By Katie Malatino
Martin Marintchev ’23 is a student-athlete with a dual major in business and economics. To put it lightly, he’s been busy. Happily, his hard work will pay off when he graduates with a bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) later this month.
“I chose to attend RPI because of the combination of superb athletics and an academic curriculum that is current with every new technological development,” said Marintchev.
On both fronts, Marintchev has made the most out of his time at RPI.
In love with the sport since the age of 4, Marintchev played infield on RPI’s baseball team. Recently, he was inducted into Olympia, the athletic department’s student honor society. Marintchev was a member of the Liberty League All-Academic Team in 2022 and the First Team All-Conference Liberty League. The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference in New York affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division III, and member schools place the highest priority on academic programs.
“I will never forget when, during my freshman year on a spring break trip to Florida, our season got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Marintchev. “Ultimately, it opened my eyes to how much baseball and school meant to me, and it allowed me to set my priorities straight and grow as a student and an athlete. The pandemic brought me closer to my friends and teammates as we helped each other through new challenges.”
In terms of academics, Marintchev was on the dean’s list five times and is proud to have completed the Geneen Foundation Fellowship last summer.
“The focus of my project was the ethics surrounding the payment and insuring of gene and cell therapies,” said Marintchev. “In six months, I researched the current state of the cell and gene therapy market and explored the ethical implications of the industry. I also created surveys to better understand the public’s familiarity with and opinions on the field.”
Next, the native of Belmont, Massachusetts will remain at RPI to pursue his master’s in quantitative finance and risk analytics.
As for advice for incoming freshmen, Marintchev says, “Keep an open mind, whether it is in class, meeting someone new in the Union, or joining a new club. I was advised to take Computer Science 1, for example, and it opened my eyes to the value and capabilities of coding. There are endless opportunities to learn and grow at RPI.”
