Resident Spotlight: Aurora Martinez
Aurora Martinez left Nicaragua at age 16 in pursuit of a better education.
As the eldest daughter and the first in her family to study abroad, she was accepted to United World College–USA (UWC-USA) in Montezuma, New Mexico. There, she spent two years at a boarding school for international students earning an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma.
From there, Martinez received the Davis UWC Scholarship to attend the University of Florida. As a Davis Scholar, she joined Semester at Sea, a program where students live and study aboard a ship while traveling the world and spent 106 days sailing around Europe.
Martinez was also awarded a Davis Projects for Peace grant for her initiative Combating Diabetes in Nicaragua, a project rooted in her own experience living with Type 1 Diabetes. The program was created by Kathryn Wasserman Davis ’30, an alumna of International House, on her 100th birthday.
When Martinez received a full scholarship to the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York (CUNY), the school recommended I-House as an option for housing. On her first visit, Martinez recalls, “I knew it was my place. It felt familiar in the sense that it was unfamiliar.” As she walked through the halls, she saw residents from many backgrounds in conversation and was drawn to the idea of living in a space where community is part of daily life.
Over the past year, I-House has given Martinez the stability and sense of belonging she had been seeking. She has built close friendships, especially with fellow residents from Latin America, and participated in traditions like Night of Nations. At that event, she helped organize a cultural booth representing Central America and later stepped out of her comfort zone to perform a dance piece with residents showcasing their heritage through movement.
Martinez’s journalism has been shaped by I-House, where peers are eager to engage in thoughtful dialogue and share their varied perspectives on world issues and current events. Surrounded by passionate, purpose-driven residents, she feels at home.
This past summer, Martinez completed an internship with Smithsonian Magazine and is now finishing her master’s degree while working in visual journalism for an independent media outlet covering Nicaragua and Central America. While socio-political conflicts in Nicaragua makes returning home difficult, Martinez is deeply grateful to the donors at I-House whose support has allowed her to continue her work and studies in New York.