Walking onto the court, microphone in hand, senior Emiliano Martinez is preparing himself to lead one of the spring sport pep rallies. He says his opening line, ‘Good morning Bulldog Nation’.

Martinez is one of Bowie’s Co-Student Council Presidents for the 2024- 2025 school year and is part of seven organizations on campus. His heavy school involvement came from an inner motivation to give back.

“I wanted to join as many clubs as I could because when I first got to Bowie, I feel like I needed to be a part of something,” Martinez said. “Cross country was the first program I joined, and it gave me a home on campus. After I realized how important cross country was to my success freshman year and I started thinking about how I could repay the school for giving me so much and my place. Sophomore year, I kind of just settled on joining as many programs as possible, like Bowie Buddies and student council, because in those, I’m giving directly back to the Bowie community.”

Outside of school organizations, Martinez has been giving back to his community, whether it’s coaching the swim team or being heavily involved with his church.

“I started as a youth group leader, and now I help the religious education director with the classes, our confirmation classes,” Martinez said. “I have my own group of kids I get to hang out with and teach, and that’s cool. I’m also assistant to the sacristan, so I help make sure that Mass runs smoothly, and I’m an altar boy, so I serve on the altar with the priest.”

According to Martinez, his main goal in anything he does is to improve student and staff relations and make a difference. Whether that’s at church, at school, or at work. After winning the election for Student Council President in May of last year, Martinez has taken on being the voice of the student body to the administration.

“Mr. Garcia told me at the beginning of the year that my job is to be the connection between the student body and administration, and I wanted to also use that to foster more school spirit,” Martinez said. “I go to CAC meetings and act as the representative for the students alongside my co-president Noble (Cox) and then I also help run the pep rallies as part of what I guess you could say is my spirit initiative.”

Outside of just adding a fun student face to pep rallies, as Student Council President, Martinez has also been tasked with running some of Bowie’s annual events.

“We just did Bowie’s Got Talent and it was great because we got to celebrate students who sometimes we otherwise wouldn’t know are so talented,” Martinez said. “We also changed how we celebrate teachers every month. Instead of just getting a poster, we get them a goody bag along with it, as an extra acknowledgment of how much we appreciate them, and I think it really nice.”

While students around campus might not notice the efforts of Martinez, his co-president does.

“I think he’s so involved in the campus and student life because he is dedicated to his community and enjoys giving back to those around him,” Cox said. “It has been great, we have worked well together to tackle all the tasks that we needed to accomplish as presidents. He’s great to work with and motivated to make a difference on campus for others, and I am glad I have got the chance to do it with him.”

Senior Ryleigh Carrasco expressed that Martinez is always ready to help out on campus, even when he’s not part of an organization.

“Emiliano is always in yearbook, he just comes in and offers his help any chance he gets,” Carrasco said. “He always shows up right when we need help identifying someone or we need someone to go out and get a quote, and it’s been extremely helpful as we are finishing up the book.”

Martinez will be attending the University of Texas in the fall to major in government. According to Cox, Stu-Co is his stepping stone.

“I know that he wants to be a politician someday or something with the law side, so I think that he is driven by his pursuit of this career,” Cox said.

While Martinez pushes to make an impact on campus, he is also actively striving to better himself.

“I wanted to better myself and improve myself, and I enjoy running, so I thought, why not run a marathon,” Martinez said. “So, I trained for it for a while, and when I ran, I got under my goal of four hours, which was really cool, but the last mile was really, really hard, at one point I wanted to give up, but I finished, and I’m really glad I did.”

Now that the marathon is over, Martinez is training for a triathlon but also staying close to his running roots on campus.

“Because I was training for the marathon, I didn’t want to have the added on stress of running for track this year,” Martinez said. “So, I asked Coach Tilson if I could have a managing role, so I could still be at practicing and cheering on all my friends while training for the triathlon, which hopefully will be as successful as the marathon.”

Throughout the remainder of his training and the end of his senior year, Martinez is still thinking about ways to foster community and celebrate his peers. Like starting a campus-wide inauguration for the next Student Council president and vice presidents.

“I think a campus-wide inauguration would bring more value to the presidency. It will help introduce the students that any student or teacher can rely on,” Martinez said. “It also reminds the people coming into office what type of responsibility this is. This isn’t just a president of some club. It’s being president of the school. You represent the students of Bowie to everyone around you. I think it’s a great way to end the year, a symbol of power being transferred.”

Vice Principal Kaylin Brett believes Martinez’s is a great leader for many reasons.

“He’s passionate and dedicated, and a great listener. He wants to hear from the student body to support needs on our campus,” Brett said. “Emiliano is genuinely kind and ensures to think about all students when making decisions.”

Alejandro Garcia, the Student Council sponsor, believes that who Martinez is as a person boils down to his inner guidance and compass

“He’s ambitious. He has a go-getter attitude. If there’s something that needs to be done, he has the initiative to go and try to get it done without being asked or without waiting for someone to tell him what to do,” Garcia said. “He’s just somebody who has a very intuitive perspective. He’s done such a great job at that, in student council, and just as an everyday human.”