Name, Age, and State: Justin Martin, 25, California

Job-title: PhD Student (Education), Program Director (PD) for Berkeley Scholars to Cal II, and comic writer (CW)

Web/blog site URL: www.rsquaredcomicz.com

Give us your job description in 25 words or less. Studying adolescents’ social and moral judgments (Education); Provide academic and social support to high school students (PD); Writer and creator of R-Squared Comicz

Describe a typical workday. In a typical workday, I would do two out of the three things I’m currently working on, sometimes I’ll work on all three. For my job as program director, a typical day entails me meeting with students, fellow staff, and if need be, teachers. For grad school, a typical day entails me doing some work on my dissertation proposal in a cafe. As a comic writer, a typical day includes me writing a story script either at a cafe during the day when I have time, or in the evening/late night at home.

What led you to realize that you wanted to do this type of work? Since I was young I always wanted to help people and I always loved learning, so going to graduate school and working in an educational/youth development context made sense to me given my interests. It wasn’t until my early years of graduate school that I knew I wanted to work with teenagers specially. As for being a comic writer, that decision to step on on faith happened more recently, in May 27th of 2009. I had been contemplating creating my own comics for a few years, but kept doubting myself and taking myself out of it. It wasn’t until after I received what I believe were confirmations from God while speaking to two different people, that I knew it was time for me trust God and follow my heart.

Did you have any heroes or mentors in your industry that you admired? In terms of graduate school, I admire some of the theorist put forth by psychologists in the fields of socio-cognitive and moral development. In terms of education, I admire individuals, programs, and schools who takes a holistic approach to education, emphasizing the importance of caring for the whole child. In terms of comic writers, I really like the work of Peter David, Ben Avery, and David Liss to name a few.

What type of education or training was required to land your job? For my job as program director, I was pretty much hired internally so I’m not sure what the qualifications I needed or if I had them, lol! The program I’m the director of starts working with students the summer before their 5th grade year, and stays with them until they graduate high school. I was a mentor in the program when the students were in fifth grade, and I was good friends with founder and director at that time. Once family obligations required that he move to the east coast, he asked me to take over as director. Prior to taking the position, I had already graduate with my B.A. and had some summer teaching experience. I want to say that a B.A. is required to be a program director, and I’m sure the teaching experience and my familiarity with the program helped as well.

For comic-writing, there’s no requirements as far as educational credentials are concerned. From the short time I’ve been doing this, I would say that what’s important is to have a humble disposition, and to be motivated enough to learn and practice as much as you can to improve your skill as a writer.

What do you love most about your job? Across each of the things I’m involved in, what I love the most is being able to learn about people, and the different things they experience, and when I’m able to, offering help in any way I can.

What’s one part of your job do you wish you could hire someone else to do? For my job as program director, I would definitely say managing my volunteers. Because my position is half-time (when the position really calls for being full-time), most of my time is taken up with focusing on the students and making sure I’m serving them to the best of my ability. So having someone who’s sole or primary role would be to manage the volunteers would be a huge help. If asked this question about 18 months ago I would have also said having someone do reminder phone-calls to parents, but thanks to the automated call service I as told about and my increased use of text messaging, I’ve been able to save a lot of time!

In terms of comic-writing, it would be nice to have someone who would be responsible for updating the various social media websites once there are major updates such as new artwork and completed pages. Uploading new photos, describing the photos, and creating new albums on multiple sites takes time.

What advice would you give to teenagers wanting to get into your field of work? If pursuing a doctorate degree, take education seriously and make sure you choose a topic you are passionate about; If wanting to working with youth, make sure that you’re patient, consistent, and that through your actions you show them that you care; If wanting to write/create comics, have a posture of humility, and be willing to learn and practice as much as possible.

How does your job allow you to use your God-given gifts? In graduate school, God is helping me use my understanding of education and psychology to better understand Jesus’ ministry, and how we as individuals come to understand and relate to each other; As a program director, God’s enabled me to use my gift of sincerely trying to understand and relate to others to build lasting, meaningful relationships with my students and their parents; As a comic-writer, God is taking my love for comics and helping me tell stories that will communicate His love for people.

Do you have any hobbies or off-hours pursuits that teenagers would find of interest? I love to rhyme and freestyle, play basketball, and although I don’t do it as much because of the comic writing, play video games.