and spent evenings with her mother in secondhand bookshops reading voraciously. Growing up, she was an avid Girl Scout and loved the outdoors.

However, her potential would not be realized until much later, as her late teen years were spent struggling with addiction and homelessness. At nineteen, Jade became pregnant, but soon lost her daughter due to poor health. At twenty, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Her fight with it was brief and successful, but it cost her her fertility. The following years were spent recovering and training at an aikido dojo, and remembering her old passions for engineering.

At twenty-four, Jade returned to college with renewed focus. She is pursuing a Bachelor of both Electrical Engineering and Industrial Systems Engineering, with a concentration in photonics. She has been a member of Phi Theta Kappa for two years and was elected the Public Affairs officer of TCC’s Engineering Club. She oversees major club projects and acts as a liaison between the club and her community. Jade also volunteers for local kids’ science fairs and supervised a regional science team competition. She has been invited to intern at a forensic engineering company and is excited to start field work before even finishing her associate’s.

She currently trains tutors and tutors students herself at the school’s Math and Resource Center, and hopes to one day to work with a major spaceflight contractor, assisting with shielding spacecraft electronics from cosmic rays or advancing photonic laser propulsion. Jade believes the best approach to eliminating gender-based discrimination in the scientific community is for more driven, determined women to enter the industry and prove their competency. She joins the field knowing that every obstacle she conquers is one the next generation may not have to suffer.

Jennifer Franzen
Everett Community College
2018 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jennifer is currently attending Everett Community College and is part of the college’s Honors program there. Additionally, as part of the Honors program, Jennifer will be completing a capstone project on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger over the course of the 2018-2019 academic year. She plans to transfer to the University of Washington in Fall 2019, where she intends to major in both Philosophy and Mathematics. Furthermore, she is an active member in the campus’ German club and plans to minor in Germanics. Beyond that, she hopes to earn her master’s degree in Library Science to become a librarian.

Before she started at Everett Community College in the spring of 2016 at the age of 25, Jennifer had been out of school since she was thirteen, having dropped out due to severe anxiety and panic attacks. For much of her adult life Jennifer had felt as if she was too far behind to have any hope of catching up, both academically and socially. However, overcoming this feeling, she was eventually able to find the will and motivation to give college a shot. Time and money were concerns for her, so, in an attempt to reduce the total number of classes she would need to take, she self-studied all the mathematics that she missed over the years. After spending several months teaching herself math, she was successful in placing directly into calculus. While studying, Jennifer discovered she really enjoyed math, and, as a result, eventually decided on Mathematics as one of her majors. Her newfound love of math also motivated her to apply for a peer tutoring position on campus shortly after the start of her first quarter. Through tutoring she helps her fellow students in math for both the campus’ drop-in tutoring center as well as the TRiO program.

Catherine (Kate) Tanski
North Seattle College
2018 Martin Achievement Scholar

Kate grew up on the coast of Maine, spent ten years working on boats, and is now going to school for mechanical engineering.

Her goals as an engineer are not only to improve the efficiency and accessibility of objects and systems, but to use her education and experiences to open the door of opportunity for as many people as she can. Many years of exploration have taught Kate that she practices her values—normalizing learning challenges, non-traditional skillsets, and compassionate communication—through engineering.

When Kate was growing up she had a very difficult relationship with formal education. Instead of going to college, she went to trade school for traditional wooden boatbuilding. Working in various roles (as marine carpenter, experiential educator, deckhand, mate, assistant engineer, and marine regulatory administrator) gave her the chance to explore practical, non-academic experiences that helped her learn how she learns, and how to teach others to teach her.

Boats, shipmates, students, and the ocean have taught Kate the most valuable lessons she’s learned so far. Those lessons—caring for people and the ecosystems around us, patience with the unexpected, the vital importance of regularly learning new things, that every person has something to contribute, and that every experience has something to teach her—combined with her varied experiences, have brought Kate here, to school for mechanical engineering.

She’s finally figured out how to combine her values of service, compassion, and hard work with her strengths of creative problem solving, incremental systems improvement, and mechanical aptitude. Kate is looking forward to the adventures to come.

Kate’s Tips for Future Applicants:
There are a lot of people out there who would love to help you figure out how to write the essays, manage the deadlines, and follow all the guidelines for scholarships. They want to see you succeed. Connect with them. Nurture your community, and lean on it when you need a hand. Dream big, work hard, and ask for help when you need it.

Taylor Moreno
Grays Harbor College
2017 Martin Honors Scholar

Growing up and into his first years of high school, Taylor was very focused on the here-and-now. His future seemed too distant to concern himself with, so he remained content with doing well academically and helping those around him in his church and community. With career choices ranging from web designer to astronomer, Taylor hadn’t found a clear life focus. He just knew that he wanted to do something that would impact people’s lives.

A few days after celebrating his 15th birthday in January 2013, Taylor’s mother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In the course of nearly three years, she battled that cancer four times. During these times, Taylor acted as her full-time caregiver and stayed with her at virtually every hospital and clinic she went to. He thus gained the opportunity to talk with many different healthcare professionals as well as many cancer patients, their families, and their caregivers. After learning the stories and motivations behind so many patients and practitioners alike, Taylor realized that a passion for the medical sciences had grown in him and decided to focus on it.

On September 21, 2015, his first day of college became his last day with his mom. Although the whole experience was incredibly painful, Taylor says his faith, family, and friends helped get him through it and consequently gain the motivation he has today. Taylor is now transferring to major in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in order to prepare for a career in medical research. The academic journey ahead will be a long one, but he is looking forward to it as he explores the impacts he can make to better himself, help those around him, and one day hopefully join the fight against cancer.

Max Steiner
Seattle Central College
2017 Martin Honors Scholar

Born in Boston, Max grew up in Austria before ultimately moving to Seattle after his twentieth birthday. Based on his background in music, he initially aspired to develop behaviors, cultivate a mindset, and make connections that would allow him to advance his musicianship. In that pursuit, Max spent five years on practicing, rehearsing, recording, performing and touring while covering finances with part-time work.

Through a recent string of experiences abroad, Max’s focus shifted to the natural sciences, in particular chemical engineering. He quickly realized that it offered many aspects he appreciated: collaboration between experts of different fields, direct application of skill toward a specific project or product, opportunities for independent research, relevance in a larger societal context. He was hooked. In one form or another, Max had encountered these qualities in music as well but had never been able to fully develop them on his own. With chemical engineering, however, he seemed to have found a definitive pathway to exercise those principles he deemed important personally as well as professionally.

The two years Max attended Seattle Central College taught him more than what the required coursework had to offer. He was inspired by the diversity of the student body and each of his cohort’s unique background. It pushed him all the more to reach out to get involved: he worked in student leadership, tutored chemistry, and math at MESA, assisted as a TA in a Research Writing class, participated in a chemistry research project, and was employed as an assistant laboratory technician in the SCC chemistry labs. Max’s studies and experiences undoubtedly shaped his long term intent as a chemical engineer: he plans to contribute to advances and applications of clean energy technology. This path is intimately related to environmental sustainability issues in which he hopes to gain a voice. Max feels that completing his undergraduate degree at UW is a significant step toward achieving that goal.

Erin Herman-Kerwin
Olympic College
2017 Martin Achievement Scholar

Erin is a driven woman motivated by her past and inspired by what she can do for her community as a future doctor and statistician. Her dream of increasing access to health care with statistics and medicine would not be possible without a strong education. Olympic College offered Erin a rare opportunity to rebuild her academic foundation. After community college, she is attending the University of Washington to major in Statistics. There she will learn the tools necessary to be involved in the medical solution, redesigning and evaluating clinical trial results in preventative health care and affordable medications.

Today her experiences inspire her and push her to reach beyond herself and into community service. She volunteers at a women’s health clinic as a health advocate, tutors developmental mathematics, and volunteered at the 2016 Seattle King County Community Clinic. Her pursuits in academia are so much more than a degree or a career. It is a validation there is a life after crisis and the key exists within healthy communities, and education.

Sharon Jang
Tacoma Community College
2017 Martin Achievement Scholar

Sharon is currently attending Tacoma Community College and plans to transfer to the University of Washington in the fall of 2018. Her ultimate educational goal is to receive a terminal degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences with a specialization in audiology or speech-language pathology.

There are several reasons why she finds this field of study fascinating and inspiring. One reason close to her heart is the Deaf community’s development of strong resilience in a world filled with hearing individuals. Similarly, what she finds most inspiring about audiology and speech-language pathology is knowing that her interventions will help facilitate an individual’s process of communication and that those skills will help them throughout their everyday life.

