Leyla Martinez is a junior at Hunter College pursuing a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology, with a minor in Economics.  Through the Roosevelt Public Policy Institute Leyla is also pursuing a certificate in Public Policy.

Leyla began participating in her community church as a young teenager, under the supervision of Father Ross at St Margaret Mary’s in the Bronx.  She instructed first communion classes, helped organize fund raising events and other church activities.  During the devastating events of hurricane Gustav Ms. Martinez helped organize a clothing/food drive in her community to help the people affected in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. 

As a student, Leyla is involved in her campus community by performing outreach in order to unite students to grassroots organizations. She is currently an intern with the Welfare Rights Initiative, where she advocates on behalf of students from NYC who receive public assistance, so they could continue pursuing their education.  Leyla has also done volunteer work for the Correctional Association of New York, which is an independent non-profit organization that advocates for a more humane and effective criminal justice system.  Ms. Martinez strongly promotes access to education for everyone, the poor, the young, the old, the disabled, the formerly incarcerated and even those who are currently incarcerated.  She thinks no one should be denied the possibility to change their lives, and that education is the route, a stepping-stone to life-changing opportunities out of poverty and towards the American Dream.

Ms. Martinez journey has been long and there have been a few bumps on the road, nonetheless she has not given up and is determined to continue pursuing a higher education.  Once she graduates from Hunter in the spring of 2016, she willcontinue her pursuit of a higher education towards a Master’s Degree.  She hopes that her education will properly prepare her to make changes to current policies in place that hinder the possibilities of the underrepresented, she hopes to advocate on behalf of those which she identifies with; minorities, women, the poor, immigrants, the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated.