Featured NSD Faces

Jaszmine Martin, STEM Academy Director

Jazmine Martin embraces knowledge.

 

“I’m just an in-general nerd who loves learning,” she said. “And I’ve always loved to geek out with my kids. I want them to take a moment to appreciate how freaking cool and incredible things are and soak in the awesomeness of life.”

 

Jazmine’s enthusiasm for life, education and her students make her the perfect director of the STEM Academy housed at Columbia High School, a job she’s held for nine years. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

 

In addition to teaching biology and physical science, her job entails recruiting, scheduling and planning for STEM activities such as field trips, lock-ins, STEM graduation, house competitions and more. She also plans curriculum, looking for ways to incorporate English, math, history and art into science-based projects.

 

“I really love creating a space where kids feel like they are accepted, whether they are nerdy or geeky, or if they’re jocks, band kids, or theater kids,” she said. “My favorite thing is knowing kids come into the STEM Academy and feel like they have a place, even if they don’t have one anywhere else.”

 

For this and a myriad of other reasons, Jazmine would love to see STEM Academies across the district and across age groups, offering kids a chance to learn new things and be excited about school.

 

Jazmine wasn’t always interested in STEM. As a young child, “artsy” was her jam. But in high school, she became obsessed with photosynthesis in biology class and just had to learn more. That’s when her career goals veered toward science. In fact, her winding road into teaching included a stint in medical school.

 

Her path also included stops in several countries, including a one-year stint as a missionary in Albania and a summer in Italy after graduating from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her biology degree. She also worked as a nanny in Paris for a year and a half, first for a German family, where she spoke German, and then for a French family, where she spoke French.

 

“When I was in medical school, I had planned to go into international health, so I wanted to learn French. I knew the best way to learn a language is to live there, so I moved to Paris.”

 

After France, she took a job as a substitute teacher at a charter school in Caldwell while earning her teaching certificate at NNU. From there, she landed her job at Columbia.

 

But Canyon County was part of her history long before that. While she grew up primarily in the Boise and Eagle area, she graduated from high school at Gem State Adventist Academy, a boarding school in Caldwell.

 

She experienced a turbulent childhood, with her parents divorcing and later remarrying. Money was tight and her family was poor. Holidays were supplied by the Salvation Army and Christmas trees were often sagebrush or tumbleweeds gathered at the side of the road.

 

“As a teacher, I appreciate that our kids don’t all have happy, rosy lives,” she said. “It’s important to have people who have experienced life on the other side of the tracks and are now fully functioning adults. I’m thankful I can come into the classroom and know there is hope for my students.”

 

Life is a decidedly different as an adult. She currently shares her home with a roommate and her two cats, Ursa and Vesuvius. She enjoys rock climbing, ice skating and leading worship through music at Twenty Six Eight Messianic Church in Boise. And she’s working on writing a book of poetry.

 

Surprised? Those who know her best know to expect the unusual. Many recall her early days at Columbia, when she sported a foot-tall mohawk, dyed an ever-changing hue of bright colors.

 

“I couldn’t drive a car without turning my head sideways,” she laughs. She wore the distinctive hairdo off and on until she was 29, and continues to delight students with regular changes in color.

 

While her appearance is now more mainstream, she still has a rebellious streak inspired, perhaps, by her interest in the 1970s. “It was the hippy era,” she said. “It was very tumultuous and there was a heart for wanting to step into something more real. And I really enjoy bellbottoms!”

 

She also enjoys simple pleasures in life, like eating tater tots dipped in fry sauce while watching a “stupid” rom-com, or sitting quietly outside soaking in the beauty of nature. She’s also obsessed with personal growth books focused on how to become a better human, a skill she works daily to develop.

 

“I hope I will be remembered as someone who was willing to give time and a listening ear, and who always was full of love and compassion for people.”