Angel Martinez

Early on, Angel Martinez’s mother instilled in her the value of pursuing higher education. She kept that lesson in mind while excelling in high school and earning a scholarship to attend Arizona State University. 

A conversation with a high school counselor during her sophomore year of college prompted her to change to the human systems engineering program in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, as she was not passionate about the major she initially chose.

“It feels like I was almost destined to take this path,” Martinez says.

She says the most interesting thing about this program is how versatile it is, impacting the medical field, military, government, education, computer design and more. Martinez realized she was on the right track in pursuing engineering when she would talk about it to her friends and family. 

“I was excited to talk about what I was doing and why this type of engineering is important,” she says.

Martinez says she appreciates the meaningful interactions she had with several professors who kept her motivated and interested in continuing her education. She also enjoyed collaborating with her engineering peers in other disciplines. She says she felt she was constantly learning and challenging her creativity by problem-solving alongside people who also want to make a difference. 

One memorable project during her time at ASU was working on a research paper about multitasking with the use of multimedia learning. This was the first time she had done research on her own and struggled with the process. She found the challenge was worth it when she started getting responses from users, which made her feel like she was contributing to something that will help others.

Helping other students make living on campus more enjoyable as a community assistant in the dorms over the summer was another highlight of Martinez’s educational journey. 

“The most rewarding part of the job was getting to interact with and help students who were unsure about navigating through dorm life,” Martinez says. 

After graduation, Martinez continues to heed the words of her mother regarding education by pursuing the Accelerated Master’s degree program in human systems engineering.

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ fall 2024 class here.