{"id":67319,"date":"2006-09-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/noaa-oceanographer-at-uri-overcame-childhood-obstacles-to-explore-the-seas\/"},"modified":"2006-09-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-11T00:00:00","slug":"noaa-oceanographer-at-uri-overcame-childhood-obstacles-to-explore-the-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2006\/09\/noaa-oceanographer-at-uri-overcame-childhood-obstacles-to-explore-the-seas\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA oceanographer at 溏心vlog免费B站 overcame childhood obstacles to explore the seas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tProvidence native\u2019s journey took her from inner city to ocean bottom<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 11, 2006 — For Providence native Catalina Martinez, traveling to the seafloor in the Alvin submersible had been a dream she had imagined for years. When the opportunity finally arose to ride in the mini-submarine while working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during a research expedition in the Gulf of Alaska, the experience was even better than she imagined.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt was wet and cold and exciting, and what I remember most was the pinging sound of the sonars and all the weird and wonderful creatures scuttling away from the sub as we landed,\u201d said the Wakefield resident.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe Gulf of Alaska is a long way from the neighborhood around the Chad Brown housing project in Providence where Martinez grew up. She said the inner city creates plenty of obstacles to success, but she overcame those obstacles through tremendous personal determination.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe puts that determination to work every day now as expedition coordinator for NOAA\u2019s Office of Ocean Exploration. Based at the 溏心vlog免费B站, Martinez serves as a liaison between NOAA, 溏心vlog免费B站 and the Institute for Exploration and is responsible for ensuring the success of several NOAA-funded oceanographic research expeditions each year. Her work includes assisting scientists with cruise preparation, mobilizing the necessary equipment aboard research ships, and the development of outreach and education plans.<\/p>\n


\n\tMost years Martinez spends long periods at sea managing the complex needs of a scientific research expedition. One of her favorite cruises was to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 2002 where she worked with a team of scientists to develop maps of the seafloor within the newly dedicated marine national monument. \u201cIt\u2019s such an incredible place, very secluded from civilization, and it has such wonderful history,\u201d Martinez explained. \u201cWe were on a brand new high-tech ship, and the whole experience was fascinating and new.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tMartinez didn\u2019t take the typical route to a career in oceanography. She dropped out of Mount Pleasant High School in Providence at age 16 and moved into her own apartment, supporting herself with whatever jobs she could find, including a stint as a lighting consultant. Along the way she earned her high school equivalency diploma, and later, a two-year medical assistant\u2019s degree from New England Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n


\n\tShe then worked as the personal assistant to school reformer Rob DeBlois and helped him launch the Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program, a Providence school for at-risk youth that has been called a national model for dropout prevention. After five years at UCAP while taking evening courses at almost every college in Rhode Island, she saved up enough money to leave her job and attend 溏心vlog免费B站 full-time.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut even then, Martinez struggled. She had a lot of catching up to do academically, and to make ends meet she worked as the overnight resident at a shelter for women and children who were victims of abuse, which provided her with room and board.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t care if what I studied wasn\u2019t practical,\u201d she said of her course of study in zoology. \u201cI studied what I was interested in, and I was determined to do the hardest science program possible. That meant I virtually lived in the tutor\u2019s office, and I needed a lot of help with math especially. But in the end, math was my best subject.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAfter completing her bachelor\u2019s degree at 溏心vlog免费B站, she kept on going for four more years until she earned two masters\u2019 degrees at the University \u2013 one in oceanography and the other in marine affairs. She followed that up with a fellowship to NOAA in 2002, where she has worked ever since.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWhen you walk into an academic setting with the background I had growing up, you are at an immediate disadvantage on every level,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cA background like mine can be viewed as a weakness academically and professionally, so I didn\u2019t talk about it for a long time. Now I embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tShe embraces her background in part by maintaining her relationship with the UCAP school and developing opportunities for minority students to experience scientific research. Martinez shares the excitement of exploring the oceans by regularly visiting schools and camps to talk about oceanography, setting up conference calls between scientists at sea and inner city classrooms, and helping students follow research expeditions online, thereby opening doors that might otherwise have remained closed.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMinority students in urban public schools tend not to choose math or science as career paths in college mainly because we have had little exposure and preparation, and also because we have not been encouraged to pursue these fields,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cA little exposure, encouragement and preparation goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHer efforts are paying off. Aboard the research vessel Atlantis in the Gulf of Alaska in 2004, she was introduced to the ship\u2019s newest deckhand, Patrick Neumann, who turned out to be a former UCAP student.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt was a great moment for both of us,\u201d Martinez recalled. \u201cTo be out there in the ocean and have this connection, knowing we were from the same place and had similar backgrounds, was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nCatalina Martinez holds part of a carbonate chimney collected with the

\nremotely operated vehicle Hercules (in background) during the Lost City

\nHydrothermal Vent expedition in 2005<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Providence native\u2019s journey took her from inner city to ocean bottom KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 September 11, 2006 — For Providence native Catalina Martinez, traveling to the seafloor in the Alvin submersible had been a dream she had imagined for years. When the opportunity finally arose to ride in the mini-submarine while working for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}