Along with her tenacious dedication and motivation to this field, Sharon’s affinity for a sustainable focus in extracurricular activities led her to demonstrate the continuous ability to step out of her comfort zone. This includes starting a club that works on a small scale to increase raising awareness of the North Korean humanitarian crisis by defining North Korea by its people rather than its politics. At the same time, she is enthusiastic to continually advance her leadership skills as she takes on an officer position in Phi Theta Kappa. Sharon took this opportunity to implement the leadership skills she is learning with a network of fellow scholars and servant leaders and to expose herself to another facet to increase productivity and cultivate her school community. She is beyond thrilled to continue advancing and strengthening her leadership skills as she imagines the greater number of opportunities she will be open to when transferring to UW.

Tam Mai
South Seattle College
2017 Martin Achievement Scholar

Tam Mai was born and raised in Viet Nam, a developing country, for 18 years. Her family moved to the United States two years ago. Living in a different country has not been easy for her. As an immigrant, Tam has had to face many challenges and difficulties such as differences in culture, language, finances, the education system, etc., but the most difficult thing for her is the language. When Tam started school in the US, she didn’t understand anything or anyone. She felt like she didn’t belong to this country. However, she learned never to give up on her dream. That’s why she decided to take ESL classes for one year and just focus on English. After a year working hard to learn the language, she is able to attend her college classes and do well. She feels this experience has taught her that persistence will always pay off eventually.

Working on computers and learning about programming is Tam’s favorite thing to do. That’s why she is getting an Associate of Science degree at South Seattle College. Then she plans to transfer to the University of Washington to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science. With one more year before transferring, she is working hard to maintain good grades. She also spends a lot of time volunteering at South Seattle College and within her community to create a good environment where she and her family live. In the future, Tam wants to use her knowledge of Computer Science to create new education applications for children, so they can study wherever and whenever they want, which will give them the opportunity to develop their perceptions and personalities.

Tekhong Meach
South Seattle College
2017 Martin Achievement Scholar

Born and raised in Cambodia, Tekhong Meach immigrated to the United States in 2014. He started working as a food assembler before he began his educational journey at South Seattle College in Winter 2016. Despite his language barrier, he decided to go back to school because of his passion in science classes. Eager to get involved and learn more about resources available on campus, he joined the TRiO Student Success Services program, the AANAPISI program, the Women in STEM club, and the Ready Set Transfer Academy. Those resources have helped advance his academic understanding and encourage him to keep working hard to achieve his goals. With his outstanding academic performance, Tekhong is also a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

Tekhong is working two part-time jobs while attending school full-time. Besides his off-campus job on weekends, he also works as a peer tutor at TRiO, where he has the opportunity to work with his peer students. He helps explain and share his knowledge of math and physics to his peers who have difficulties understanding the lectures in class. He helps them to better understand the subjects, gain academic and educational support, and become more self-reliant students. With his desire to help improve his community, Tekhong also volunteered as a study zone tutor at KCLS library. He worked with kids and adults and helped them improve their math skills. Tekhong is majoring in Computer Science. His interest in the field of Artificial Intelligence inspires him to explore and learn about programming languages. He constantly expands his curiosity through research in the AI field. He is looking forward to participating in undergraduate research at UW to obtain more knowledge in AI. He wants to use his knowledge in AI to explore more innovations that will positively impact and help improve the community.

Musa Abdi
South Seattle College
2016 Martin Achievement Scholar

Born in Ethiopia, Musa Abdi grew up in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where his family moved after his father’s death. Life was difficult in Kakuma which has been described as “equal parts prison and exile.” Musa witnessed the daily toll that lack of medical care wrought — death during childbirth, improper use of medications, and death from treatable diseases such as malaria — and he decided he would become a doctor.

In 2013, Musa and his family immigrated to the United States where their lives improved in terms of physical amenities and access to healthcare. However, they struggled financially and emotionally. Musa’s mother became disheartened. She was a single parent in a foreign culture where she could not communicate or get a job. In a short time, she and her family were evicted because they could not afford the rent.

As a high school senior, Musa shouldered some of the worry. However, rather than discouraging him, these hardships motivated him to work harder and to reach farther in his education. In Fall 2014, even though he was not yet eligible for in-state tuition, Musa enrolled at South Seattle College (SSC). He had been awarded SSC’s 13th Year Scholarship which, along with financial aid, helped pay tuition. At orientation, Musa affiliated with TRiO and was soon hired as a peer tutor. He enjoys helping and encouraging students who seek him out for drop-in tutoring and advice.

Musa seizes every opportunity to enhance his education, participating in the 2015 Summer Medical Dental Education Program (SMDEP) at UW, Phi Theta Kappa, and SSC’s Ready, Set, Transfer Program for STEM majors. He also gives back to his community — volunteering regularly at St. Mary’s Food Bank, serving as interpreter and instructor at parent education workshops for new immigrants, and participating in SSC community service events. In 2016, Musa was selected for the All-Washington Academic Team and was awareded the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship.

As a result of SMDEP and additional research of healthcare careers, Musa plans to become a pharmacist. Through his career, he will be able to relieve suffering and educate patients. He will be able to provide for his family. He will be able to mentor and encourage immigrants, refugees, first generation college students, and all students who hope to contribute to society through a healthcare career. Through times of adversity, education has been Musa’s lifeline. He notes, “I loved school so much from a young age. I was very dedicated to my studies. I never wasted my time; these habits became part of my life and to this date is still my first priority.”

Andre Bland
North Seattle College
2016 Martin Honors Scholar

After completing his Associate of Science degree at North Seattle College this year, Andre E. Bland Jr. was thrilled to be accepted into the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Washington. This is something he could not have imagined as a high school student. Andre’s plans for college were derailed when his mother was diagnosed with cancer. Studying and learning while dealing with his mother’s sickness was challenging and Andre began to hate school, especially math an science classes. The death of his mother during his senior year made things even worse. He persevered and graduated from high school, but did not know what to do next. After taking time off from school, enrolling at North Seattle College gave him the opportunity to find an area of study that truly inspires him.

At North Seattle, Andre realized that to succeed, he would have to reinvent himself as a student. He started by taking classes he had struggled with in high school, vowing to master the material this time. Success in algebra led to success in progressively more difficult math and science classes. In physics, Andre saw the way math and science could be used to solve real world problems, and this drew him to engineering. Learning about electricity, he saw how advances in electrical energy technologies could help solve the world’s energy problems. These experiences converged into a plan to study electrical engineering.

Andre’s work earned him a place in the UW’s Electrical Engineering department. He was also awarded the 2016 NASA Space Grant scholarship for community college transfer students and invited to participate in the 2016 Seattle University SUMmer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). In the REU, he co-wrote “Digital Patters and Dominance in Base-3/2,” which he and his research partners hope to publish soon.

At the UW, Andre will prepare for a career in which he can use engineering to positively impact the world. He plans to work in the electric automobile industry, where he can help develop environmentally friendly modes of transportation. He is a member of the UW’s EcoCAR3 team that aims at making a 2016 Chevy Camaro more environmentally friendly and has joined the UW chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. He will also participate in programs intended to bring minority students into STEM majors. He hopes that he can use his story to help mentor other students who may be struggling in math and science classes like he once did.

Jane Harrell
Tacoma Community College
2016 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jane is currently a sophomore at Tacoma Community College. She will transfer to the University of Washington in the fall of 2017 for a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Atmospheric Science.

Her interest in atmospheric science began in 2012 when Jane and her husband purchased a commercial fishing boat in Southeast Alaska. Their first season she quickly realized how dependent commercial fishermen are on the weather. In 2015 their business was crippled by an unusually warm season that fueled a massive algal bloom along the West Coast. When Jane discovered that the unusual frequency of large blooms is thought to be related to warmer climate patterns, she knew she wanted to focus her studies on climatology. She hopes her research will help industries dependent on climate prepare for the effects of climate change.

Jane was a young girl when she discovered her passion for the natural sciences. Going to college was never a question, but she started her family young in life and decided to temporarily set her educational dreams aside to raise her two daughters. With both of her girls now in school, Jane has returned to her dream of attaining a higher education and hopes her academic journey will inspire her daughters to pursue their educations in STEM.

Jane has been recognized as a High Honors student at TCC. She enjoys volunteering for Tacoma Metro Parks helping to restore the natural habitat of Tacoma. She is a volunteer tutor with Tacoma Community House, a non-profit organization that provides math and ESL courses, citizenship assistance, and job training to immigrants, refugees, and long-time community members. Upon transferring to UW-Seattle Jane plans to join UW’s student chapter of the American Meteorological Society.

Robert (Bobby) Pedersen
South Seattle College
2016 Martin Achievement Scholar

At the age of 19, Bobby didn’t know if school was for him. Having failed out of Bellevue College twice due to active addiction, school just didn’t seem like a realistic pursuit; he had resigned himself to being a bartender for the rest of his life. Little did he know that big changes were right around the corner!

