Multiple Writers | On 16, Oct 2019

By Maya Beals and Destiny Ramirez

As the 2019-2020 school year commences, there are a number of new and friendly additions to our ever-growing family here at Hudson Catholic, including our newest Spanish teacher, Ms. Geilyn Martinez.

In meeting Ms. Martinez, she displayed qualities of a very sweet, caring, and open woman which, in turn, made our interview quite enjoyable. As she shared, we were overtaken by how comfortable we felt speaking to her and how open she was. 

This interview merely scraped the surface of the real Ms. Martinez, but it gave us a great start to knowing her better. 

Off the bat, Ms. Martinez revealed that she has always dreamt of becoming a teacher, ever since she was a child.

“I wanted to be a teacher since the age of five. I knew exactly what I wanted to be,” Ms. Martinez said. She continued this statement by telling us that at the age of twelve she knew for sure where she wanted to go to college and pursue her dream. 

At that moment, we had an understanding of her admirable drive and wanted to dig deeper. Quickly trying to build off of her previous answer, we made sure to ask if teaching Spanish was always her dream. Briefly describing her teaching experience, she explained, “I thought about only teaching elementary school, but in college, I knew Spanish was my favorite subject. So after that, I taught kindergarten through 12th-grade Spanish courses.” 

With teaching such a popular language course, there are many other opportunities in different high schools that Ms. Martinez could have explored. This left us to wonder, why Hudson Catholic?

Mrs. Martinez thoroughly explained her reasoning and she hit it right on the nose. In shorter terms, Ms. Martinez ended with, “I chose Hudson Catholic because of its large diversity in every category.” 

Ms. Martinez graduated from Montclair State University where she majored in Spanish and psychology. After graduating from college, she worked in a number of hospitals all throughout Hudson County taking on the role of helping cancer patients. She went on to say that working with these patients strongly changed her view on life.

“I knew I always wanted to be a teacher, but working with them made me realize how short life is, and if you have a goal or a dream you have to go for it. So I said, you know what? I’m going to go and inspire and teach Spanish.”  

Students often believe that their teachers do not have fun or interesting lives outside of a school setting, but Ms. Martinez is a prime example of how that is completely wrong. We began by asking her at least three things or hobbies she loves that would surprise her students. She absolutely loves to dance and finds deep pleasure in it. She explained, “I love dancing! Bachata, Maranga, Salsa… I’ll dance to almost anything. Even commercials!”

She also enjoys going to museums and admiring fine art and, of course, every gal’s favorite… shopping!

We are truly grateful to have Mrs. Martinez now a part of our family and we wish to continue learning more new and fun things about her as the year progresses.