Knowledge has always been important to English teacher and first time debate coach, Nick Martinez. 

Martinez began his education at University of Texas-San Antonio, where he got his bachelors in English while also obtaining a minor in music. Later, he moved back down to Corpus Christi and is currently getting his master degree in fine arts and creative writing.

“My senior year English teacher made learning fun, I became a teacher with the goal to import that knowledge onto my students,” Martinez said.

Before Flour Bluff, Martinez worked at Brownsville for 4 years.

“Flour Bluff is a lot different than my last district, more trusting, and more of the kids actually wanting to learn,” Martinez said. “The community is definitely my favorite part.”

This year, Martinez has taken over the debate club after taking summer classes to gain more information about the proper ways to teach and lead debate.

“Looking online nowadays there are so many people who don't know how to communicate properly,"Martinez said. “So something that's like in order to have knowledgeable citizens, it starts in the classroom. So having that skill to be able to communicate with each other, it’s needed.”

While Martinez didn’t take debate in high school, he looks forward to taking on this new challenge and learning along the way. Many of Martinez’s previous, and current students, can be found going into his classroom for no other reason than to just have someone to talk to.

“It always feels good when students are comfortable around me, that’s the culture that I like to have kind of like home away from home. Some of them do see me as another parental figure so it’s interesting when they do open up,” Martinez said. “Especially the ones where I didn’t even think they liked my class, they’ll either come up to thank me or just say it was their favorite class it’s like really?”

When Martinez isn’t teaching or working on his degrees,  he enjoys relaxing and being with the people he’s close with.