In the third episode of the Future College Parent Podcast, I had the honor to speak to Mr. Pedro Martinez, director of Admission at Cal Poly Humboldt. Pedro and I first met for the first time recording this episode. And I have to tell you, this is one of the most genuine humans I’ve met in my higher education career. I was really appreciative of Pedro sharing his narrative of being Hispanic, from a small town and the struggles he faced growing up. He’s proof you can come from anywhere and do anything! During the episode you’ll hear Pedro talk about Humboldt State University becoming a certified Cal Poly institution in the coming months. I’m happy to announce Humboldt State University is now Cal Poly Humboldt. Pedro mentions this designation will immediately change the admissions process but will add some more academic programs to the institution. Congratulations, Cal Poly Humboldt!

Episode Timeline:

[00:56] Introducing Pedro Martinez
[02:19] Pedro’s role in supporting parents and students in getting college and career ready
[04:04] Pedro’s journey from high school to college
[08:18] Cal Poly Humboldt admission requirements and study levels
[15:21] Meeting basic admission requirements is enough to get admitted
[18:58] Questions parents should be asking about Humboldt
[22:08] Pedro’s advice to the secondary education system.
[26:07] Developing a relationship with the administration.
[29:15] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode.

Five things I learned from my talk with Pedro!

1. Cal Poly Humboldt currently admits over 90% of students who apply! Most of these students have met the California Department of Education graduation requirements referred to as the “A-G course list.” Congratulations! Your student CAN attend a public four-year institution! If you’re worried your student won’t exactly meet one or more of the admissions requirements, reach out to admissions counselors at an institution. They are trained to work with you to develop a pathway to admission. Listeners outside of the state of California can check their local school district or state education department website for their state’s graduation and higher education institutional requirements for admission.
2. Check with your local high school administration to see if they have connections with colleges, both local and beyond. If they don’t ask them to help you to make the connection to a school!
3. Applying to a college isn’t just about applying and going. Remember Pedro’s funnel analogy. Starting with good high school preparation and gaining an understanding of your ability and willingness to pay for college, your student can then apply and follow the steps to be proactive and make sure they are on the path from preparation, through admission, to course registration.
4. Ask a potential school where you as a parent fit in. Often we hear in the popular media of overinvolved parents reaking havoc on campuses! This doesn’t have to be the case for you, ask the question about where you can provide support both from afar, and when you visit the campus.
5. Say thank you to your high school faculty, staff, and administrators. They create the environment for your student to be academically and personally successful. We cannot thank them enough for the work they do.

Resources:

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Listen to episodes on: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/
Please share the podcast widely with other parents, leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators so they can share with your school district. You can also let parents know the show is streaming directly from the website and there is no need to download anything! The show is also on your favorite podcast platforms as well.
Lesson Plan & Activity: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the lesson plan and activity for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Parent Action Plan!: Parents can download the action plan document to actively engage with their student, secondary, and post-secondary professionals to help their student prepare, chose and finance college.

Lesson Plan & Worksheet: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the Lesson Plan and Worksheet for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:19
Pedro, welcome to the future college parent podcast and thanks for being here. And helping future college parents and thank you for being one of our first six guests. You our guest number three in our six-episode premiere of the future college parent podcast. Pedro, welcome to the show.

Pedro Martinez 02:12
Hey, it’s great to be here. Thanks for letting me be here and speak to the parents and yourself and answering questions.

Justin Alger 02:17
Absolutely glad that you are here. So, if we could start off, can you please share what your role is and segue into describing in what capacity you support parents and students in getting college and career ready?

Pedro Martinez 02:30
Yeah, I’ve actually been in higher education for 20 plus years, and I have spanned almost every aspect of that career that included. Being an ambassador for a university tour guide, an office assistant with recruitment became you know, as an admissions counselor, and raise the ranks into administration. And now I’m the Director of Admissions at Humboldt State University. But within that duty, not only do I help with the students coming in for various different classes, from graduate programs to undergraduate programs, I also am responsible for enrollment communications, basically the communications that go to all students and parents, as it pertains to what the university is doing. And various topics from admissions to continuing registration to safety updates, a variety of different things that relate to information that gets relayed to families and students themselves. In addition to that, I also run other programs on campus such as Project rebound, which is a special program for those that have a formerly incarcerated background to also other programs that focus on special needs of students and underrepresented student populations. So various things get kind of introduced to me. And I’ve been doing this for several years and focused on trying to support students achieve their dream of academic college success and being able to obtain a degree that allows them to live the dream that they want to live each day. So, I’ve been excited to be here during these 20 years.

Justin Alger 04:05
If you could tell me a little bit about your journey from high school to college, what do you think informed the path that you’re on now?

Pedro Martinez 04:14
I’m born and raised in California. So, I came from a small farming community outside of Fresno, California, that town being Parlier, California, which was a small, small community. We had a very small graduating class and during that time in my journey, college was different for us. You know, we lived in a farm labor community we saw so many students go through the journey and try to find opportunities. I had a special journey in junior high where there was a moment in my career that some people that I looked up to, didn’t necessarily see that opportunity for me in this type of position. They would never have seen me as a Director of Admissions. They never saw me in that awkward because of, you know, my background, being Hispanic and being in small town, and at that moment that kind of shattered my dreams at the moment, and I, you know, spoke to my family and kind of looked at it, my dad was all about education, my mom was one about just achieving your dreams. And at that moment, looking at that, it really drove me through my high school years to do that. And I had, I had a moment there. And I shared this with a lot of students, a lot of families, I found college through pizza. Pizza has always been my big thing. And I’ve shared it so many times with people. Because I sat there as a kid, enjoying pizza, and really thought about the college journey. And the college journey centered around, there’s so many colleges I looked at, at different name brand, pizza, companies, pizza A, pizza B, pizza C you know, all they all created pizza, they all looked almost the same, but they all tasted different. And it really hit me at th...