Daniel Martin headed off to Sacramento State University after graduating from North
Salinas High School in 2014, but he discovered that a community college was his best
path to a career as a registered nurse.
Not only is the coursework equally challenging, he said, it also is much less expensive.
That realization brought Martin to Hartnell College in August 2018, and now he will graduate on May 29 with the Class of 2020 before continuing on to Cal State Monterey Bay to complete his baccalaureate nursing degree, or BSN.
Martin also happens to be the son of a pediatric nurse in Monterey County, Angelica Salas. He said she was a teen mom who spent eight years seeking to fulfill her own goal of a nursing career. His father is Oscar Martin, a UPS driver, and his sister, Destiny Martin, is also a Hartnell student.
Experience with bullying in high school taught him the value of caring for others, he said, and inspired him to make that his life’s work as a health care professional.
“Being bullied kind of opened my eyes and made me more compassion and aware of others’ feelings,” Martin said, “and seeing that I can be there to help people in their worst possible state.”
He is grateful for a Hartnell-CSUMB concurrent enrollment partnership that will allow him to complete his bachelor’s degree by spring 2020. He will continue with classes this summer and throughout the coming academic year.
Martin will also build on the clinical experiences he has had through the Hartnell nursing program. He and fellow students have worked beside professionals in a variety of assignments at Natividad Medical Center and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital (SVMH), as well as at skilled nursing facilities operated by Windsor Healthcare.
“Clinical experience is great, and we have great clinical instructors who are always there for us,” he said.
This spring, he and other Hartnell nursing students were working at SVMH while the hospital adjusted to care for COVID-19 patients and sought to protect other patients, employees and visitors from the coronavirus.
“It is an unusual time right now, but there have also been other illnesses and diseases and infections in the past that nurses had to be in the front lines for,” Martin said. “You have to be willing to accept that and figure out ways to protect yourself – and do the best you can of being a good role model.”
As someone who values attaining mastery through repetition more than taking on multiple responsibilities, he said he envisions himself working as a surgical nurse in the future.
He would like to stay and work in the Salinas area if possible.
“I’m kind of realizing there was a purpose for me to be here,” Martin said.