Kevin Martinez Flores

“Seattle Promise gave me a second chance.”

Seattle Promise Alumnus
Associate in Business Graduate, North Seattle College
Ingraham High School Graduate

ABOUT KEVIN

Attaining a bachelor’s degree was always Kevin Martinez’s goal. It fulfilled his late-grandmother’s wish for him, honored his parents’ sacrifice in emigrating, and embodied his determination to keep moving forward. The path to get there, however, was one shrouded in uncertainty and adversity.

Martinez Flores’ biggest concern for college came in the form of financial hardship. His parents are immigrants originally from El Salvador, who faced the difficult decision of relocating from all they’ve ever known to provide a better life for their children. If college was ever going to be an option for him, it couldn’t come at the cost of supporting his family financially at the same time. Pursuing his associate degree at North Seattle College and coming out debt-free was an invaluable opportunity because every dollar spent on his education was another dollar that could help his loved ones.

But even without the burden of tuition, Martinez Flores still found himself with his back against the wall. Time and again, he found himself in a tug-of-war between providing for his parents and siblings and having enough time to focus on his studies. Add in uncertainty with his chosen major and the global pandemic that everyone else was grappling with, it’s no surprise that he was on the verge of dropping out of school.

At his wits’ end, Kevin recalled the numerous emails he received from his assigned retention specialist through Seattle Promise. He had no one else to talk to about this issue because of the isolation from the pandemic, so he reached out to see what resources were available to amend his situation. After consulting with his retention specialist, he had Seattle Promise’s full-time enrollment requirement waived for extenuating circumstances.

Martinez Flores’ road from there wasn’t necessarily an easy one, but Seattle Promise’s flexibility granted him breathing room to focus on his studies, which included a major switch from bioengineering to business with a supply chain management emphasis. He even became a peer mentor for the Seattle Promise program, serving as a relatable bridge between student and retention specialist.

After receiving his associate degree at North Seattle College in business in 2023, Kevin seamlessly transferred to the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business where he went on to receive the Albert V. Rossi Scholarship and the David and Robin Nelson Endowed Scholarship for Business. In just two more years, his dream was attained when he completed his Bachelor of Business Administration degree to go along with a budding career where he works as an operations procurement agent for Boeing.

IN THEIR WORDS

On his uncertainty toward college:

“I knew for a fact that I wanted to pursue higher education. That was certainly the goal on my mind. The real trouble was what exactly I wanted to pursue in. I knew from the start that I wanted to have a plan moving forward, even if I didn’t know what that direction or what that path would’ve looked like.”

“There were also a lot of barriers that I was going through at that time, and I still continue to go through it. Mainly it’s financial hardships with my family and I. I have to look after them as well, so [I have] to prioritize or really balance between economically supporting my family, while also moving forward academically and professionally as well. It’s a challenging environment to grow up in.”

On reaching out for help:

“I started community college in the pandemic, so already I couldn’t communicate face-to-face with many people. Because I constantly saw these email update reminders from my retention specialist, I figured, ‘Hey, what can it hurt? Maybe this resource could actually be of use to me.’ I figured because they were the only option I had available to me at the time that I have to communicate what I’m going through. Perhaps they can guide me to a different person, specialist, or program to assist those needs.”

“What ended up happening by me choosing to go this route, yes, I did graduate a year later than I intended to, but it gave me much needed time to think about not only what I wanted to focus on professionally, but also that ample time to support my family as well. That was the balance I needed personally to be able to move forward, no matter how that progress looked like or how long it would take.”

On becoming a peer mentor:

“I recalled several times during my academic journey where I wanted to drop out and I didn’t want to pursue higher education anymore. Topple that with other responsibilities you have to your family and to your friends and the people you care about, it’s very challenging to have to navigate that whole process.”

“That’s really when that idea of community started to really dive deep into my head. It was because of that hardship and those struggles that I dealt with in my first quarter. That’s when I wanted to build community centered around helping those people, and that’s what really kickstarted my mentorship role as a Seattle Promise mentor for the North Seattle College campus.”

On Seattle Promise’s impact:

“Even if you’re not directly related to the Seattle Promise program in any way or form, I would say there’s still a good reason to care about it. You may not see it directly, but I’m thinking more of a long-term solution. Thinking back to the many struggles that my family have gone through in El Salvaldor, they have gone through a civil war at one point during our time, it was a 10-year long civil war so a lot of tragedies happened during that time span; a lot of hardships, a lot of suffering. What I learned from the stories that they shared with me is that the importance of higher education could not be understated more.”

“Once you have a more educated society, or more people willing to look after their communities or they’re willing to make some sort of change, what ends up happening is that those spaces you live in end up becoming a lot safer. Now you know that you can trust your neighbors, your friends and the fact that they want to make some sort of change. The last thing they’ll want to do is hurt you in any way.”

“I think Seattle Promise is there to remind us all that no matter where you are in life, we can guarantee you a chance to move forward. For me, that was having to change from bioengineering and thinking that it’s all over and that I was going to drop out, to my retention specialist reminding me that maybe studying part time instead is the path to keep moving forward. I think Seattle Promise does a really, really good job in reminding its students to take as long of time as you need, but what we want you to be sure of is that you’re confident in yourself.”

On receiving an education and what it means for his family:

“I know currently now that I’m getting calls from my aunts and my uncles about how proud they are and how they can’t wait to see me with that paper on hand and so we can take pictures together. I feel that something that I tend to overlook a lot is that a lot of the values that I uphold are the values they share as well. The fact that I was able to share those values with the community around North Seattle College and at the University of Washington, it not only allows me to remember those memories, but it also lets me carry on their legacy and the values that they carry as well.”