Main story: Determined teacher helps keeps students on Path to success
Teacher Jan Link has a mantra: Anyone can make it, given the right help after the school day ends. These are a few of the many students she helped.
• Juan Guitron: Getting down to work • Breeanna Martin: Figuring things out • Taylor Murgallis: From slacker to honor roll
EVERETT — Breeanna Martin is the first in her family, and she wants to do it right.
A freshman at Everett Community College, she hopes to set an example for her younger sister and to make her dad, a single father who works long hours, proud.
The 2016 Lynnwood High School graduate is pursuing a nursing degree and hopes to go to medical school.
Her dad, Randy Martin, fishes and hunts. Cleaning the animals never grossed her out; anatomy was fascinating. Her favorite class in high school was medical assisting through the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center.
Martin works at Engineered Sports Therapy in Everett and at Starbucks, 30 hours a week on top of classes. On a sunny spring afternoon, she sat outside the Starbucks across from campus, sipping ice water as she paused to think back on middle and high school.
“I’d like to say, yeah, I’d be in college no matter what because my dad always wanted me to,” she said. “But I wouldn’t be as prepared without Jan Link.”
It’s a frequent refrain from students recruited as sixth-graders into Link’s “Path to College Success” program.
Martin, 19, likely would have made it on her own, but it was nice to have someone who sent notes every week celebrating her successes, and who knew all about college prep.
Martin’s parents divorced when she was about 6, and her dad became the provider for her and her sister, Angela. He works as a carpenter on high-rise buildings. There are days when he leaves around 3 a.m. and doesn’t get home until 3 p.m.
“Looking back, he did everything for us,” Martin said.
In high school, she applied for more than 100 college scholarships. Most disqualified her because they said her dad made too much money. They didn’t consider the 12-hour days, the bills, the two teenage daughters planning for college.
Martin’s dad dug out of debt after the divorce, she said, and she promised herself she’d stay debt-free. Though she was admitted to eight universities, she couldn’t afford them. She landed scholarships to cover tuition at community college while she lives at home in Lynnwood.
One scholarship came from Link, who wouldn’t let Martin give up, no matter how many hours she spent writing scholarship essays only to be be rejected.
Martin remembers meeting Link in elementary school. Right away, college was part of the conversation, though it was low on the list of priorities for a girl about to start middle school. Now, Martin’s grateful.
“I am the first person in my family to go to college, so I am the guinea pig for my little sister,” she said. “I have to figure things out.”
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