In 1988, when Karen Martin (‘92) was looking at colleges to attend, not many schools at the time had open spots on their women’s soccer teams.
That is what sent her to Villanova. It had a women’s soccer team and a senior goalkeeper graduating. That meant that Martin instantly had a chance to have playing time if she were to attend.
Martin is an alumna who cannot find a way to stay away from helping her alma mater, which is a trend among many Villanova alumni. She is a current member of the Espiritus ‘Nova Campaign Committee, serving as one of the co-chairs of the athletics portion of the executive committee.
Martin graduated from the Villanova School of Business in 1992 with a degree in finance after beginning as an undecided liberal arts major.
Martin stepped foot on the soccer pitch as Villanova’s newest goalkeeper, in a much different college sports landscape than there is today.
“Athletics has changed a lot over the years,” Martin said. “I think it’s harder to have a sense of community. When I came into Villanova, there were six of us. And there was one scholarship that they split between two players. There were two of us splitting a scholarship, so we’re on half a scholarship. And we couldn’t have cared less. Like, it didn’t matter, we were all friends. We were all supportive of each other.”
Members of the women’s soccer team cared for each other. To this day, some of Martin’s closest friends suited up in the blue and white alongside her to play soccer at Villanova.
“I moved into New York City [after my second job] and lived with two other Villanovans,” Martin said. “One had played soccer and was a year older than me, just to give you a sense of what our community was like on the soccer team, which just ties into Villanova as a family, that small family I had on a soccer team, which was an instant family.”
Before Martin moved in with that select group of Villanova alumni, she graduated from college and entered the workforce in New York City.
“Finance was my focus,” Martin said. “I worked at Smith Barney in their brokerage department in New York City. I lived in Hoboken with five Villanovans, who were two years older than me. And then I worked for Prudential Securities on their high yield trading desk in sales.”
In 1995, Martin left her job at the trading desk to return to school for her Master of Business Administration at Columbia University. She earned her diploma in 1997.
She then returned to Smith Barney to work in its institutional equity sales department until she had her son, Scotty, in 2002.
“We lived out in New Jersey, and my husband and I were both commuting into the city,” Martin said. “So it just didn’t make sense [to both commute] having kids. I went back to work for a short time and then decided that I would stay at home to take care of our kids.”
Martin and her husband Scott have three kids: Scotty, who will graduate in May with a Master’s in finance from Villanova; Grace, a current junior in college; and Emily, a high school senior.
Like most Villanova alumni, Martin has always found a way to stay involved with the University after graduation. She was on University President Rev. Father Peter M. Donohue, O.S.A., Ph.D.’s advisory board from the Spring of 2010 to the Fall of 2021.
Martin has been deeply involved in Villanova’s soccer programs. She helped search for a new women’s head coach in 2021 when the University hired current head coach Samar Azem. Martin also helped fund the soccer facilities on West Campus, which installed new turf in 2014 and the locker rooms in Farley Hall, which were newly renovated in 2023.
Martin stays connected to the University because she understands how much Villanova means to her, and how what she does helps generations of students to come. She acknowledges that despite ongoing changes in the college athletics landscape, Villanova is still rooted in its values as it adapts to the new era.
“We are athletes and we’re students,” Martin said. “That’s why [Villanova student-athletes] have the highest GPAs, because that’s important. You can’t step on the field if you’re failing out of school. Like, we need to make sure that you focus on your academics, so it’s not just about coming in here and playing your sports. Villanova is grounded in that Augustinian value, and I don’t think that we will ever stray from that, ever.”
