Lilliam Martinez was a junior in high school when she was called into the guidance counselor’s office and informed that she was now old enough to drop out of school. “I remember thinking, ‘I must be really stupid if she is suggesting that I do this,’” says Martinez. “I wasn’t a troublemaker or a slacker. I was just a kid who hadn’t connected the dots to studying and doing well.” She also had been working to help her mother since the age of 11 and had little time to devote to schoolwork. Nevertheless, at the insistence of friends, she remained in high school and graduated.

Working three jobs after high school, Martinez says it took all the courage she could summon to walk through the doors of Capital Community College in Hartford, CT. “I was scared to death,” she recalls, but it forever changed her life. “Suddenly, I was provided with not only the resources to continue my education, but also the encouragement that I was capable of more.”

At first, Martinez had vague plans to complete an associate degree and return to her job as an assistant manager at a retail clothing store in Hartford, and then possibly work toward becoming district manager. However, the support and encouragement she received at Capital propelled her to envision more and to do more. After graduating in 1991 with an associate degree in liberal arts, she transferred to Smith College, earning a bachelor’s in 1994, and then in 1996, earning a master’s in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut. She now is back at Capital Community College as an associate professor of psychology.

“Each and every day I strive to ignite the education-ambition fire in my students,” says Martinez. “That power was given to me and changed my life. I want the same for them.”