Outstanding Senior Q&A: Jennifer Martinez

Friday, February 28, 2025

Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | hallie.hart@okstate.edu

Growing up in a college town, Jennifer Martinez met people from around the world and wondered what it was like to live far from home.

Although she decided to stay in Stillwater and attend Oklahoma State University, she also spent months traveling the globe.

Martinez, a management information systems student, participated in the spring 2024 Semester at Sea study abroad program, taking classes on a ship and making international stops along the way. It was one of many ways Martinez made the best of her college experience, saying yes to most leadership opportunities she could fit into her schedule. 

With academic excellence and campus involvement, Martinez distinguished herself as one of 25 Outstanding Seniors named by the OSU Alumni Association for the 2024-25 academic year. 

Martinez, who is graduating in May, is also obtaining a minor in law and legal studies.

The Spears School of Business talked to Martinez about the highlights of her OSU experience. 

Why did you decide to study MIS? 

In high school, I was taking computer classes. They called it College Applications, and then I took a beginner-level computer language HTML course. I really enjoyed messing with computers, programming languages, and I also liked the legal perspective of it. I asked one of my high school teachers, “What major do you recommend?” He said, “If you really like it, but you still want to talk to people and have opportunities to go global, move around, but work heavily with technology, look into management information systems,” so I did.

How do MIS and law and legal studies complement each other? 

I was always interested in how technology has an ethical side to it, especially as it’s growing. What I want to do ultimately is work in that niche field, but it’s growing, so it’s something that I could pave. I knew I wanted to work with technology and technical skills — there’s also legal technical skills — and put it together and talk about the ethics side.

What professors or classes at Spears have been most impactful to your journey? 

Spears offers a lot of beneficial programs, organizations and classes. Andy Urich’s class really developed a lot of my personal skills, and it opened up my eyes to the different ways people think because it was such a collaborative space, even though it was a 200-seat classroom. I also want to thank Brandon Wulz’s class. He really sets us up with how to do elevator speeches and interviews because that’s what propels you in your career. 

I’m currently in Digital Forensics and Incident Response with Chris Pogue, so I haven’t finished it, but every single week, we’re talking to professionals in different fields. That one focuses a little bit more on that ethics side that I’m interested in, so I love it, and I’m learning a lot.

What did Semester at Sea involve? 

It's through Colorado State University. I flew out to Thailand, got on the ship in Thailand, and then sailed to Malaysia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, Portugal and Germany. While we were on the ship, it was school, even if it was a Saturday or Sunday. Then, when we got in port, we were kind of allowed to do whatever we wanted to sightsee, but we were still taking pictures for our projects we had for school.

It’s an old German cruise line ship, so it was a cruise-ship style with dining halls and a pool, but I tell everyone it wasn’t big. I could stand from one end of the ship and see the other end straight through.

Did you have a different perspective when you came back? 

It did change the way I interact with the world. I realized there are so many global issues, and there are so many global perspectives, and then coming back, I feel like I can be more personable. I can understand a little bit more about how the world is functioning outside of Stillwater, Oklahoma. But I think I was also well-prepared because of some of the classes and information that I had here.

What are some of the ways you’ve been involved on campus in Stillwater? 

I’m a first-generation student, so I really got plugged into F1RST2GO. I also was involved in Freshman Representative Council, which is a Student Government Association branch, and that propelled me into being involved with SGA Executive Cabinet for two years afterwards, my sophomore and junior year. I was the It’s On Us director. That focuses on sexual assault and harassment awareness on campuses. Within Spears, I’ve been involved with Women in Technology, and that helped me a lot to work on my technical skills and hear from women who are in the field.

What is your next step after college? 

I accepted a job with Bell Flight. Global Trade Compliance Analyst is my title, and eventually, I would love to go to law school as well.

What advice would you give to incoming Spears students? 

I would tell them to say yes. Now, being in my senior year, I wish I would have maybe said yes to more, even if I didn’t enjoy it, because I hear from people, “Do it, because then you at least find out what you don’t like.” I would just tell them to say yes to every opportunity because it will probably push you to the next place you’re wanting to be.