PAGE – When the Dixie Tech diesel instructors asked Ryan Martin why they should accept him into the program, the 19-year-old said he didn’t deserve a spot and to let another student get their opportunity.

The question was: “With a small number of spots available and a large number of applicants, why should we take you ahead of someone else?”

Common answers are typically self-inflated views of why they are deserving of the opportunity to study at Dixie Tech.

“Ryan didn’t do that,” said the instructors. “He did not do that.

He told us that he is not better than anyone else. But he convinced us that he would take this seriously.”

Martin said he was in a room of dignitaries and businesses, such as representatives from Quality Excavation and Stephen Wade from Stephen Wade Auto Center, that day.

“I spoke in front of them, and I introduced myself in Navajo,” said Martin, who’s Diné. “They were surprised to hear me introduce myself like that. They asked why I chose Dixie Tech and I told them why I chose (this school) over Universal Technical Institute.

Because UTI is a private school, Martin chose Dixie Tech.

“FAFSA paid for all of it and I still had some left over, which is nice,”

Martin explained. “I had a problem with student housing.”

And commuting to St. George wasn’t easy for the first several months. He stayed in motels and in Airbnb places.

“I traveled every weekend from Page to St. George. I’d leave 3 or 4 a.m. depending on the time zone,”

Martin said. “I had to get up early every Monday morning. Get a room–– and on Fridays, I came straight home.

I’d help my family out. Before the pandemic, we did roast mutton sales and stuff like that because that was our only source of income as a family.

“And work was hard to find because the (Navajo Generation Station) shut down. That was our only source of income besides my dad’s monthly retirement, which isn’t much. That’s how I was able to go back and forth each week.”

Martin will be speaking at the Dixie Tech graduation on May 6 at the Tuacahn Center For the Arts in Ivins, Utah. Dixie Tech President Kelle Stephens said the Dixie Tech Board of Trustees were in the presence of true greatness when Martin received his award in late March.

“Ryan is genuinely humble, incredibly strong … and full of goodness that is very rare in our society,” Stephens said. “It was a great honor to present him with this award and meet his family.

Martin is originally from the Bodaway-Gap, Arizona, area. He graduated from Page High two years ago and has been commuting to St. George to attend classes at Dixie Tech. “He works more than full time on the weekends but he was always here and on time Monday mornings,” his instructors said. “And he was always the last one out of the shop on Friday afternoons. He finished every job that was assigned. Not only did he thoroughly clean up after himself, he cleaned up after others and then asked if there was anything else he could do before he left.”

Martin was also given a work truck to start his own small business near his homeland. Martin said he wants to do everything he can to give back to his community and to his people.