USD Magazine, Fall 2004

Just Three Questions: Q: What is your dream of happiness? A: To change the world.

Hometown: Tucson, Ariz.

Q: What is your favorite television show? A: "Smallville," because I really relate to superheroes and Superman is the superhero I want to be the most. Q: What is your present state of mind? A: Determined. M arco Martinez was heading back to his dorm room after his first college class - calculus, for . . t~ose keeping track at home - when we shang– haied him mto dropping everything and becoming one of our five freshmen. (Another student unexpectedly had to drop out of the project at the last minute.) "Sure, why not? I wasn't doing anything right now," he says with a sleepy smile, "except maybe to head back to my room and take a nap." Forgoing that simple pleasure for at least a few hours, Maninez was game to talk about his life and how he came to USO. "I didn't know anyone when I got here," he says. "But I met a lot of people at orientation, and I sure do now." It's been less than a week since he arrived in San Diego from Tucson, Ariz., where he went to high school. He insists that playing sports is his guilty pleasure, even though most of us would consider that panicular obsession a virtue. "For me, sports are a recharge. I play a lot of basketball and volleyball, but it's soccer and tennis that I love the most," he says. "Sports are a way of motivating me to work harder on the things that really matter." Maninez grew up in Nogales, Mexico, a town across the border and about an hour away from Tucson. His father owns a chain of grocery stores, and Maninez worked in them from the time he was 4 until he went to Tucson, where he lived with an older cousin while he went to high school. In high school, Martinez swam and played tennis, soccer and football. He also was involved in Kairos, an annual spiritual retreat held at his school. Though he'd only been on campus once before, he's sure that USO is the right choice for him. An older cousin graduated last year with a degree in international relations. That success, at least in part, led Marco to follow in his footsteps. And now he's the one who's inspiring the younger set. "All my brothers and sisters want to come here now," he laughs. "We'll see."

(via Nogales, Mexico) .

Siblings: Two brothers and two sisters.

Pet: A dog named Dino.

Major: Business.

Residence hall:

Maher Hall.

Fall courses:

Intro ro Micro Economics,

Calculus I, French II, Intro ro

Anthropology, World History,

Advanced Salsa.

Guilty pleasures:

Tennis and soccer.

Can't live without:

"My religion. I'm a strong

Catholic, and it's a big part

of who I am."

One-liner: "Dream

like you'll live forever and

live like you'll die roday."

Say what?

"I saw that on a James

Dean poster, and this

year wrote it all over

my notebooks as a constant reminder. "

36

USD MAGAZINE