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Gianna Martinez

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Bio

I am extremely hard-working and family-oriented. My family is everything to me. I want to make them proud by being the first person to go to college and graduate with a degree. I am passionate about soccer. I have been playing soccer since I was six years old. I became a soccer referee when I was thirteen years old because I wanted to better understand the sport I love. I started coaching when I was 14 because I wanted to share my love for soccer with others. I attend Texas Tech University and double major in Management and Sport Management and minor in Spanish and General Business. Once I graduate college, I want to open a sport facility centered around soccer. I want to be able to help train and develop players to the best of their ability on and off the pitch. I also want to help referees learn how to better officiate games and maximize their knowledge and skills. I want to help coaches learn how to bring out the best in their players and help them understand the game from an official view.

Education

Texas Tech University

Bachelor's degree program
2022 - 2026
  • Majors:
    • Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness
  • Minors:
    • Business/Commerce, General

Texas Tech University

Bachelor's degree program
2022 - 2026
  • Majors:
    • Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other
  • Minors:
    • Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Other

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Bachelor's degree program

  • Graduate schools of interest:

  • Transfer schools of interest:

  • Majors of interest:

    • Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
    • Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness
  • Not planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Sports Management

    • Dream career goals:

      Company Founder

    • Referee

      United States Soccer Federation
      2017 – Present7 years
    • Babysitter

      Babysitter
      2018 – Present6 years
    • Pizza Maker (Insider)

      Marco's Pizza
      2020 – Present4 years

    Sports

    Soccer

    Varsity
    2021 – 20221 year

    Soccer

    Junior Varsity
    2018 – 20213 years

    Public services

    • Volunteering

      Midlothian ISD - Technology Services — Helped prepare for device exchange and warehouse clean up
      2021 – 2021

    Future Interests

    Volunteering

    Entrepreneurship

    Students Impacted by Incarceration Scholarship
    I come from a single-parent household. My mom raised my sister and me by herself. My father has never been actively involved in our lives. We would see him sometimes at our grandparents, his parents, on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Most of my childhood memories of him revolve around him being in and out of prison. I grew up in a small and well-off town, and a majority of the peers I went to school had both their parents actively involved in their lives. I remember being in elementary school and seeing all the other little girls attending Daddy-Daughter dances with their fathers while my sister and I attended with our grandpa, our mom's father, or our uncle, our mom's brother. I would get questions from other students about who or where my father was, and I would tell them I do not have a father because it was easier to say that than to explain what being incarcerated was. Incarceration has left me without a permanent father figure in my life. However, something I have learned from the experience is other people's past does not define me. Just because my father has been in and out of prison does not mean I will follow along the same road. I can already say I have achieved far more than what I ever thought I was capable of doing due to my family's past. I have always been academically ambitious. I suppose my academic and career goals have always been more extravagant because I have always felt the need to prove to myself and my family that my father's past and continuous actions do not define me. My biggest goal in life is to make life comfortable for my mom because she has always done whatever she could to provide for us and make us feel like we were not missing out on anything in life. She did and continues to do her best to raise two girls into strong, independent women. I made it my goal to graduate in the top 5% of my class, which I can say I did. I made it my goal to attend college, and I can say I am a first-generation college student now at Texas Tech University. Now, I am well on my way to building a comfortable life for my mom and all the people who have helped me grow into the person I am today. Yes, incarceration has made me feel left out in some aspects of life. However, it is not an excuse I use to limit myself. Instead, I let my family's history of incarceration drive me to build a better future for myself and my future family.