By JUSTINA TORRES
Contributing Writer
Technology may have replaced books for many people today, but not for sophomore Bianca Martinez, who still reads physical books on a day to day basis. Students within the marketing major may know her from class. Other students may recognize her face in Starbucks where she often purchases a pumpkin spice latte before dashing to class. Outside of campus, she is known for working at Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza as a cashier, shelf arranger, and event organizer.
As a first generation college student, she was unclear on what path to decide when choosing a school.
“I wasn’t planning to come here. It was a last decision and I wasn’t thinking about Saint Rose,” said Martinez.
One day she attended Saint Rose for a tour and ran into Ken Scott, Community Service Director. He spoke about the Urban Launch Program— an experience for first-year students to focus on community service with others that are equally as passionate to become leaders and face real-world issues impacting the campus. Martinez was thrilled by the idea of doing three days straight of community service, and it made her want to spend the next four years completing a degree at Saint Rose.
Books are a staple of Martinez’s life. As a young girl, she read “Esperanza Rising” at the Catskill Public Library in her hometown, and now she reads a variety of genres in the Albany area. Growing up, Martinez was always surrounded by books and knew to take advantage of it. Her parents were born and raised in El Salvador, and many of her family members that currently live there cannot read. Martinez was born in the United States just a year after her parents came here. She knew wherever life may take her, books must be included in the picture. It led her to the college’s HireStrose website to pursue a work position at the local book store to work on eliminating the negative stereotypes for kids that books are for nerds and encourage them to see that reading is fun. She works at all sections at the book house, not just the kid section. Martinez emphasizes that there are more to books than what meets the eye.
“Books bring a lot of people together. If you have a favorite song, it shows something about you, or if you have a favorite food, it shows something about you. And for me it’s books,” said Martinez. Ironically, she couldn’t come up with a favorite book.
Born about an hour away from Saint Rose in Kingston, New York, Martinez moved around New York to Saugerties until eventually being raised in the town of Catskill. Martinez often found herself working for Sue Ray, the director at her hometown’s library.
“Bianca is/was one of my best workers. The best thing I can say about her is that she is always happy and smiley. The most memorable memory of Bianca? When she says hello or good morning, she sings it. Priceless!” said Ray.
From Middle School to Catskills High School, she was involved with Family Career and Community Leaders for six years. It’s a club based on community service and her school’s home/careers class. Before Family Career and Community Leaders, she was more introverted and often sat in the back of the classroom just doing what she was told.
Martinez said, “it really took me out of my comfort zone, but I realized public speaking was a really big skill I had. I developed more throughout high school, and it got me to pursue my leadership skills and realize my own strengths and talents.”
In addition, she was involved for two years in her high school’s drama club productions.
A friend of hers, student Lily Brennan, said “Bianca is one of the most selfless people I know. She puts others before herself always and takes joy in helping those in need. She’s a sensitive soul at heart and I think that’s why she always tries her best to make the people around her happy.”
Brennan and Martinez met through the Tinder app and hit it off from there seeing that they both attended Saint Rose.
To Martinez, the future is bright. She knows her passion is to continue to be around books, although, another discovered passion of hers is through the world of business. She dreams about opening her own book house to share with her community.
