An interview with UCSF Office of Sustainability intern, Dulce Martinez.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? Where do you go to school?
I was born and raised in San Francisco, but specifically in the Mission District. I went to elementary school there and middle school there. And then right after, around my eighth-grade year, we moved to Daly City, and I finished my eighth-grade year there in the city.
Then I got accepted to Mercy High School, which is really different from my last experience. Burlingame was very different for me.
I decided that I just wanted to try an all-girls education, which is probably one of the best things that I've ever done in my life.
What is it about being in an all-girls school that has that impact on you?
It really increased my confidence and my ability to work with like other people.
There’s no judgment; there's a real sisterhood, which is something I never experienced because I don't even have a sister. I'm the oldest, and I only have and have three younger brothers. So, I was really looking for that type of relationship with girls my age and I truly believe that I found that at Mercy.
What does sustainability mean to you?
I would say it means to not just take care of, like the environment, but also take care of people.
Taking care of the environment has so many benefits that it's in the same field as health care. If you take care of the environment, it will take care of people, like those who will be healthier, who would like to strive to be stronger health-wise, both mentally and physically.
If you take care of the environment, it will take care of people.
Tell me a little bit about how you heard of this opportunity to do this internship and what made you interested in it?
My scholarship program, Achieve, actually recommended me to intern here because they know how much I like gardening or just taking care of our environment. My freshman year, I actually interned at an animal shelter. And there I got to learn more about how to not just care for animals, but also how to make sure the environment around us is safe for them.
They believed that this was a good opportunity to learn about different perspectives of sustainability.
You mentioned that you also got into gardening. Can you tell me a little bit more about your gardening or other ways that you interacted with the environment in your day-to-day life?
During the school year, I volunteer at the Jewish Home in Excelsior, and we got into groups and we planted around four to five trees around the city, because bringing more trees to the city is really magic. I got to collab with other people from different schools, and we learned how to do it, step by step. We also have a really strong gardening team at school, the teacher that's in charge of it really encouraged us to water the plants and learn about the trees.
Elicia Rozic, assistant director for Development, Training, and Engagement, presents Dulce with a certificate of completion.
Can you share what you're working on in this internship?
I'm mostly in charge of the social media presence of the UCSF Office of Sustainability. I'm going to be collaborating with different departments like Transportation, and I'm going to be working with the [Family Services] day care center.
My goal is to get the attention of more younger people, and to do that, I'm planning on making the videos fun and educational at the same time.
Colleagues and interns from across Campus Life Services gathered for intern presentations.
Since you've started your internship here, what is one of the most surprising things you've learned?
I would say like how much collaboration there's between every department, like you guys are not just closed off in your own office. You guys actually go out and work together in order to get for you guys to be successful.
Is your experience here at UCSF planting seeds for what you might be interested in pursuing in your future career? Do you have any, like, idea of what you might want to do as like a future job?
I really want to get into the educational field. I don't know specifically what type of education, because there are so many different types, but right now I really want to work with early child development or early childhood education. So that's my path right now.