Maria Martinez stands in front of the castle at Disney World.
Martinez enjoying the magic of Walt Disney World. Photo courtesy of Maria Martinez.

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the journeys of alumni on the path to making a profound difference in the world. 

As part of a series of profiles, CSUN Newsroom spoke with Maria Martinez ’22 (Computer Science), a software engineer with The Walt Disney Company. Martinez, who uses she/her and they/them pronouns, reflected on their time at CSUN and how it set them on their career path. 

When Maria Martinez graduated just two years ago, they were already working at The Walt Disney Company, where they’d been offered full-time employment following completion of their internship program. Martinez works on the cloud governance team, making sure users at the media giant follow the proper policies and procedures for each cloud account. 

“My focus is is the UI (user interface),” they said. “No one likes to conduct surveys, but I don’t mind it, I like to get feedback from our users.” 

Martinez is now also pursuing an MBA at Cal Poly Pomona. They are continuing their work with the program they created to teach formerly incarcerated people how to code. Martinez teaches classes with a partner through Homeboy Industries, the Los Angeles-based effort that helps formerly incarcerated people toward successful re-entry and independence. A focus of Martinez’s studies is to expand the program beyond Los Angeles. 

“This year, we took a break to redesign our curriculum. The majority of people were there for the digital literacy skills portion [of the classes.]” Martinez said. “The students learned to code a little, but they weren’t really interested in that,” Martinez explained. “This next cohort, next year, is going to have digital literacy skills, critical thinking skills and then an introduction to coding. We’re going to break it into three pillars,” they said. 

Martinez was part of CSUN’s Project Rebound program that supports students who were formerly incarcerated. Martinez says its executive director, Martha Escobar, who is also a professor of Chicana/o Studies, is a role model for her. 

“She really cares about the community, our ideas… She’s always in my corner pushing me to do more.” Martinez said. 

Martinez plans to graduate from her MBA program in fall, 2025. They’re already talking about pursuing a Ph.D. in education to hone their teaching skills. Martinez, who is Mexican-American, said they’ve seen how important it is to have mentors. 

“Just seeing representation in the tech space, that could motivate others…. At first, I was scared of it [being a mentor] but now I enjoy it.” 

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