By Daniel Montaño, Staff Reporter | Photo By Daniel Montaño
Stephen Martos, president of the Executive Council of Students and member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, can sum up his experience at CNM in two words: growth and change, he said.
Although Martos graduated in the spring 2013 semester with degrees in Psychology, Criminal Justice and Liberal Arts, he is staying on as president of ECOS until the beginning of the fall semester when he will hand over the reins to Emily Sarvis, Biology major, as he moves on to UNM to earn his bachelor’s degree in psychology, he said.
“CNM is my life. I don’t work school around my life. My life is all at CNM, my friends and everything. So I’m excited about going to UNM, but I’m nervous because it’s such a completely different world,” he said.
Martos entered CNM unsure how to approach his future, which classes to choose and what career to go into, but grew up, gained responsibility and found direction while at CNM, especially through ECOS, which motivated him throughout his college career, he said.
“Being president of ECOS is something I never thought I would do when I graduated high school, and now the goal is to continue on and see what other trouble I can get myself into,” he said.
Martos plans to move on to Law school after finishing his bachelor’s degree, but isn’t setting anything in stone just yet, because he wants to make sure he is able to put to good use the empathy and willingness to help that he has gained through ECOS, he said.
He plans to minor in political science while at UNM, and if he gets the opportunity, he hopes to get involved in local government to make a positive change in the political process, he said.
“Whenever I find out that there is something someone is struggling with, my first reaction is ‘How can I help’ and what can I do to make this better” he said.
Martos has always had an internal drive to help people, but ECOS refined that feeling, he said.
ECOS was also the motivation to actively pursue positive change in his future and gave him the drive to become the person who he is now, he said.
“I think that I’m a lot more responsible, and I feel like I’m a greater person overall. Looking back I didn’t have an idea of the greater things happening around me, but I don’t know if that’s just what happens when people get older — they look back and want to say, you have no clue what’s coming up,” he said.
Although he is now working towards a future where he can help people and make changes for everyone’s benefit, Martos had originally planned to become an aerospace engineer before coming to CNM, he said.
“I looked at New Mexico Tech, and realized that I hated math, which isn’t good for an engineer, so I switched over and came to CNM,” he said.
Martos said coming to CNM was the best choice he made in his quest to find direction because from that point on things began to fall into place on their own and organically evolve.
After feeling his way through introductory classes and remaining largely uninvolved, he was introduced to Phi Theta Kappa and ECOS through friends, he said.
“I kind of stumble right into it. Having people who drug me along to meetings gave me a lot more purpose and a lot more focus. So I became much more involved and from that point it made me grow up from being a high school kid,” he said.
Once involved with student organizations Martos began getting into volunteer work, and as president of ECOS he was directly involved with helping students overcome obstacles at school, he said.
“That’s one of the best feelings that I’ve had, standing up for student issues and student rights, just being there as a venue for the students,” he said.
As far as regrets go, Martos doesn’t have any besides wishing he could have been even more involved than he already was, but he is satisfied with the differences he did make, he said.
“There’s always room for improvement. I wish I could have done more somehow, made more of an impact,” he said.
As the outgoing President of ECOS, Martos wants to encourage as many students as possible to find direction in the same way he did, he said.
“Join ECOS!” Martos said.
To join ECOs students must be enrolled for at least three credit hours and have maintained a 2.5 GPA. For more information students can go to student activities in the SSC to pick-up and submit an application.