UGA Undergraduate Admissions / Diversity / Celly Martinez

Our Community is Stronger
with the Voices of Many

Celly Martinez

Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico
Class year: first year of the Master of Public Administration program
Major: undergrad degree was in Political Science and Economics

Words I use to describe the UGA community are:
Amicable, activist, interesting, welcoming, fun

If I had one piece of advice for incoming students about living and learning in the UGA community, it would be:
Meet all kinds of people, get to know your professors, and take advantage of all the extracurricular activities UGA has to offer.

What I have learned through the UGA community is:
UGA offers great opportunities to encounter different cultures and perspectives. The first place you can encounter diversity is, of course, in the classroom. I always find it amazing having people from different countries and different cultures expressing their opinions on an issue. I also appreciate the fact that the faculty is usually well versed in international affairs, and they themselves come from different backgrounds and offer different perspectives to their students. Furthermore, there are many opportunities to get closer to and learn more about other cultures through different student associations. These student associations offer many events in which you can get a feel for the food, typical dress, music, and dances from many countries around the world. UGA also offers many study abroad programs that can satisfy academic requirements and give students an invaluable opportunity to immerse themselves in other ways of living. Being away from home and being from a different culture, I feel more welcomed and more comfortable here, knowing that UGA makes an effort to integrate and acknowledge the many different kinds of people on campus. I feel fortunate that I have been able to eat food, enjoy shows, and meet and learn from people from all around the world. These opportunities have made me appreciate diversity even more and have made me realize that there can be hundreds of different ways in which one thing can be looked at.