Flash forward seven years, a stint in rehab, a wife, daughter, and a house later, and Bobby was finding his job in restaurant management unfulfilling. It paid the bills, but something in him yearned to go back to school and to try to accomplish more. He wanted to not only be a good example for his daughter, but also hopefully create a means to provide for her with more ease and get more time with her. With a vague idea of what he wanted to do, Bobby enrolled in South Seattle College near his young family’s new home, and began what would be a journey of growth unlike any he had known before.

Through taking classes, Bobby discovered his love and aptitude for mathematics. He decided that long term, he would like to teach math, but wondered if there might be another career path he could follow rather than going straight into teaching. After a couple of quarters testing the waters, and some inspiration from wonderful teachers, Bobby landed on engineering, and has been enthralled by the many science classes he has taken as prerequisites since. He currently tutors math at South Seattle, reaffirming his passion for helping others, and his long term goal of becoming a teacher. Bobby looks forward to the future for more opportunities to learn, grow, and hopefully to give back along the way.

Patricia Saya
Highline College
2016 Martin Honors Scholar

Born and raised in the Philippines, Patricia moved to the United States at age 10, carrying her ambitions heavily influenced by her background. Living in a tightly knit family, she was inspired by her grandfather to value opportunities that education brought when she learned about how he made his way out of poverty through teaching himself how to read. Her experiences and background in the Philippines led her to strive for excellence in every aspect of her life when she moved to the US.

She built a strong foundation in high school by participating in the International Baccalaureate program, teaching her how to maintain a balanced life with heavy course work, extracurricular activities and spending time with family. Continuing her education at Highline College, she became involved in and out of campus by becoming a Writing Consultant at the Highline Writing Center, becoming a member of Phi Theta Kappa, as well as volunteering in various departments at Swedish Medical Center as a Health Scholar. Through gaining clinical exposure, she fell in love with the relationships created between nurses and patients, and this reminded her of the way she helped take care of her grandfather when she was younger. That was when she knew nursing was her passion.

Patricia obtained her Associate’s in pre-nursing at Highline College with a 3.95 cumulative GPA, honors, and was accepted into the UW’s School of Nursing. She connected her experiences from her clinical background, strengthened communication skills at the Writing Center, and knowledge from her pre-nursing classes to see in a holistic perspective what she was passionate about. She is excited to start nursing school this fall to look for more opportunities that will allow growth and utilization of her skills that will help her become an active member of this new community.

Khatsini Simani
Seattle Central College
2016 Martin Honors Scholar

Khatsini Simani is a Seattle native and a rising junior at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business where she will pursue an accounting option in the Fall of 2016. Her passions include economic empowerment, healthy food, and cycling.

As a Community Outreach and Fulfillment Coordinator at Alta Planning and Design and an Education Program Coordinator at the Cascade Bicycle Club, Khatsini taught hundreds of students, employers, and everyday people how to navigate the city by foot, bike, and bus. While biking, she finds that her focus, health, and overall happiness improves. She’s found this to be true both in her personal and academic life, having witnessed the detrimental effects of health-related illnesses and financial instability in her family. Her initial undergraduate career was interrupted early due to financial challenges. She used the opportunity to embark on a personal and academic journey that would transform the way she approached learning.

The continuous thread, she’s found, has been empowerment, education, and agency, themes that have sustained her during her pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. From rediscovering her love of math to maintaining an A average in her business prerequisite courses, there have been few goals that have not required a can-do attitude and a strong will to overcome obstacles. Khatsini plans to pursue a career in accounting, to research and contribute to financial literacy education, and to continue to be an advocate for healthy lives for all. A long-time supporter and former youth participant of Food Education Empowerment and Sustainability Team (FEEST), she also serves as a board chair of the youth-led non-profit organization that introduced healthier food options in her life as a teen.

Khatsini is honored to be considered for the Martin Honors Scholarship and looks forward to contributing to the field of business and accounting during her academic career at the University of Washington.

Clare Campbell
Everett College
2015 Martin Honors Scholar

Her junior year, Clare had decided to drop out of high school. She was feeling very disillusioned with the public school system and her classes seemed meaningless to her. After weeks of nonattendance, she realized she wasn’t ready to give up on her ambition to do something challenging and meaningful with her life.

After exploring other options and discovering Running Start, Clare knew she had gotten back on the right track. She thrived in a college environment, and was inspired by the possibility that she’d one day be able to apply her coursework to practical contributions to science and society: she chose to major in chemical engineering. During her time at Everett College, she enjoyed getting involved by joining engineering club, and helping others at the walk-in tutoring center. Since transferring to the University of Washington, Clare has quickly taken advantages of opportunities such obtaining a position as a Junior Representative for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, joining a project to build a chemical reaction powered car, and working as an undergraduate researcher. She is eager to learn more about sustainable and renewable energy in her upcoming classes, as her goal is to enter the industry after obtaining her bachelor’s degree. She later plans to either get a degree in business and become a leader in industry, or conduct research in chemical engineering, depending on where her skills and knowledge would be most useful.

Mahboobeh Hosseini
Bellevue College
2015 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mahboobeh was born on October 1993 in Tehran, Iran. Living through many difficulties she grew up with one goal and that was achieving success through her education. Her mother was the one that always inspired her to not give up, to accept her abilities and prove them to the community. Decision of becoming Christian finally pushed her family to escape to Turkey. However, because of their refugee status, she and her sister were not allowed to attend school. Although it was not easy for her to accept this situation, it gave her the opportunity to acquire new experiences. Teaching children English, learning how to play guitar, and being a leader in youth group were activities that gave her the confidence through these times of struggle.

Mahboobeh and her family finally moved to United States on 2012. Having technical issues of her transcript, she was placed in the ninth grade. With the strong personality of being competitive and hardworking, the school decided to upgrade her to the higher level classes. She was late to graduate. Finally, she decided to go to iGrad Academy to be able to graduate faster. She achieved honors and scholarships through her high school and became selected as top students in her school district. Going through it all, she is eventually attending college.

She is currently in Bellevue College. Her main goal is to become a pharmacologist which gives her the opportunity to serve people in many ways. Every day she is studying with more enthusiasm and her new accomplishments gives her joy and motivation to continue her path.

Elizabeth Jatta
Highline College
2015 Martin Honors Scholar

As the third of eight children, Elizabeth wanted to find a unique identity. In 2011, this search led her to leave a career in banking industry and emigrate from Gambia. As a first generation college student from a culture that is slowly embracing education and empowerment of girls, she is driven to strive for the top to inspire and care for herself, family, and communities.

Elizabeth graduated with honors from Highline College with an Associates in Biology. At Highline, Elizabeth was a MESA ambassador, an active member of Phi Theta Kappa and the association of Women in Science and Engineering, and volunteers at her local library. Through the Highline Honor Program, she led a multi-quarter project coordinating peers and off campus experts and was one of a very small number of students to ever present at the Highline Science Seminar, sharing research on the US healthcare system and a single-payer healthcare alternative. She represented Highline at a Legislative Voice Academy conference in Vancouver, WA. She was the recipient of Highline College’s most prestigious award at graduation, The 2015 Shirley B. Gordon Scholarship.

At the University of Washington, Elizabeth will work toward a degree in Public Health and Biology as her next step toward medical school. A Summer Medical and Dental Education Program at UW opened her eyes to social, ethical, and political issues in the medical world, and grounded her interest in public health. It taught her a new paradigm for seeing social determinants, healthcare disparity, and issues surrounding health as part of the greater healthcare system. Her dream is to become a physician to serve under-represented populations. Through medicine, she hopes to provide the care she lacked and the opportunities by which she has been blessed to others in the United States, Gambia and around the world.

Sarah Ann Phillips
South Seattle College
2015 Martin Achievement Scholar

Attending a University seemed impossible for Sarah as a first generation college student. Her father barely graduated from high school, and her mother had not received a formal education in Cambodia due to living there during Khmer Rouge era. Sarah stepped up to provide for her little sister due to her parents’ alcohol and gambling addictions. As a result, her grades were not on par to her expectations and she left before finishing her Associate of Arts degree.

Sarah realized she wanted to go back to school after years of working as a hair stylist. Problem solving and attention to detail have been paramount in all that she has done. After taking a computer science class, she realized her passion for the subject. She was enthralled by the combination of math and logic in programming. Sarah wanted to combine her passion for computer science with her joy for teaching/ tutoring. Her dream is to become a computer science professor at the University of Washington.

Since her return to college, she has been a 3.9 student and is the President of the Women in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) organization at South Seattle College that helps recruit and retain female students in STEM majors. Sarah works at South Seattle College as a Mathematics Tutor and a Teaching Assistant. She enjoys volunteering as a panelist for Techbridge, an organization that inspires young girls to reach for STEM fields. Sarah Phillips plans to transfer the University of Washington in Autumn of 2016.

