Once a self-described, "shy person," 21-year-old Jason Martinez is now considered by many of his colleagues to be an exceptional Health Educator.

It was during one of Huckleberry's Health Education workshops at his high school conducted by Cole Street Clinic, that Jason first learned of Huckleberry. In the summer of 2005, at the age of 17, he applied for Cole Street's Peer Health Educator Summer Internship Program and was later hired.

By 2006, Jason was facilitating his own group, Real Young Men, an 8-to-10 week internship with a curriculum especially tailored for young men ages 14 to 17. After funding for the group ended, Jason wrote a grant proposal to Youth Funding Youth Ideas and won a $10,000 grant to expand the group further.

In December 2009, Jason was awarded Huckleberry's Danny Keenan Memorial Award for his exemplary work in Health Education with Huckleberry's clients.

Jason has come a long way since he first attended a Huckleberry workshop in high school. He's now in college at City College of San Francisco and holds a Health Educator position at Cole Street Clinic. He says, "I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today if not for Huckleberry."