It’s International Data Center Day! NOVA Celebrates DCO Student Deby Martinez
In the fall of 2018 NOVA’s Information and Engineering Technologies (IET) Division launched its redesign of the Engineering Technology Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree, which included a specialization in Data Center Operations.
One student, Deborah “Deby” Martinez, has seen the benefits of the program and is now breaking barriers in the data center industry. Deby is on track to graduate this spring with an Engineering Technology: Specialization in Data Center Operations AAS degree. As a woman and Latina, her presence in the DCO program is a little unusual. As one of the only females in the program, she has sometimes felt like she has to fight for her position. However, she has also come to realize that her fellow students and professors are all there to help her succeed. Women are significantly underrepresented in all IET fields, as are people of most minority backgrounds.
In high school, Deby had an opportunity to experience dual enrollment and was able to expose herself to everything that NOVA had to offer. Originally, she was targeting the nursing program, but halfway through the program the pandemic hit. She re-evaluated her direction and decided that the best program for her was the DCO program instead.
“I like the electrical and mechanical aspects of the data center industry. I was very involved with my father doing construction and more specifically electrical work. As a little girl I always wanted to be his helper; so I grew up being his right hand in his businesses and that is how I got interested,” she said. She went on, “I didn’t know how data centers worked until I met my professor, T.J. Ciccone, who introduced it beautifully and that was the hook that drew me in.”
Understanding data centers and what they provide is a knowledge gap for many people, even those that live in Northern Virginia.
“On a daily basis, we don’t think of where our information is going and how is it protected, and that really captivated me. I wanted to go deeper into it and learn about how to protect it!”
This is the industry that Deby chose, and the DCO program provided the tools for her to be successful.
“The program taught me lots of stuff. From electrical, to mechanical, to learning how to read blueprints, which I never thought I would actually use until I started working in the field. It was very important to actually learn how to read them. Also coding and learning how to read diagrams. It prepares you for everything and puts you on the right path to get you into your first job, so you’re not lost.”
In her last year of the program Deby’s professor mentioned that there may be some internships available.
“It’s quite funny. My professor briefly mentioned that if anyone was interested in an internship, we had to email him. I was still debating if it was the right choice for me, but one day I said let’s just let go of the fear and do it. I really didn’t think I was going to get in, but here I am. I got the internship. It was the best experience! Very life changing events, and I completely loved it.”
Directly after completing her 10-week internship through the AFCOM Potomac Chapter, which placed her at three different companies and gave her a very solid experience, Deby was offered and accepted a position at Aligned Data Centers. With her semester soon complete and a great career ahead of her, she provided this advice to others that may be thinking about the data center operations program.
“Take that leap of faith. Even if at first it doesn’t feel right or it doesn’t quite seem interesting to you,” she said. “After you get the hang of it and actually start working with machinery and doing live simulations, it gets very interesting; it gets very exciting, and it just puts you right where you need to be.”
“I am Data Center Operations, and I am Boldly NOVA” – Deby Martinez, 2022
Submitted by:
Jack Bidlack, IET, JBidlack@nvcc.edu