Keino Robinson
Green River College
2015 Martin Honors Scholar

Keino Robinson grew up in Jamaica and saw first-hand the impacts of poverty and inadequate sanitation on his community. As a first-generation, non-traditional college student, Robinson found time to volunteer at Christ Community Free Clinic, and participated in the Summer Medical and Dental Enrichment program at the University of Washington. Keino plans to earn a Bachelor of Science in Public Health at the University of Washington, specifically focusing on Epidemiology and Health Services. Then, he wishes to further expand his graduate studies by completion of a double degree program to gain his Doctor of Medicine and Master’s of Public Health.

Keino was raised in Hendon Norwood, a rough inner city of Montego Bay. Through the guidance of his mother, Keino learned how to survive. It is from the support from his family, and friends that allows him to pursue his ambition of advancing the campaign for social justice in healthcare for others who have been denied this dignity. With the help of his family, Robinson was able to make the transition to the United States and with the assistance of the Green River College Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, he was able to navigate community college. Robinson has chosen Public Health as his major because it aligns with his career goal to ultimately improve health care in his home country, Jamaica. He wishes to improve healthcare in Jamaica by making health care policy reforms. Keino has the desire to work with people individually and as a community. He believes his undergraduate study in public health will allow him to explore health in a structured way. In the future he hopes to gain an internship at the Center for Clinical and Epidemiological Research (CCER) at the University of Washington to understand and promote quality healthcare in underserved and underrepresented populations.

Sugar Sylvain
South Seattle College
2015 Martin Achievement Scholar

Sugar Sylvain began her collegiate career in 2009 at South Seattle College (Then, South Seattle Community College). Although she loved school and wanted to do well, she had other battles to overcome before her academic dreams could become tangible. In 2010, Sugar was arrested and convicted of drug possession in the State of Idaho. There, she was not only able to rebuild her life, but she found a passion for helping others.

During her incarceration, Sugar spent her free time volunteering in the prison’s Education Center. She took on the role of tutoring other offenders who were trying to obtain their GED. She found that, because she was in a similar situation as them, they were able to relate to her on a level unattainable to the Department of Correction staff. Because of this, Sugar views her past as her biggest asset.

Sugar returned to South Seattle College in 2014. Since then, she has consistently excelled in her classes, obtaining a 3.89 cumulative GPA. Beyond academics, Sugar works as a Developmental Math Tutor, is the Vice President of the school’s Women In STEM Club, and has been involved in the Chemistry Department as a Lab Assistant and a student authorized to conduct Chemistry demonstrations on campus. She also maintains a part-time job off campus.

Sugar will be applying to UW’s Aeronautical/Astronautic Engineering Program in the Fall of 2016. Sugar plans to move right into a graduate program upon graduation and eventually would like to pursue a career in the research and development of new airplanes. She looks forward to integrating herself, and her story, into the diverse student life of the Seattle campus. She hopes that her determination and perseverance act as a landmark to others, proving that it is never too late to change.

Austin Tugade
South Seattle College
2015 Martin Honors Scholar

Austin and his family arrived in the United States on Christmas of 2010. Although he had been attending a university, he had to stop to help with his family’s immigration. After 3 years of working to help with the household of six and adapting to new cultures, he took the chance of going back to school through South Seattle College. He is currently working on his transfer associate’s degree.

He enjoys encouraging people to pursue a STEM field degree. He has been a tutor at MAST since Fall of 2014 and is a member of the Physics Committee with Win STEM. During winter quarter 2014, he worked with his instructor to design an information booth on Physics in South Seattle Community College’s STEM Fair. He enjoys being able to talk to people about why they should pursue those fields, and to gives them tips on how they can achieve that goal. He is also a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and with Ready-Set-Transfer Academy.

Experiencing the effects of natural calamities, and also exploring the natural beauty of those things below the surface of the water, he wants to pursue a double major in Geology-Earth and Space Sciences and Oceanography at the University of Washington. He wants to learn about the inner workings of our planet and to discover unseen areas; while also working to help with disaster prevention and calamity preparedness. These give him the drive to be able to maintain a high standard of academics, while involved in co-curricular activities.

In the short-term, he wants to increase his involvement with the community, get into a position with Win STEM to provide more information about the STEM fields, and join the STEM Fair to help improve the event. Academically, he wants to pursue a doctorate in Geology continuing to mentor others and to help them see the beauty of this world.

Uri Zvi
Highline College
2015 Martin Honors Scholar

Uri Zvi is an immigrant from Israel. Overcoming many family-related and financial hardships, Uri had to mature quickly and supported his family throughout high school. After completing his mandatory military service in Israel, Uri decided to take control of his life by immigrating to the US and opening his own a business. In 2012, after saving for tuition over several years, Uri was able to follow his dream and began his higher education at Highline Community College. In spite of the numerous obstacles -a language barrier, simultaneously balancing work and educational responsibilities, and difficulties in securing his permanent resident status – Uri was able to graduate from Highline with a 4.0 GPA. He will continue his education at the University of Washington starting Winter 2016.

Aware of his background and hardships as an immigrant, Uri is also involved in community and leadership activities. He is working as a Physics Teaching Assistant at Highline Community College. He is also working with the school’s financial aid office, assisting immigrants with special circumstances in securing financial aid. Uri hopes to become a research engineer in the biomedical field.

Passionate about science from a young age, he became interested in biomedical research at the age of 18, after his grandmother passed away due to bone cancer. Her traumatic death, along with attending urgent care seminars held by his mother, Israel’s first female paramedic, led him to pursue a career of saving and improving people’s lives. Uri is voluntarily taking part in genetic research and gaining valuable experience for the future through the Pallanck Lab at the Genome Science Department at the UW. He intends to obtain a Ph.D. in Bioengineering. Through participation in academic research, he hopes to contribute to ongoing medical breakthroughs, specifically in the fields of oncology, neurobiology, and immunology.

Andrew Escobedo
South Puget Sound Community College
2014 Martin Honors Scholar

During junior year of high school, Andrew Escobedo entered Running Start through South Puget Sound Community College. He had been homeschooled through sophomore year. Although anxious about attending community college, he came to realize that his capability and aptitude were on par with the student body. Andrew was instantly taken in by the course materials and class discussion of Business 101, and entered the class eager to learn more. It helped him determine his career path. He visited the UW and met with staff at the Foster School of Business who recommended specific classes to improve his probability of being accepted.

Andrew is interested in a marketing focus due to its combination of advertising and psychology, both of which have never failed to hold his interest. “I see marketing as an outlet through which I can utilize my love for the human mind, strategy, persuasion, and art. I want a career that will challenge me mentally, one that includes variation, the study of human behavior, and social media …” Andrew is pursuing a BA in Business Administration with a Marketing Option. With this degree, he hopes that it will assure his future employers that he has attained an exceptional education.

Niloofar Ghodsian
South Seattle Community College
2014 Martin Achievement Scholar

Niloofar immigrated to the United States on October 2012. She came here to pursue her dream of going to university and continuing her education. Back in her country, Iran, she did not have the opportunity to enter a university because of her religion, so she moved to Turkey and sought refuge from the United Nation so she could come to America. She enrolled at South Seattle Community College six months after arriving to the U.S. and is currently working on her A.S. degree.

She tutors Math, Chemistry, and English in TRiO tutoring center at her college. This is a rewarding experience because she has the opportunity to work with students one on one and can see their progress. She also deepens her own understanding of the subjects through tutoring. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Ready Set Transfer for STEM major, and Women in STEM club.

Science classes are Niloofar’s favorites. Her desire to help people around her has added to her passion of science and has led her to choose the Environmental Health major. This major allows her to apply her knowledge in order to have a role in saving people’s lives. The University of Washington offers broad research programs that Niloofar wishes to be a part of, so she plans to transfer to the University of Washington Fall Quarter of 2015.

Katrin Hosseini
Green River Community College
2014 Martin Achievement Scholar

Katrin was born in December, 1991 in Tehran, Iran. She was the eldest of her family. Despite of Katrin’s mother being the only parent who raises her two daughters, she developed a deep passion for education with her mother’s support. Her passion for learning extended beyond her classrooms and her curiosity led her to question the unchangeable Islamic rule that she followed. Katrin and her family ultimately made one of the biggest decisions of their lives and converted to Christianity. She then graduated from high school in 2009 determinant to get into medical school. Their religious freedom was restricted by the Iranian government.

Katrin and her family left Iran to Turkey and lived there as refugees for two years. The goals that she had for her future career came to an end in Turkey. Being that they were refugee, the Turkish did not let them attend schools. Katrin persevered and established short-term goals: learning Turkish, playing guitar, singing in choir, and volunteering. With great anticipation from United Nation, her family was finally able to embark the US in 2012.

