Success Stories

Finishing a Bachelor's Degree
Proves Transformative

John Martinez looks back to the day the pink slip arrived and calls it a blessing. But it sure didn't feel that way at the time, not with an infant son at home and a wife who had quit her job when the baby was born.

Rather than fret about the future, Martinez saw it as an opportunity to shift direction in his career. He had tried college before, first at Kansas State University, then later at KU in Lawrence. Neither worked out, for a variety of reasons.

"Mostly I was just young and unfocused, with no real idea of what I wanted to do," he says. "When I met my girlfriend (now wife), I started to figure things out a little."

Martinez did find a good job in customer service for a large area employer. Over the next 10 years, he developed quite a track record in the organization — all without returning to college.

"I was learning a lot, earning a lot and developing skills in a lot of areas, but I always thought about what I could do with a degree, or if my value would be the same outside the company I worked for," he says. That's when he decided to finish what he'd started years ago.

After earning his bachelor's degree in Public Administration from the KU Edwards Campus, Martinez was able to land the nonprofit management position he had always strived for. He is now director of Sponsor Services for Children International.

"It's awesome," Martinez says of his new career. "I was nervous and scared when I was laid off, but I put myself out there and figured out what my real passions are, what I bring to the table. My degree helped me find a place to put them to work."