{"id":230922,"date":"2026-03-18T16:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=230922"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:44:17","slug":"uh-hilo-martinez-statewide-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/18\/uh-hilo-martinez-statewide-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"<abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo career leader receives statewide recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_72269\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k1wf9ZLuyPE?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Marcy Martinez: Worthy of that Award\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>At the University of <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo, Marcy Martinez is helping haum\u0101na (students) find their path long before graduation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_230924\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-230924\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-m-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"Martinez holding a plaque\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-230924\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-m-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-m-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-m.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-230924\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marcy Martinez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Martinez, director of <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/career\/\">career services<\/a>, has been named the 2026 State Internship School-Based Coordinator of the Year by the <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> State Workforce Development Council (<abbr>WDC<\/abbr>). She received the award at the inaugural <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Internship Summit on <span lang=\"haw\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our mission is to help our students along their academic journey, connect that experience with their career goals and their career successes, but it has to be defined by them,&rdquo; said Martinez. &ldquo;We really want to take students through their journey, freshmen all the way to senior, and not just have it be a last-minute knee-jerk reaction in senior year.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Martinez leads <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/career\/\">K\u012bpapa I Ke Ala <span lang=\"haw\">Ka&#699;i<\/span>: Center for Career Advancement<\/a>, where the focus is simple, meet haum\u0101na where they are.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Marcy is enthusiastic. She\u2019s entirely student-based,&rdquo; said Christine Beaule, director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/offices\/vp-academic-strategy\/academic-programs-and-policy\/workforce-development\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> System Workforce Development<\/a>, who nominated Martinez for the award. &ldquo;She works incredibly hard, and every time I have asked her to partner with me on a variety of initiatives, she is the first one to say, &lsquo;Yes!&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_230927\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-230927\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-award-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Martinez holding award on stage with four other people\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-230927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-award-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-award-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-award.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-230927\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martinez holding her award<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Skills that last<\/h2>\n<p>Her team connects students with jobs, internships and hands-on learning. The goal is to build skills that last.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Through practical experience and opportunities, students will gain knowledge and the ability to identify transferable skills,&rdquo; Martinez said. &ldquo;As career agility is becoming even more important in today\u2019s world, it is required to have the ability to adapt quickly.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That approach is making an impact statewide.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What we\u2019re really trying to achieve is to have our next generation live in <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> that they can enjoy, they can learn, they can work, they can thrive, and they can belong to,&rdquo; said Bennette Misalucha, executive director of <abbr>WDC<\/abbr> for <span lang=\"haw\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.<\/p>\n<h2>Confidence, balance<\/h2>\n<p>Haum\u0101na at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo see it firsthand.<\/p>\n<p>Pohaku Roby, a senior majoring in <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/depts\/communication\/\">communication<\/a>, works at the center and expressed the experience has helped build both confidence and balance.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I didn\u2019t know that I was able to do public speaking and do class presentations with Marcy, but she helped me find that passion, and I enjoyed it,&rdquo; said Roby.<\/p>\n<p>For Martinez, the work continues one student, one step at a time.<\/p>\n<p>For more go to <a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/chancellor\/stories\/2026\/03\/06\/marcy-martinez-internship-award\/\"><em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marcy Martinez named the 2026 State Internship School-Based Coordinator of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":230927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[969,698,14,907,56],"class_list":["post-230922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-career-development","tag-staff-recognition","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/hilo-martinez-award.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230922"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230929,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230922\/revisions\/230929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}