Katrin enrolled in ESL classes at Green River Community College to strengthen her English skills. It was a big challenge in her life. However, instead of giving up, she was motivated to persevere into college level classes. It was such a joy for her family because she was the first college student. She is currently a tutor in the Math Learning Center. Whatever the barrier was, she overcame it because she keeps her goals in mind with positive self-determination. Helping people is her goal in life, and the dream of becoming a doctor fits for this goal perfectly. Education gives her the opportunity to become a doctor and serve the country that gave her the equal opportunity to grow.

Claudia Janeth Linares
Highline Community College
2014 Martin Honors Scholar

Claudia was born in May 1994 in Los Angeles CA. She was raised by her single mother, an immigrant from El Salvador in a widely Latino immigrant community. During the second quarter at Highline College, her mother experienced a stress induced stroke. Claudia dropped her classes in order to help her mother recover.

With newfound motivation, Claudia returned to school rededicated to pursue a degree in Psychology to help her mother and others cope with stress, and determined to lead as a first generation Latina student. She began volunteering as a TRiO ambassador by serving and mentoring through Communities in Schools (CIS) to encourage “in dangered” high school student to graduate. She also worked as a tutor in the Highline Writing Center and was a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She believes that her involvement in her community has taught her compassion, love for humanity through faith, love and persistence.

This fall, Claudia will begin working towards a BS in Psychology. She has been hired as a tutor in the Odegaard Research Writing Center. Claudia wil continue mentoring students through CIS and will apply for the McNair Program to help her prepare for eventual grauate school at either the UW or UC-Berkeley Graduate School. Her goal is to research the effects of stress on the body and preventive strategies to ensure a better quality of life, while also education other.

Elizabeth Oestreich
North Seattle Community College
2014 Martin Honors Scholar

Elizabeth Oestreich has always enjoyed learning through travel and inquiry. A native of New York, she grew up in New Jersey and spent time in Georgia and California while in the military. She now calls Washington State home.

During her six years in the Navy, Elizabeth was deployed to Iraq and the Persian Gulf as an Arabic linguist, attaining the rank of E-6 in only 5 years. In addition, the Associate of Arts (AA) degree in Arabic. which was earned during her time in the Navy, Elizabeth earned an AA at the University of Maryland and an Associate of Science at North Seattle Community College. She is excited to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Biology – Molecular, Cellular & Developmental at the UW.

Elizabeth plans to focus her studies on epigenetics, specifically how DNA methylation affects autoimmune diseases. At North Seattle CC, Elizabeth completed a capstone project funded by the Ready Set Transfer Academy. For her project, she developed a confocal microscopy live-cell staining protocol for the nanotechnology lab on campus. Combined with a genetic class, this project cemented her desire to pursue a future in genetic research. After graduation, Elizabeth plans to complete a Master in Genetics Counseling so she can combine her love of genetics with her commitment to helping people.

At home, Elizabeth is supported in her goals by her husband and two children. She volunteers as a room parent for her daughter’s school. Additionally, one of her favorite things to do on a nice day is host a community potluck.

Benjamin Pennant
Cascadia & Everett Community College
2014 Martin Honors Scholar

Benjamin Pennant was born and raised in Glastonbury, Connecticut where he was the seventh of eight children. After a brief period of success of his dad’s real estate business, his home was foreclosed and, at 16, he began to work to support himself and his family. They were homeless, bouncing from house to house until he was 17, at which point he moved out to attend university.

Financial troubles continued after he moved to Virginia for university and Benjamin embarked on a career in the Food & Hospitality industry, which continues to this day. For two years, he only worked to support himself, until one day he was motivated to return to school. Benjamin distinctly recalls writing down a list of goals that would completely change his life. These goals included moving to Washington State and working his way to the UW to become an engineer.

When he arrived in Washington state, his aunt, uncle and cousins were waiting to help him get started. Benjamin attended Cascadia Community College and worked at a restaurant in downtown Seattle. After his first year at Cascadia, he felt confident in his grades and personal growth to attempt extracurricular activities.

In the summer of 2013, he became V.P. of Cascadia Student Government. He was also a math tutor, which he feels is especially fulfilling because of his passion for math paired with the ability to help others. In the fall, Benjamin will be a volunteer tutor at the Bothell Public Library.

Raegan Ramynke
Yakima Valley Community College
2014 Martin Honors Scholar

Raegan Ramynke was born and raised in Yakima Washington. As a young child, she and her sister spent time with her grandmother while her parents worked. As a result, she developed a very close relationship with her grandmother who spent countless hours reading and engaged with then. Unfortunately, her grandmother died too soon of ovarian cancer, leaving an impression that also sparked an interest in medicine.

During sophomore year in high school, Raegan had the opportunity to volunteer at Children’s Village, mentoring special needs children. This lead to her involvement with the YouthWorks Council, which allowed her to engage in various community activities including fundraising for various hospital branches. Through these activities, she was inspired to pursue her dream of working in the medical field.

Inspired by the community work and wanting to challenge herself, Raegan enrolled in the Running Start Program, earning her high school diploma and Associate of Arts at Yakima Valley Community College concurrently. While at the UW, she is interested in Neurobiology. Raegan’s great-grand mother is a affected by Alzheimer’s Disease. Watching her progress day-to-day, she has seen the disastrous effect of this disease on her. Raegan looks forward to bringing her personal experience to her involvement in Alzheimer’s research and other diseases of the brain and providing care to those afflicted as a neurologist.

Amina Sheikh
South Seattle Community College
2014 Martin Achievement Scholar

Amina was born and raised in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Her life dramatically changed when she moved to the United States with her family in 2011. While adapting to life in a new country with new culture and customs was difficult, Amina was extremely motivated by the opportunity to gain a higher education. Amina graduated from Kentridge High School in 2012. After graduating from high school, Amina began attending South Seattle Community College. She plans to transfer to the University of Washington in the fall of 2015, where she will major in biology on a pre-med track.

Amina is currently a tutor for the TRiO at South Seattle where she tutors her peers in math, biology and chemistry. As a tutor she is able to help her peers and give back to her campus community that has supported her immensely. Amina is also the Vice President of Women in STEM a student run organization that focuses on getting women interested in the STEM field. The club also works to provide women in the STEM fields with professional and educational resources.

This upcoming summer of 2014, Amina will be taking part in the Summer Medical Dental Education Program (SMDEP) at the University of Washington. The program is intended to enrich and expose underrepresented minorities to fields of medicine and dentistry. Amina’s goal upon finishing her undergraduate degree is to attend medical school and become a physician. This passion stems from witnessing medical practices in different parts of the world and living within underserved populations where people went untreated and suffered from completely preventable diseases.

Tim Sundine
Everett Community College
2014 Martin Achievement Scholar

Tim’s passion for aviation and his desire to shape his career around Aeronautical Engineering and piloting were energized by his experiences of flying an old WWII trainer, sitting in the cockpit of Boeing’s new 787, and being mentored by his Uncle, who is an Air Force Veteran and retired Continental Airlines Captain. Tim has brought forward his personal vision with a foundation of character based on his personal philosophy of hard work and self-reliance, which led him to earn his pilot’s license by the age of 19 and enter the pre-engineering program at Everett Community College. He plans on transferring to the University of Washington to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

In addition to going after his educational aspirations by jumpstarting his college education with college level courses in high school, Tim has endeavored to serve his community. Instead of participating in formalized extracurricular activities, he has chosen over the years to make it a point to support his neighbors, behind the scenes, who are senior, disabled or just in need of help. His understanding that people helping people can make a profound difference in someone’s life is due to, in part, his experience of losing his Mother to cancer when he was very young. Tim is optimistic about his ability to contribute in meaningful ways in his community throughout his life, being a part of future advancements in the Aerospace industry in research and development and earning his wings as a flight test pilot.

Justin Andersen
Highline Community College
2013 Martin Honors Scholar

Justin is a Washington native who grew up in Federal Way where he attended Thomas Jefferson High School. After graduation, Justin decided to forego a college education and headed straight into the workforce under the encouragement of his math teacher, and mortgage broker, who had offered him a lucrative position at his lending firm. Two years later and unsatisfied, Justin embarked on the pursuit of a career outside of the finance industry that led to his employment in a variety of different positions over the next few years. However, after getting married in 2009, and the subsequent birth of his son in 20 I 0, Justin experienced hardship after being laid-off and resolved that he needed to get an education that would allow him the opportunity to provide a better foundation for his family.

Despite the challenges encompassing the pursuit of a college education for a non-traditional student with a wife and three children, Justin was not only able to strike a balance between his family and his education, but also he was able to discover his passion for neuroscience and excel in his studies. In 2013, Justin graduated HCC as both a Highline Honors Scholar and a member of Phi Theta Kappa, and had earned honors distinction in both an Associate of Arts degree and an Associate of Science degree in Biology with a 3.83 cumulative GPA.

