Building a sustainable futureWhen Marga Martinez moved from the Philippines to the United States, she was looking for a fresh start. At Oakton, she found more than just a place to learn. She found a community. Through open conversations about mental health, hands-on classes in facilities management, and meaningful work in sustainability, Marga discovered connection and direction. She’s now building a sustainable future rooted in confidence.
Speaking Up About Mental Health
Marga’s decision to move to the U.S. was deeply personal—rooted in the desire for healing and openness around mental health.
“In the Philippines, I couldn’t talk about my struggles with mental health and up until now mental health is a taboo issue. People would say, ‘You have everything— and still you have depression?’ But when I got here, I felt like I could breathe. Mental health issues are common and everybody talks about it. You can see it on the television. There's medicine. There’s options.
A year ago I had a problem with my prescription. Due to restrictions my family had a hard time sending my prescription here in the US. I had to seek help from Oakton’s Access and Disability Resource Center and they referred me to one of the counselors from the Wellness center. By God’s grace they connected me with clinics that can give me my prescription.”
Learning How Things Work—and Why It Matters
Marga’s love of hands-on problem-solving led her to a career path she hadn’t expected—but instantly knew was right.
“I was torn between engineering and facilities management, but I knew I wasn’t great with numbers. I am good at asking: ‘How does this work?’ I can’t sleep if I don’t figure something out. With facilities management, there’s a problem, and you have to solve it. There’s a leak, a wiring issue, a mechanical problem; tell me, how are we going to resolve it? And making sure that it won’t happen again? That kind of critical thinking—I know it fits for me.”
Making Sustainability Part of the Conversation
Through her work on Oakton’s STARS sustainability tracking assessment and rating system, Marga helped bring awareness and action to campus-wide goals.
“Sustainability has been my advocacy for a long time, but it used to just be the basics—like don’t use a single straw. When I started working on the STARS project, I realized how much more there is to it. STARS is a report done by universities and colleges nationwide where they must report the sustainability efforts and projects that they’ve done through academic, operations and social. This also helps the organization know what they can do to improve their commitment in making their institution more sustainable. It was a challenge because Oakton has two campuses with different needs, and some of the data for 2020-2021 wasn’t consistent due to Covid. But despite the challenges of the team we are ecstatic with the result.
While working with the STARS project it opened a lot of opportunities for me to educate my co-workers, professors and fellow students with the importance of sustainability and what we can contribute to make this world a better place.”
Finding a Place to Belong
As an international student and adult learner, Marga expected to feel like an outsider. What she found instead was community.
“English is not my first language. I was 35 years old when I enrolled myself here in Oakton. Immediately one of my concerns was communication and the fact that it’s been a while since I attended school. Yeah, I did some short courses but that was through online. The generation gap is also a hurdle for me since the majority of my classmates were recent graduates from high school. But again the Oakton community proved again that I was wrong. People here are really nice. I’m not saying that because I work here. The first thing that I noticed when I got here was that it’s very normal for people to say, ‘Good Morning’ and ‘How are you today?’ and ‘Hope you have a wonderful day.’ Small acts of kindness—but life changing for me. One thing that I am grateful for with Oakton is my professors. They make sure that every student that signs up for their class is part of the community and they genuinely want the students to learn. I can say that my professors put a lot of pride in what they are doing.
How I wish I could give recognition to every person here in Oakton that made my journey amazing. To become a successful person takes you a lot of fears and struggles to overcome but also it takes a good community to help you get there and I can say that I have the best community—and that is Oakton College.”