Caleb Martinez

Caleb Martinez was born on the Pascua Yaqui Tribe Reservation in Arizona. He is currently a student at the University of California-Berkeley where he is pursuing a major in Political Science, and will soon begin working for a joint degree in Public Policy and Law. Caleb was raised in several inner city neighborhoods that were rife with crime.  He witnessed and directly experienced social inequality and injustice and spent much of his adolescence and early adulthood trapped in the cycle of incarceration.  

Today, Caleb is a single father to a ten-year-old daughter. He has served as president for the Student Parent Association for Recruitment and Retention (SPARR) at UC Berkeley and is a UCLA Law Fellow. He currently works as the Lead Transfer and Outreach coordinator for the Underground Scholars Initiative at UC Berkeley, which provides services to formerly incarcerated students and those impacted by mass incarceration. In his work with the community Caleb focuses on increasing the presence of Native Americans, student parents and formerly incarcerated people in higher education. He envisions becoming a legislator to provide representation to marginalized communities and being a voice for the voiceless.