Tristan Martinez ’26 arrived at Clemson University from Honolulu knowing what he loved and who he was. Growing up in Hawaii, he enjoyed reading- and writing-based subjects, and he always had a specific fondness for history.
“I did academic competitions, like the National History Bee and Bowl, which was a national tournament in Washington, D.C., they put on for high school students,” he says. “I also did a couple of mock trials in high school, and I got a good rush out of it.”
Those experiences inspired him to pursue law, where he felt he could use the skills he’d honed early on every day in his chosen career.
Tristan’s Clemson connection was sparked by a very different, but notably important passion: football. Over the summer during his high school years, he traveled across the Pacific and the country to attend Clemson Football camps. So, when the time came to decide on a college and Clemson offered him a walk-on position on the football team, he seized the opportunity to return to a place he felt he already belonged.
And in August 2025, Tristan earned a full scholarship for his contributions to the football program.
“When I was a kid, I dreamed of playing football for Clemson, and to see that come to fruition was really rewarding,” Tristan says.
He puts his all into his athletic and academic pursuits, hoping that his dedication will inspire other Asian American and Pacific Islander students to chase their own dreams and turn them into realities.
“I want kids back home to see someone who looks like them in the positions they aspire to, whether it’s in college athletics or in the legal field,” he says.
Giving back
As a Clemson Tiger, Tristan has made a point to invest back into the organizations that have poured into him. He mentors middle and high school students during football camps, just like the ones he used to attend.
“I enjoyed working with kids whose shoes I used to be in. I was the kid who went to these football camps growing up, so to be able to make an impact on them through these camps is really rewarding,” Tristan says.
He also gives back to his peers as an Academic Success Center tutor. Working with younger Clemson students, Tristan not only helps them master the material they’re struggling with but also guides them to build effective study habits that will serve them for the rest of their college careers.
“I think it’s really rewarding to help fellow Clemson students. I’m mostly working with first-years, and I know that’s a time that’s really difficult. It’s a time of transition, and I know that students are dealing with a lot, so it helps that I can do a little to ease that transition from an academic standpoint.”
- Tristan Martinez, history ’26
Academic and athletic pursuits
Clemson is a school that embodies excellence in all its offerings. Students have as much pride in the R1 research classification and 400+ Creative Inquiry offerings as they do cheering on fellow Tigers at sporting events and supporting each other in campus organizations. The opportunity to combine passions in and out of the classroom is a hallmark of the Clemson Experience.
Tristan knew this, but he still found his athletic and academic worlds overlapping at Clemson in unexpected ways. This included connecting with Paul Anderson, a former history professor turned football program administrator who encouraged Tristan to study history as a prelaw track.
“When I was in high school, I told him my goal was to end up in law school, and he suggested that the history department would be really good for that,” Tristan says.
Then, during his junior year, Tristan took a Historian’s Craft class that taught him how to utilize Clemson’s special collections library and archives. He pursued research that traced back the origins of college football at Clemson.
“I found some really interesting material about the Clemson Football team and how it got started. It tied in with Clemson’s identity as a military school, and (Walter Riggs) saw it as another way to make his cadets tougher and better prepare them for war.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s interesting.’ Getting to conduct research that way was really cool.”
Career goals
Clemson gives students the chance to pursue their interests and turn their goals into realities. Whether through a specific Creative Inquiry course or the experiential learning built into every undergraduate major at Clemson, students have hands-on opportunities with the programs and subjects they care about most. And that gives them a head start in developing skills they will carry long after graduation.
For Tristan, that means continuing to give back through his profession.
“Hopefully, I can work with underprivileged communities back home in Hawaii or wherever my job ends up taking me and give people a voice that they wouldn’t have otherwise,” he says.
