When Jeremaya Martinez-Boyd left East Lansing to study abroad in the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2006, he didn’t think he would set a record.
Martinez-Boyd, a telecommunication information studies and media senior, has since gone on five more study abroad trips, and is the only student in MSU history to participate in six trips.
“He told me that he had some employer that didn’t believe that was the case,” said Cindy Chalou, associate director for the Office of Study Abroad. “There’s been quite a few that have gone five times, but he sets the record. He stands on a pedestal by himself.”
Getting to that record is something Martinez-Boyd said he “kind of fell into.”
Martinez-Boyd, a Florida native, said he fortified his passion for Latin American history during his trip to the Dominican Republic, which inspired his future trips.
“Prior to going there, living here in Florida, I definitely took a direct interest in the history of the people that have immigrated here to Florida, and also the history of Florida, because they were settled by the Spanish in the beginning prior to coming into the Union,” he said.
After deciding to go on the trip to the Dominican Republic, Martinez-Boyd said he needed to figure out how to fund the trip.
“I didn’t even know where the funds would come to do that,” he said. “I basically put together my own finances. I applied for scholarships and received scholarships to do it, my parents helped me out a little bit, and I received some grants, and I took out one loan for that program.”
Teresa Parker, who works in the Office of Financial Aid, helped Martinez-Boyd find many of the grants and scholarships that funded the trips. She said she remembers him as always being polite and respectful, even when the office couldn’t help him.
“A lot of times you’ll get students who storm out when you can’t help them,” she said. “He would go that extra mile.”
Martinez-Boyd said he approached funding every trip the same way.
During winter break in 2006-07, Martinez-Boyd took his second study abroad program — and his first trip to Mexico.
“There are people who are descendants of the ancient Mayan people living in Mexico that aren’t Spanish speakers,” Martinez-Boyd said. “They speak Mayan and you can hear them speaking Mayan in the streets.”
One of the most memorable moments of the trip was his visit to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza.
“Being able to see that with my own two eyes, I still kinda get chills. To see something that lasted that long and see it — and the intricacy of it — it’s just amazing to me. You read about it, you see it on the Discovery Channel, but seeing it with your own eyes, it’s wonderful. The words of the history books we’ve read, just jump off the page. They come to life.”
The next summer was busy as Martinez-Boyd went on two more study abroad programs.
“I wanted to do a program based around my actual degree,” he said. “I saw the Japan program was a great opportunity to do it and I knew I wanted to improve my actual grammatical Spanish and knew if I took this program for two weeks I could go to Mexico for nine weeks. So that’s how I structured it.”
His most intensive trip was to Japan, he said.
“Every day we were up at six or seven in the morning traveling throughout Tokyo and Osaka doing different tours,” he said.
He said he was amazed at the Japanese ban on the use of cell phones on the train.
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“Everybody has it on silent mode. They are so respectful to other people they turn off their mobile devices. It’s unlike anything you experience here in the United States,” he said.
Martinez-Boyd said his second trip to Mexico changed his life more than any of the other programs. While in the country for an Intensive First- and Second-year Spanish program, he met his eventual fiancée within his first week.
He met Yaneli Saenz Martinez and changed his name from Jeremy Boyd to Jeremaya Martinez-Boyd.
“I adopted that name so she could share my name and I could share her name. That way, when we marry, our kids can have an American last name as well as a Hispanic surname.”
When the program ended in August he returned to MSU for his last semester in East Lansing. At the end of the fall semester he embarked on the final two trips — one to Costa Rica and the other to Australia. They were the final credits of his MSU career.
“It was a good ride, from May 2006 to Spring 2008. I did all six (programs). I don’t know how many credits that is — my degree requires 120. I didn’t take all of my classes abroad, but I took a lot of them abroad.”
