Daniela Cristina Martinez

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“I am pursuing a career that will allow me to improve the living conditions of people in Ecuador and reduce the immense gap that exists between the poor and the rich in the developing world.”

  • Program: 2009 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Baltimore, MD
  • Hometown: Quito, Ecuador
  • Age: 24

Biography

PROFILE: Daniela Martinez is on a mission to address some alarming statistics from the World Health Organization which show that over two million people die each year from diseases associated with poor water and sanitary conditions. “To me the statistics are frightening and the numbers are more than numbers. To me, these numbers have names, have dreams and have faces.” She has seen some of those faces in her native Ecuador. To eradicate those worrisome statistics Daniela will be continuing at Johns Hopkins University to earn an advanced degree in environmental engineering and bring that knowledge to the country her family emigrated from when she was in her late-teens. Her Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship has allowed Daniela to participate in research projects and internships both in Baltimore and elsewhere, and she has even had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador with an organization called Engineers Without Borders. Someday soon, she says, she will be able to use her engineering knowledge and skills to help others.

 INSPIRATION: Both of Daniela’s parents have instilled in her a passion for two things: learning and helping. “They have inspired me to seek the truth and to use knowledge as a tool to help improve the lives of other people.”
 
ASPIRATION: She wants to be a “change maker” and help to solve the myriad social problems she left behind in her native Ecuador.
 
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Since fall 2006, Daniela has been actively involved with Engineers Without Borders, a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing countries worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. She co-founded a EWB-JHU project in Ecuador and has served as project coordinator and community relations head.
 
ACCOLADES: Daniela is the recipient of the Washington Center Diversity Leaders Award and was awarded a Granville T. Woods Scholarship.
 
INTERESTING FACT: As part of a geomorphology research project, she worked with a team that measured the diameters of tens of thousands of river rocks.

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