As a kid, Sayda Martinez-Alvarado didn’t have the privileges of having a strong socioeconomic family. Despite this challenge, Martinez-Alvarado defied the odds by becoming the first in her family to attend college, and has now worked her way to studying at Oxford University.
Yale University graduate and LCHS alum Martinez-Alvarado was recently selected as a recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships of today, and will be attending Oxford University for the next two years while studying education policy at the Education School of Diversity.
“I’m most looking forward to having like two years to just think about these really big questions in education that I’m interested in,” Martinez-Alvarado said.
Some of these questions include how having strong relationships, community, and cultural capital – advantages obtained through situation of life – allow someone to succeed socioeconomically, and reasons behind distrust of higher education.
“[Socioeconomics being] your circumstances at home when you’re still dependent on your parents,” Martinez-Alvarado said. “I think in the U.S., we need to do more to intentionally think about how we are investing in schools and the education of students.”
Martinez-Alvarado emphasizes applying research to make education more productive, rather than expending money into something without thinking it through completely.
“But I do not just focus on the problems,” Martinez-Alavarado said. “Something that’s really, in my opinion, amazing and unique about the American education system is that theoretically anyone could go to college.”
American students are given more choice of career, even while in college, whereas some countries place students on a track at ages as early as 12 or 13. Martinez-Alvarado works to recognize the value of the American education system while also working to promote necessary changes to improve it as a whole.
This determination is what drove her to apply for the Rhodes scholarship, developed in 1902 by British politician Cecil Rhodes in order to promote youth leadership and develop global understanding.
“What motivated me then [senior year] to apply was thinking about ‘what do you want to do next’ and ‘the whole world is your oyster,’” Martinez-Alvarado said. Despite making it as a finalist, she lost the first time she applied. After working as a Senior Policy Analyst at EdTrust for two years, her former professor encouraged her to reapply, and she won.
“It’s just really hard to ever imagine yourself winning one of those things, even at an institution like Yale,” Martinez-Alvarado said. “[But] the more that I thought about it, the more I was like, ‘Wow, I do really miss being in an academic setting where I have control.’”
As one of only 32 people chosen as this year’s Rhodes Scholars, she hopes to attend law school and implement her new ideas; however, for now, she will get to focus on her passions and new experiences while studying abroad for the first time.
“I’m just really excited to be surrounded by people who are really passionate about their topic, even if it’s not my topic,” Martinez-Alvarado said. •
