Erika Martinez

Institution: College of Central Florida

Position: Dual Enrollment Coordinator

FADEP Position: Members-at-Large, Academic Post-Secondary

Why FADEP?

With everchanging legislation and growing enrollment, it is important to have a partnership among Dual Enrollment programs in order to best support our next generation in attaining education. The primary goal of every program should be the success of our students, but oftentimes we are sidetracked by administrative changes and difficult to answer questions. Having a partnership encourages discussion and cooperation between our programs, bringing together our collective knowledge and experiences, which will ultimately strengthen our programs and benefit our students. It also gives our programs/institutions a stronger voice when approaching legislators or administrators at home.

How does your background/ experience with dual enrollment add to the new FADEP organization?

I have several levels of experience that can benefit this organization. I have acted as the Dual Enrollment Coordinator at the College of Central Florida for almost a year. In this short time, I have already strengthened the relationships with our high school partners, helped streamline our application and registration process with spreadsheet systems and increased communication with counselors, and I have refocused our articulation agreement discussions in a way that is more mutually beneficial to all parties. From the information I gathered at the recent Conference, I can say that our system for registering students and maintaining accurate enrollment lists is relatively unique. This is indicative of the progressive way CF approaches dual enrollment, which can be a useful perspective to add to the Board of Directors. Beyond Dual Enrollment, I previously worked with our Testing Center, which gave me a strong understanding of testing options and policies for students both before DE and going into different college programs. In my time in Testing, I also assisted the Events Committee for FACTA, designing the agenda booklet for their 2019 Annual Conference as FSCJ. Lastly, I was a DE student through Hillsborough Community College from a private high school who eventually went to a private university, which gives me another relatively unique perspective on how to approach our more nontraditional students and on how policies affect these students.