{"id":16429,"date":"2023-08-24T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T13:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=16429"},"modified":"2023-08-24T13:19:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T13:19:31","slug":"next-level-class-of-2027-is-the-largest-in-fiu-history-and-boasts-top-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2023\/08\/24\/next-level-class-of-2027-is-the-largest-in-fiu-history-and-boasts-top-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Next Level: Class of 2027 is the largest in FIU History and boasts top talent"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Originally published on August 21, 2023 on news.fiu.edu.<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Gisela Valencia<\/p>\n

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The Class of 2027 is raising the bar on success.<\/p>\n

These students spent almost their entire high school careers dealing with the effects of COVID-19, remote learning and lockdown. Yet, this class soared above it all.<\/p>\n

These gutsy students transformed the challenges and uncertainties of the pandemic into fuel for their dreams. They got creative. They worked hard. They refused to quit on their education and their goals. The result?<\/p>\n

The Class of 2027 is the largest class of freshmen attending college for the first time (FTIC) in the university\u2019s history. More than a record-breaking 5,300 incoming students started their journey at FIU this academic year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The newest Panthers represent 618 high schools across the United States and 55 international schools. The class also includes the largest number of out-of-state and international freshmen of the last several years, according to Jody Glassman,\u00a0assistant vice president of Enrollment and University Admissions. More than half of the freshmen are first generation students. Among the freshmen are 10 National Merit Scholars. Additionally, those starting in the fall semester boast an average SAT score of 1289, an average ACT score of 27.6 and an average GPA of 4.32.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were a class who really embraced experience,”\u00a0says Glassman. “We saw bigger campus tours, preview days and admitted student days with this class [than in previous years]. They\u2019ve been engaged and present. They don\u2019t seem to be asking \u2018What\u2019s next?\u2019 as much as they are asking how they can immerse themselves in what\u2019s in front of them, how they can be successful in the here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here we introduce just three of the thousands of incredible students that begin their paths at FIU this semester.<\/p>\n

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LUCA MARTINEZ
\nNature Photographer & Conservationist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Major<\/strong>: Sustainability and the Environment
\nHigh School<\/strong>: Palmer Trinity
\nFun fact<\/strong>: \u201cI ran track all through high school, and I love to play basketball.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Luca Martinez<\/a>\u00a0is a globally recognized nature photographer and videographer. What began when he was 15 as a passion project to share photos of the Everglades and spread awareness about conservation on\u00a0social media<\/a>\u00a0quickly skyrocketed into a wildly successful career as a photographer-conservationist and public speaker.<\/p>\n

His breathtaking photos have captivated millions of viewers worldwide. Martinez has been featured in dozens of media stories, from NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt to Fox Weather and Channel 10\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Trash Our Treasure\u201d with Louis Aguirre. Recently, Martinez appeared on the cover of Aventura magazine. Additionally, his work is showcased in the \u201cRiver of Grass<\/a>\u201d exhibit in UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage Collection on the Google Arts and Culture Platform.<\/p>\n

Today, he is a contributing writer for Oceanographic Magazine and currently has video projects in the works with National Geographic and award-winning producer Phil Fairclough.<\/p>\n

Martinez starts his FIU journey this fall. He was selected\u00a0to receive the FIU Provost\u2019s Achievement Award and the university\u2019s first Provost\u2019s Undergraduate Environmental Resilience Fellowship. The fellowship will allow him to serve as a student leader whose charge will be to engage students across all disciplines to become involved in environmental resilience. The initiative, expected to launch this academic year, will focus on the challenges and solutions surrounding environmental resilience.<\/p>\n