Justin transferred as junior into the University of Washington Autumn quarter 2013, where he will pursue interdisciplinary honors as a double major in Neurobiology and Biochemistry. He looks forward to the opportunity to get involved in his campus community through participation in neuroscience research and believes that opportunities offered at the University of Washington will best prepare him for medical school and propel him toward reaching his goal of becoming a research psychiatrist.

Mason Christensen
Highline Community College
2013 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mason plans to transfer to the UW in fall of 2014 and double major in Physics and Mathematics. He is currently a Lead Tutor for the Math Resource Center at Highline where he tutors through Calculus. He is also a Philosophy tutor. These positions give him a deeper understanding of material and allows him to play a leading role on campus for his peers. Mason plans to complete graduate work in Particle Physics, obtaining a PhD in the field. He hopes to use his abilities and critical ways of thinking to assist in making new discoveries about the universe in which we live.

Mason is a participant of the Honors Scholar Program, a MESA Student and, through Gateway to College student, was awarded his high school diploma in June 2013. He is also the founder of the Nordic Heritage Club at Highline, a club created to spread cultural awareness of Nordic People.

Jessica Johnson
Green River Community College
2013 Martin Honors Scholar

Jessica entered the University of Washington as a junior majoring in chemistry and minoring in physics and mathematics. She is determined to continue her studies in order to work in the field of nuclear energy research. Jessica hopes to change the way people sees and uses nuclear energy.

Nervous about starting college after a 12-year hiatus from school, Jessica’s background as a non-traditional student quickly became an asset, which allowed her to take on leadership roles at Green River Community College. Through her jobs as a supplemental instructor and teaching assistant at Green River, she discovered the joy in sharing her passion for chemistry with other students. This led to her nomination for the GRCC’s President’s Award, as well as her receipt of GRCC’s Science Division award. At the UW, she hopes to continue working with other students in chemistry outreach programs.

Eric King
Seattle Central Community College
2013 Martin Achievement Scholar

In the fall of 2014 Eric will enter the UW as a junior, where he will complete his bachelor’s degree in biology/physiology. His journey to the UW began with receiving his GED and enrolling in classes at Seattle Central Community College, where he participated in student leadership, tutored biology and became a member of the academic honor society Phi Theta Kappa. In attention to studying biology, Eric will also complete pre-medical course requirements.

Eric’s dream is to become a physician, a desire that came early in life due to the deaths of both parents by potentially curable illnesses. He became a national certified pharmacy technician when he was 18 years old to better understand how both of his parents’ medications worked. Eric intends to keep his pharmacy license current and maintain regular employment on his journey to medical school.

Pooja Sethi
Everett Community College
2013 Martin Honors Scholar

Pooja Sethi began her studies at Everett Community College through Washington State’s Running Start program, allowing her to dual-enroll in college classes while still a high school student. In June 2013, not only did she graduate as valedictorian of her high school, but she also completed an Associate of Science in Physics. Pooja’s innate interest in understanding how things work has led her to the University of Washington, where she transferred as a junior to study Computer Engineering and Math. Pooja is looking forward to participating in undergraduate research while at UW, and hopes to pursue a Master’s or Ph.D. in the future.

Though Pooja enjoys learning in the classroom, even more so, she delights in applying her learning in ways to improve everyday life. As a member of her high school’s “ShopGirls” team, Pooja designed and built a prototype car for the Shell Eco-marathon, an international race for fuel-efficient vehicles. In 2010, her team’s car went 470 miles on a single gallon of diesel The ShopGirls were also the first all-women team in the history of the race. Pooja hopes to encourage more students, especially young women, to consider engineering majors – she was a member of the Society of Women Engineers at EvCC, and now at UW.

In addition to building cars, Pooja has also competed in Future Business Leaders of America, winning both state and national-level awards in Management Information Systems, Network Design, Cyber Security, and Accounting. She is a Washington Aerospace Scholar, a NASA Space Grant Scholar, and a National Merit Commended Student. Pooja also maintains active involvement in her community. For the past five years, she has volunteered at Granite Falls Historical Museum. Currently, she is working on developing a new website for the museum. Her hobbies include long-distance running, reading, and hiking.

Lydia Smith
Highline Community College
2013 Martin Achievement Scholar

Lydia is studying to receive as Associate’s Degree in Pre-Nursing. As a wife and mother of three, Lydia has achieved academic success through time management, discipline and organization. Her academic goals are to transfer to the UW, where she will pursue a PhD in Nursing. Her professional goals are to enter into a combination of clinical practice and Research and Development. Lydia also has a long-term goal to start a non-profit organization that provides medical care for uninsured veterans. As a veteran who served in Iraq, the realization of this goal holds special meaning to her.

Lydia is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society, the MESA program, where she runs Academic Excellent Workshops for General Biology and is a Bio tutor in the Academic Success Center at Highline. She interned the summer of 2013 at the Pacific Northwest national labs to gain more insight and experience in research.

Anna Johnson
Seattle Central Community College
2012 Martin Achievement Scholar

Anna is a sophomore at Seattle Central Community College Pursuing an Associate’s Degree of Science. She intends to transfer to the University of Washington in the fall of 2013 to complete her bachelor’s degree in Biology and finish pre-medical courses. Anna moved from Alaska to Washington the summer of 1999 with her family and has lived in and around the Seattle area ever since, excluding a yearlong tour of Europe in 2008 where she met her Iranian husband. Since high school, Anna has been searching for her role in the enrichment of her community, both local and global, and has found it in the sciences. She started by getting her certificate as an Emergency Medical Technician and has now moved onto a pre-medical track to further her ability to contribute. Her dedication to her work and studies comes from the desire to be part of and strengthen the forward progression of biological understanding. She currently works for the Biology Department at Seattle Central Community College. her long term goal is a career in medical research.

In addition to studying biology, Anna hopes to participate in the UW’s Near East Civilization and Language program to become fluent in Farsi, the native tongue of her husband and extended family. She believes that progress on a global scale is dependent on intercultural understandings and hopes that Farsi will be the first of many languages that she will be able to utilize in promoting that communication.

Siyu Lu
Edmonds Community College
2012 Martin Honors Scholar

Siyu Lu will be a junior at the University of Washington in the Winter quarter 2013, working towards a double major in accounting and finance. Siyu grew up in Beijing, China, and moved to the United States at the age of 17. Due to difficult family life, Siyu struggled with homelessness in high school. While living on her own and managing her personal finances, Siyu became aware of her talents in mathematics, her interest in economics, and her thoughtful personality. With the intent to become a financial analyst, Siyu started her higher education journey as a first-generation college student. Siyu is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society and is in the Edmonds Community College Honors Program. In 2012, Siyu was selected to represent Edmonds Community College and Washington State to compete in the All-USA & Coca-Cola Community College Academic Teams.

Her extracurricular activities also include participating in various service projects to help facilitate a health society. Siyu’s goals include achieving personal success as a financial analyst, obtaining the Certified Public Accountant certification; practicing in the field of financial planning, business consulting, and public accounting; and finally utilizing her strengths and knowledge to help people in financial hardships. In ten to fifteen years, Siyu expects to establish her own non-profit organization to serve middle and low-income families with income tax preparation, financial management skills, debit elimination, and long-term financial planning.

David Olsen
North Seattle Community College
2012 Martin Honors Scholar

David Olson was born in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to the US with his mother when he was four years old. After becoming a husband and father, he provided for his family and supported his wife through college by being a carpenter. Returning to college after an 18-year hiatus was difficult for him but has proven to be an extremely rewarding experience. He originally endeavored to complete a simple one-year certificate at North Seattle Community College in practical nursing. However, after excelling in the prerequisites and receiving numerous words of encouragement from professors, David has decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in biology and later a M.D./Ph.D. degree in endocrinology.

David spent a year researching microplastic contaminants in Green Lake through an integrated studies class at NSCC, which helped him to realize his excitement for scientific research. He also spent five quarters as a biology tutor at NSCC, which helped him strengthen his grasp of anatomy and physiology and taught him to convey my knowledge to other students in an effective manner. His experience as a Hospice patient care volunteer has given him enough inspiration to complete ten doctoral programs. Some of David’s extracurricular activities include singing as a tenor in the church choir at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church and playing soccer with the Seattle Soccer Club.

Elizabeth Reid
Green River College
2012 Martin Achievement Scholar

Elizabeth intends to complete her Associates of Arts Transfer Degree and enter U. W. as an English Major. Ultimately, she would like to complete law school and use her skills for public interest and social justice issues. She has been a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Sorority, Alpha Chi Beta Chapter, since February, 2012.

Elizabeth volunteers with several organizations in the community, and particularly enjoys working with the Post-Prison Education Program. She is a member of the People with Convictions: Post-Prison Community Collaboration Project at U.W. She enjoys advocating for those in the community that are victims of injustice. She also is working to promote awareness of the school-to-prison pipeline and the problems of mass incarceration. She believes intervention and mentoring of the youth in the community can make a significant difference in what they are able to accomplish during their lives. Elizabeth will soon be published by Harvard University, Harvard Educational Review, in their upcoming book regarding the school-to-prison pipeline.

