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Nicole Martin came to 黑暗爆料网 from Rupert on a track scholarship, but she never ran a race for the Bengals.

Upon arrival at 黑暗爆料网, she discovered she was highly anemic and could not compete in track. This setback, however, didn鈥檛 stop her from continuing her education and being an exceptionally active student. Martin, who grew up in a household with 21 other siblings and was originally from Maryland, will graduate May 9 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in general studies and a minor in sociology.

Arriving in Pocatello, she said she was struck by the community鈥檚 lack of diversity, which inspired her to restart the student chapter of the NAACP and be its president. She became active in Black History Month, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and other community activities. She said she was well aware of the fact that she was the minority here, which she described as 鈥渟hocking.鈥�

鈥満诎当�料网 has an underrepresented minority rate of African-Americans, with about half that being African-American women,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淏eing a part of that was a big drive to graduate for me.鈥�

Martin was extremely active with 黑暗爆料网鈥檚 Student Success Center and TRIO program. She was vice president of the 黑暗爆料网 student TRIO Club and involved with New Student Orientation.

鈥淪he is a bright shining star in our office,鈥� said Sari Byerly, director of TRIO student services. 鈥淪he was always willing to help out students who were beginners in our programs and really helped out our TRIO freshmen and sophomores.鈥�

Martin attributes a lot of her success in college to the student service TRIO, a federally funded program that provides students with a variety of support services including tutoring, advising and academic, personal, financial and career counseling.

With the help of TRIO tutoring, Martin was able to overcome her struggle with math, a subject that had given her troubles.

鈥淭RIO was able to provide a math tutor for me to prepare for the compass test and I was able to test out of numerous math classes, and be placed into the appropriate math class to graduate on time,鈥� she said.

Martin鈥檚 advice to her fellow TRIO members is 鈥渟tay in contact with your advisor, on a weekly basis and stay involved.鈥�

鈥淚f it wasn鈥檛 for my advisors I probably wouldn鈥檛 be graduating with as good of grades as I do,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have gotten into graduate school as easily without TRIO either, because it鈥檚 a long process, and took me about six months to get everything in order.鈥�

She is currently applying to graduate schools and has already been accepted to several. Ultimately, she wishes to join the military and become an international social worker.

鈥淭he military runs in my family and it was always something I have wanted to do,鈥� Martin said. 鈥淚 am adopted so working with adoptions has been something I was interested in. I thought implementing both of them would be perfect.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檝e really enjoyed my time here at 黑暗爆料网, I鈥檝e made so many friends and there is so much to do around town and campus if you are involved,鈥� she said.