Being open to new experiences, and the guidance of a trusted mentor, changed the trajectory of Danielle Martinez’s career path. In her role as the director of student retention in Academic Support and Retention, Martinez uses her experiences to build trust, mentor others and champion wellbeing. Martinez shares, “Education is a gateway to create change. Whether that's in your community or industry; to become a lifelong learner; to educate oneself on social, political, and interpersonal issues going on, (education) creates a different trajectory for our communities. It is important for me to support folks who may not have access to higher education or experience challenges while in college.” (lower)
Martinez’s background is in student success programming. Focusing on student learning and equity issues. She started as a residence hall director at the University of San Francisco and transitioned into academic coaching. Then she grew into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)programming, specifically looking at how to support the learning and development of underrepresented populations, students of color, first generation college students, LGBT students, and veterans. When Martinez moved to Iowa, she joined the Center for Inclusive Academic Excellence (CIAE) in a temporary role and later joined the Academic Support and Retention office. Over the past 9 years, she has worked her way up to becoming the director of student retention. That pathway may sound straight forward, but Martinez shares that when she started her undergraduate degree, she didn’t have a strong understanding of all the career options available to her. She focused on communications and marketing because she knew what she didn’t want to be – a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher.
When taking part in a DEI event with an outside consultant, it was that consultant that recommended she consider a graduate degree in student affairs. “I didn’t even know what that was”. Martinez went back to her mentor, Dr. Leslie Webb, then director of the Diversity Education Center, and shared what she learned. It just so happened Webb’s degree was in student affairs, and she encouraged Martinez to consider it.
Now Martinez gets to live out her passions by developing deep and meaningful relationships with students at all levels and influencing systematic change across campus. Martinez’s job positions her to be an advocate for students. She gets the opportunity to balance one-on-one individual support with making an impact on larger systemic issues that affect our student body.
When asked about the changes her team has collaborated on at the University of Iowa, Martinez shares three examples:
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The First Gen Hawks program, started in 2020, to help lessen the gap between retention and graduation rates in 1st generation students vs continuing generation students. The program systematically bundles services that are known to be good for students. This includes academic coaching, peer mentoring, experiential learning, and on campus employment. Part of the goal is to have one place where these support networks are accessible to lessen life stresses and decode the institution in a way that makes sense.
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Excelling@Iowa, launched in 2016, is a systematic way that campus members can let the appropriate people know they are concerned about a student. Then somebody is going to check in with that student. That referral system creates a network that is upheld by formalized policies and procedures.
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Student Retention practices like raising the student U-bill cap from $100 to $500. The previous cap was put in place many years ago and $100 no longer stretches as far as it once did. The stress induced from the previous cap was impacting student retention and their ability to come back. By raising it we were able to increase on time registration for thousands of students.