After 14 years of guiding students through the complexities of college applications and graduation requirements, Academic Counselor Martina Torres will retire.

“She helped me a lot because I was not familiar with the concepts of how college admissions actually work,” senior Saman Sepehr said. “I came here last year from Iran. I immigrated from Iran about the second semester of junior year and the college admission process is really different (here). Since I joined, Mrs. Torres really helped me because I was really unfamiliar with the concept. Every time I needed help, she helped me.” 

Torres mainly advises students on their graduation requirements and college preparations. Additionally, she assembles the master schedule for the school and communicates with Pierce College to keep the dual enrollment program running smoothly. 

“One thing about anybody who works at Daniel Pearl Magnet is that everyone who is here does multiple jobs,” Torres said. “They don’t do just one job. All of our teachers they don’t teach just one subject. They teach multiple subjects.”

Ever since she was 18, Torres has worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her career began as a teacher’s assistant at Bushnell Way Elementary School, the same school she attended as a child. Afterwards, she taught fifth and sixth graders at the Logan Academy of Global Ecology, then known as Logan Street Elementary School. She then moved on to teach math and science to sixth graders at Thomas Starr King Middle School. After attaining her counseling degree, Torres worked as a Gear Up Counselor at Marshall High School and then Franklin High School.  

Torres joined DPMHS in 2010 after the school split from Birmingham Community Charter High School after it became a charter. Working here provided Torres with the unique opportunity of working closely with a small group of students. Senior Behishta Safi appreciates Torres’s ability to spend more time giving advice. 

“I was deciding between CSUN and UC Irvine,” Safi said. “I went to her and asked her about which one will be better… She took hours to explain everything to me and I knew more. It was so much easier to make my decision.”

Her career in education may be coming to an end, but her work will not. She plans to volunteer at her church where she will oversee fundraising events and scholarships administered by her church’s funds. Although she will miss the one-on-one work with students that came with her career in education, she hopes to find it again through her community service.

“Working with students one-on-one gives me an opportunity to help them,” Torres said. “I set goals and make plans and see what their future is for them.”

In preparation for Torres’s retirement, the school hired her replacement. Principal Armen Petrossian declined to comment on the job search.

“The most important thing for this next person is to work with all other adults to establish camaraderie with the team that’s here,” Torres said. “Don’t let that fall into the wayside. You can’t do it alone. They’ll enjoy their day more if they could work as a team with the other adults.”