Miriam Williamson
Seattle Central Community College
2012 Martin Achievement Scholar

Miriam is currently a sophomore at Seattle Central Community College where she is pursueing an Associate’s Degree of Science. At school, Miriam is engaged in the student body where she serves as Vice President of the Women in Science and Engineering club and Vice President of the Ready Set Transfer Academy. Through the undergraduate research program at Seattle Central, Miriam has been working on identifying genetic mutations in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana and in the summer of 2012 she will be participating in the Building Bridges to Bioengineering research internship at the University of Washington.

In addition to school, Miriam works part time as a Program Assistant for the UWSOM and spends her free time developing an “urban homestead” at her Seattle home where she raises chickens, grows organic produce and brews beer. Miriam intends to transfer to the UW in the fall of 2013 to pursue a double major in Biochemistry and Neurobiology. Her plans for the future are to obtain a PhD in Genomic Sciences with the goal of going to Academic Medicine. Miriam wants to use her passion for scientific discovery and research to study the molecular and biochemical elements of neurological disease.

Sebastian Anderson
South Seattle Community College
2011 Martin Achievement Scholar

Sebastian is a freshman at South Seattle Community College working towards his Business Associates Degree. He plans to transfer to the University of Washington in the fall of 2012 to pursue Marketing and Human Resource Management. Sebastian supports his study and family by working full time at Seattle Costco where he has been leading efforts to support environmental sustainability in the workplace.

Dmitry Antipov
Shoreline Community College
2011 Martin Honors Scholar

Dmitry was born in a remote city of Petropavlovsk on Kamchatka peninsula in Far East Russia. After tenth grade he spent a year as an exchange student in rural Arkansas. This experience broadened his horizons and expanded his outlook as he learned about a new culture and made new friends.

In the fall of 2006 Dmitry and his family were granted permission to immigrate to Israel. There, he spent a year learning Hebrew and then started his college education at the Tecnion-Israel Institute of Technology in an Aerospace Engineering program. His academic achievements were noticed by the Israeli Aerospace Society and he was awarded Arie Hillel’s Prize for Excellence.

In April 2010 Dmitry’s family won a Diversity Visa lottery and was allowed to immigrate to the U.S. He continued his education at Shoreline Community College, and transferred to the University of Washington in fall of 2011 to pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering. Dmitry is doing undergraduate research at the Bio-Robotics lab at the University of Washington, and also volunteers for a variety of non-profit organizations such as Food Lifeline, Seattle Parks, and School of Acrobatics and Circus Arts. After Dmitry finishes his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering he wants to continue toward a graduate degree, and get a job in a wireless communications technologies research program.

Holly Battersby
Whatcom Community College
2011 Martin Honors Scholar

Holly is a Junior at the University of Washington whom transferred from Whatcom Community College to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Social Welfare. Holly’s work at Kid’s Country Preschool and Daycare sparked her passion for child advocacy. It was her work experience that brought her to realize she had been blinded from most of the devastating hardships some children go through. Holly has advocated for children by volunteering at Nooksack Elementary Head Start program during monthly literacy nights.

Holly’s transfer as a junior to the University of Washington brings her one step closer to her professional goal of completing her bachelor’s degree in social welfare and earning a master’s degree in Social Work with honors. After finishing her education, she wants to pursue a case management job to continue her advocacy work with children. Once she gains more experience in social work, he ultimate goal is to work as a victim’s advocate.

Koffi Noel Fadonougbo
Highline Community College
2011 Martin Achievement Scholar

Koffi-Noel is a freshman at Highline Community College pursuing an Associate’s Degree of Science. He hopes to transfer into the UW Mechanical Engineering Program in the fall of 2012 where he intends to pursue mechanical research that will investigate health issues and rapid spread of diseases in Africa. Born in West Africa, Koffi-Noel aspires to use his education to help the home he left behind through the design and development of medical devices and engineering.

Sean Huertas
South Seattle Community College
2011 Martin Achievement Scholar

Sean is a sophomore at South Seattle Community College working towards his Business Associates Degree. He intends to transfer to the UW Foster School of Business in the fall of 2013 to pursue an accounting degree. He is actively engaged at South Seattle as a Co-President of the Business Club and peer tutor. Sean worked as a paralegal for a number of years at a personal injury law firm, and has recently decided to return to school to pursue an education and professional pathway he is passionate about.

Buchheng Kak
South Seattle Community College
2011 Martin Achievement Scholar

Buchheng is a Sophomore at South Seattle Community College pursuing an Associate’s Degree in Science. She intends to transfer to the UW to pursue a degree in Biology. Buchhang has actively engaged in the community at South Seattle through their Student Success Service program, as well as held internships at the Seattle Veteran Hospital and the Microsoft DigiGirlz Tech Camp. Following graduation, Buchheng hopes to attend medical school.

Irene Malloch
North Seattle Community College
2011 Martin Honors Scholar

Irene transferred from North Seattle Community College and to the University of Washington to pursue a degree in International Studies with a Human Rights minor. Irene lived in South Korea for half of her life, and she plans on increasing her language proficiency skills while at the University of Washington. Irene desires to start a support club for North Korean refugees, and bring awareness of the situation of North Korea to the University’s campus. After her undergraduate career, Irene plans on working toward her Ph.D. in North Korean studies, pursuing her career goal of working with the international diplomacy between the Koreas and the U.S.

Bradley Pierce
Bellevue Community College
2011 Martin Honors Scholar

Bradley’s background is a somewhat diverse one. He was raised in a rural area, working on farms and ranches from an early age. He was fortunate enough to join AmeriCorps during the first two years of its implementation, gaining a wide base of knowledge and experience.

With a background in music, environmental studies, and carpentry Bradley plans on using his diverse experiences to pursue his goal of being a Physician. For the past couple of years, he has been taking classes to prepare him to enter medical school. Having always been interested in the human body and science, his decision to become a doctor has been some time in the making. Bradley transferred to the University of Washington in Fall 2011 to pursue a degree in Humanities, while simultaneously applying to medical schools across the country.

Patrick-Gabriel Clarke
North Seattle Community College
2010 Martin Family Honors Scholar

Patrick is a Nursing major. He has been involved in the medical community through volunteer work at UW Medical Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital. He has a diverse background of work and volunteer experience, including work as a graphic designer, translator and Social Justice Community member at St. Bridget Catholic Church. Following graduation, Patrick hopes to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse at the UW Medical Center.

Danna Culhane
South Seattle Community College
2010 Martin Achievement Scholar

Danna Culhane is a freshman at South Seattle Community College. She is currently working towards her Business Associates Degree and plans to transfer to the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business in the fall of 2011. Danna is planning of getting her degree in International Business to work with foreign energy companies. She is actively involved in the community through the FUSE program—a mentoring program for teens, Phi Theta Kappa and various other community organizations working in food banks, park restoration, and fundraising events

Bronsyn Foster-Springer
Olympic College
2010 Martin Family Honors Scholar

Bronsyn is a Speech and Hearing Sciences major and a Linguistics minor. She has been passionate about methods of communication for years through explorations of theater, literature and foreign language. Through volunteer work at children’s drama camps and her study of American Sign Language, she has been committing herself to connecting with communities through diverse methods of communication. She intends to pursue a career as a speech pathologies following graduation from the University of Washington.

Heather Fuentes
Seattle Central Community College
2010 Martin Achievement Scholar

Heather Fuentes is a freshman at Seattle Central Community College. After receiving her Associate of Arts degree, she plans on transferring to the University of Washington in Winter 2011. She plans on majoring in Sociology. Her love of studying societies and human behavior comes from a career in project management and moving often while growing up living in most of the United States as well as Japan. Her extensive travels throughout Europe, Asia, and the Scandinavian countries have further fueled this interest. She plans on using her degree to further her career by deepening her understanding of people and societies.

Muhamedarifeine Manhsour
Seattle Central Community College
2010 Martin Achievement Scholar

Muhamedarifeine Manhsour is a freshman at Seattle Central Community College who hopes to pursue a degree in Business upon transfer to the University of Washington. His future career goals include a focus in Business Administration or Human Resources and to help create jobs for generations to come. His parents’ serve as an inspiration to give back to the community and assist others as a positive role model to teens through his involvement in the Cham Community.

Ava Marie Munson
Shoreline Community College
2010 Martin Family Honors Scholar

Ava is a Political Science major and a Human Rights minor. She has a deep passion for reach out to help those suffering from injustices due to poverty and abuse. Through her volunteer work with the Center for Service-Learning and founding a chapter of Amnesty International at Shoreline Community College, she has been able to strengthen her academic aspirations. She is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and was named the 2010 New Century Scholar and the Student Leadership Award at Shoreline Community College. Ava aspires to ultimately pursue a career as a human rights defender.

