Martin Ocampo grew up in an area of Richmond, California, filled with violence and crime. His parents helped him stay focused on his education and got him involved in sports. He was also fortunate to have a mentor who encouraged his college goals. Martin graduated high school having already completed an Associate of Arts degree in liberal studies.

Martin’s passion for engineering stems from helping his father, who is a construction worker, with building projects. As a civil engineering major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, it is Martin’s goal to be a project manager and lead hard-working people like his father.

Martin devotes hours of volunteer time tutoring and mentoring Hispanic elementary and middle school children. He found that leading by example can encourage young people to go to college and reach for their goals in life. Only an engineering major would utilize a simple law of physics to express his goals for impacting the community in which he grew up: “It has some potential energy that needs a push to transform into kinetic energy.”