David Opincarne
Green River Community College
2010 Martin Family Honors Scholar

David is an Interaction and Industrial Design major. His interest in design stems from his long time interest in combining industrial and technological influences. Prior to his return to school, David worked as a journeyman patternmaker, toolmaker and cabinet maker for 13 years. He has studied commercial photography at Colorado Mountain College and worked for a number of years in editorial photography at the University of Washington. An avid problem solved, David hopes to focus on providing greater access to technology for marginalized populations and retaining the procedural knowledge held by skilled trades people and artisans.

Dylan Ward
Seattle Central Community College
2010 Martin Family Honors Scholar

Dylan is a Drama and Comparative History of Ideas major. He has been involved in the performing arts since he was six years old through his studies at the Denver School of Arts, as an actor in community theater productions, and writing, producing and directing work. As a double major in Drama and the Comparative History of Ideas, he hopes to combine his interest in sociology, philosophy, psychology and drama. Dylan ultimately wants to continue on to a PhD program, leading to work as a dramaturge and professor.

Jason Yabandeh
Bellevue College
2010 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jason Yabandeh is a freshman at Bellevue College and hopes to pursue studies in Chemistry and Biochemistry upon transfer to the University of Washington. His future goals include a career as a chemist, working in research to directly benefit the public. The creative leadership skills he has gained through music and dance have aided his understanding and drive to work with others, skills he will take on to future career aspirations in research and teaching.

Gregory Bertsch
South Seattle Community College
2009 Martin Honors Scholar

Jaison Briar
South Seattle Community College
2009 Martin Achievement Scholar

Sochetna Chhay
South Seattle Community College
2009 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jeung Hwa (Victoria) Choe
Green River Community College
2009 Martin Honors Scholar

Vincent Ethier
Seattle Central Community College
2009 Martin Honors Scholar

Amanda Neice
Everett Community College
2009 Martin Achievement Scholar

Amanda is a Civil Engineering major and hopes use her studies to actively participate in her community. She is very interested in the transportation sectors of engineering and would like to her skills to develop strong systems for cities.

Johonna Nutter
Seattle Central Community College
2009 Martin Achievement Scholar

Johonna is a Computer Science major with a Japanese minor. She has had experience as a technical designer and programmer in the software and video game companies. Johanna hopes to work further with Artificial Intelligence and Robotics utilizing her background in video game industry.

Alexander Ruiz
Columbia Basin Community College
2009 Martin Honors Scholar

Nickolas Stelzenmuller
Seattle Central Community College
2009 Martin Honors Scholar

Ephrem Yemru
Highline Community College
2009 Martin Honors Scholar

Eric Evangelista
Everett Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Jason Flint
South Seattle Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Nhi K Lac
South Seattle Community College
2008 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jennifer Marker
Everett Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Diem Hong Thi Nguyen
South Seattle Community College
2008 Martin Achievement Scholar

Diem Hong is on a pre-pharmacy track at South Seattle Community College. Since receiving the Martin Achievement Scholarship, she has been tutoring for Student Success Services and volunteering in her community through the Gift of the Earth event and White Center Food Bank.

Diem Kieu Thi Nguyen
South Seattle Community College
2008 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jarica Quick
Cascadia Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Steven Simpkins
Highline Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Shauna Stadnik
Green River Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Anna Zinchenko
Highline Community College
2008 Martin Honors Scholar

Anna is a Nursing major and intends to graduate in 2010. She has been supporting her field of study through volunteer work at St. Francis Hospital Emergency Department and participating in research at Harborview’s Burn Center.

Joseph Burnett
Highline Community College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholar

Katherine Byrne
Cascadia Community College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mary Hake
Pierce College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholar

Alice Lee
Highline Community College
2007 Martin Honors Scholar

Jeremy Matthews
Edmonds Community College
2007 Martin Honors Scholar

David Moore
Seattle Central Community College
2007 Martin Honors Scholar

Chris Garrido Philp
Everett Community College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholar

Lara Schrier
Seattle Central Community College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholar

Alice Shieh
Olympic College
2007 Martin Honors Scholar

Conan Storlie
North Seattle Community College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholar

Crystal Tallent
Highline Community College
2007 Martin Achievement Scholars

Ashley Baker
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

Bryan Bartley
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

Lisa Esperum
Skagit Valley Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

Byran S. Francisco
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Achievement Scholar

Donna Freedman
North Seattle Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

Seth Gordon
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

James Gray
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Achievement Scholar

Celeste Hoffman
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Achievement Scholar

William Mari
Bellevue Community College
2006 Martin Honor Scholar

Alexander Otier
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Achievement Scholar

Siv Prince
Shoreline Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

Jennifer Reilly
Highline Community College
2006 Martin Honors Scholar

Kathleen Silva
Seattle Central Community College
2006 Martin Achievement Scholar

Matthew Goodwin
Seattle Central Community College
2005 Martin Honors Scholar

Jayson Jochim
North Seattle Community College
2005 Martin Honors Scholar

James Krieger
North Seattle Community College
2005 Martin Honors Scholar

Ming Li
Wenatchee Valley Community College
2005 Martin Honors Scholar

Beth Scholler
North Seattle Community College
2005 Martin Achievement Scholar

Ethopia Zerfu
South Seattle Community College
2005 Martin Achievement Scholar

Shamim Ghandami
South Seattle Community College
2004 Martin Achievement Scholar

Severin Gose
North Seattle Community College
2004 Martin Honors Scholar

Peter Perez
Seattle Central Community College
2004 Martin Achievement Scholar

Elise Saba
North Seattle Community College
2004 Martin Honors Scholar

Igor Tikhonov
Shoreline Community College
2004 Martin Honors Scholar

Maliha Ayub
South Seattle Community College
2003 Martin Achievement Scholar

Myung Suk Chee
Seattle Central Community College
2003 Martin Achievement Scholar

Colby Harris
South Seattle Community College
2003 Martin Honors Scholar

Jan Edward Lauderbaugh
Seattle Central Community College
2003 Martin Achievement Scholar

Loyce (Mbewa) On’Gudi
Seattle Central Community College
2003 Martin Achievement Scholar

Brandon Stogsdill
Pierce Community College
2003 Martin Honors Scholar

Thao Ha Vu
North Seattle Community College
2003 Martin Honors Scholar

Adriana Cardenas
Seattle Central Community College
2002 Martin Honors Scholar

Yen Hoang Duong
North Seattle Community College
2002 Martin Achievement Scholar

Cesar Escobar
North Seattle Community College
2002 Martin Achievement Scholar

Andria Green
Bellevue Community College
2002 Martin Honors Scholar

Edward Gonzales
Seattle Central Community College
2002 Martin Honors Scholar

Shahra Jafari
South Seattle Community College
2002 Martin Achievement Scholar

James Larrabee
Seattle Central Community College
2002 Martin Achievement Scholar

Anna Le
North Seattle Community College
2002 Martin Achievement Scholar

Amanda Morgan
Seattle Central Community College
2002 Martin Honors Scholar

Tina Norman
North Seattle Community College
2002 Martin Achievement Scholar

Cristina Pacheco
Peninsula College
2002 Martin Honors Scholar

Cynthia Peacock
Highline Community College
2002 Martin Honors Scholar

David Atik
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Joyce Barnet
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Alicia Cole
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Lisa Cooper
North Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Jennifer Devine
Yakima Valley Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Zaedryn Ensor-Estes
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Emily Bernadette Gardner
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Susan Gregory
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Gwendolyn Jackson
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Diana Kramer-Spence
North Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Cynthia Masterson
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Mathew Nguyen
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Kiana Parker
Shoreline Community College
2001 Martin Honors Scholar

Charity Ranger
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mahnoosh Shadbakht
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Johnson Steele
South Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Terrace Strand
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Medina Tadele
North Seattle Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Joao Teodoro Filho
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Luan G. Truong
Seattle Central Community College
2001 Martin Achievement Scholar

Mitchell Gaikowski
North Seattle Community College
2000 Martin Honors Scholar

Dawit (Teklemichael) Gebrekidan
Seattle Central Community College
2000 Martin Honors Scholar

Max Hunter
Seattle Central Community College
2000 Martin Honors Scholar

Michelle Fallon
Everett Community College
1999 Martin Honors Scholar

Jonathan Fay
Seattle Central Community College
1999 Martin Honors Scholar

Cristina Pacheco
Peninsula Community College
1999 Martin Honors Scholar

Angela Lim
North Seattle Community College
1998 Martin Honors Scholar

Chris McGann
North Seattle Community College
1998 Martin Honors Scholar

Kendra McQuiston
Peninsula Community College
1998 Martin Honors Scholar

Jodi Judge
South Puget Sound Community College
1997 Martin Honors Scholar

Ray Robinson
Seattle Central Community College
1997 Martin Honors Scholar