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Martinez has photographed the Everglades and its wildlife \u2014 from sunrise to nighttime and everything in between. Photos courtesy of Luca Martinez.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Martinez\u2019s passion for conservation \u2014 and for the Everglades \u2014 began during the COVID lockdown, when he spent hours hiking through the national park, veering off paths and taking photos of all he saw. He was captivated by the beauty. Most people think of pythons, alligators and swamps when they think of the Everglades. Martinez’s work is dispelling these traditional views of the national park. Using an underwater camera rig, he began filming scenes from beneath the surface. What he captured was a relatively unknown world: crystal clear waters, fish the size of his arm and vibrant green plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plan is to create as much awareness as I can about this place I\u2019ve fallen in love with,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Everglades is a place that is dying. My role as a photographer and as a speaker is to raise awareness and help people see how the magic of Miami lies in the bond we have with the land. My goal is to inspire at least one person to care about the Everglades the same way I do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He says FIU, a recognized leader in the restoration of the Everglades, is the perfect place for him to deepen his skills and network. He\u2019s particularly looking forward to his role as an environmental fellow and to inspiring other students to take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored to be recognized as a student leader at FIU, a university that values and supports youth voices,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is an incredible opportunity to create an environmental initiative that empowers and educates students. It\u2019s truly inspiring to be joining FIU in addressing the greatest environmental challenges of today.”<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also eager to learn from the university\u2019s top-notch environmental and marine sciences faculty. \u201cThe professors at FIU are world class,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019ve read papers they\u2019ve written. I\u2019m going to have incredible resources in these scientists right here at FIU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez will be sharing his story at an\u00a0event on campus at the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center on October 19.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Luca Martinez (Photo courtesy of Martinez).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that so many people my age are disconnected from the natural world. You have to show them what\u2019s alive, show them that this place [Everglades] is resilient. The question is not \u2018Whether or not this place is worth saving,\u2019 but \u2018What is this place worth to you?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 Luca Martinez<\/p>\n

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TEESHALEE CHIN
\nInnovator & Inventor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Major<\/strong>: Mechanical engineering
\nHigh School<\/strong>: Miami Norland Sr. High
\nFun fact<\/strong>: \u201cI love animals! Everyone should know that about me. I absolutely love them, even the animals that scare me a little.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Teeshalee Chin doesn\u2019t wait around for things to come to her. She makes them happen.<\/p>\n

When she was a child and money was tight, she made her own toys using household materials and a little ingenuity. \u201cIt didn\u2019t hit me back then that what I was doing was engineering,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I realize it now. It really is a passion of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, she begins her journey at FIU as a mechanical engineering major. She was selected as the recipient of the David R. Parker and Marian E. Davis Presidential Scholarship, which supports academically talented students starting their degrees at FIU.<\/p>\n

At an early age \u2014 and thanks to her parents and several teachers \u2014 Chin embraced education as the path to success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taught to put all my effort into what I do, regardless of who is watching, who is listening or who you are doing it for. I remember my PE teacher said, \u2018Character is the way you act when no one is watching.\u2019 That lesson has become a part of me. I always put in my best effort.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This drive led her to earn a slew of awards throughout high school. She earned the District 1 Student of the Year award as well as her school\u2019s Miss Literacy Award and Vanheim Award (recognizing high GPA, community involvement and positive interactions with teachers and peers). She was involved in her school\u2019s National Honor Society, English Honor Society, Key Club and Art Club, among other volunteer activities. A dual-enrollment student, she was recognized as the top student in a college credit-earning course on personal finance.<\/p>\n

Chin also worked with a team of students to host science and technology presentations for elementary and middle school students, where she would teach key concepts and inspire students to pursue STEM degrees. Addtionally, she served as a volunteer chemistry lab assistant at Miami Dade College.<\/p>\n

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Top photos: Some of Chin’s creations include angel wings (left). She made these by bending metal and using Warbla thermoplastic (a lightweight material that can be molded into shapes when heated and then hardened when cooled). Another creation: A wand inspired by Harry Potter (right). She worked with wood, made carvings on its side and even drilled a hole through the wand and dropped a coil of LED fairy lights to create the light-up effect. Bottom, from left to right: Chin and a group of Key Club students from her high school work during an event they organized to encourage students to interact and engage with each other; Chin poses with multiple awards for her academics and service.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An art class helped Chin realize that her love of sculpting and woodwork could be channeled into an engineering career. Her goal is to one day open a shop where artistry and engineering meet \u2014 she will sell the gadgets and machinery that she creates. She hopes to make life easier and more beautiful for people through her creations.<\/p>\n

Another major goal of Chin\u2019s: To create affordable housing. Chin understands the issue firsthand, as her family has experienced homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo family should have to experience what I did [with homelessness],\u201d she says. \u201cWith the way the world is running, rent is not going to get any cheaper. I want to build houses so low-income families can have a nice, decent place where they can stay until they get back on their feet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She is eager to learn \u2014 and enjoy her time \u2014 at FIU. \u201cWhen I visited campus, I just fell in love with the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s looking forward to participating in the vibrant campus life and joining the Robotics Club.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nTeeshalee Chin<\/em><\/p>\n

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VICTOR GARCIA
\nService & Excellence Champion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Major<\/strong>: Hospitality and tourism management
\nHigh School<\/strong>: St. Brendan High School
\nFun fact<\/strong>: \u201cI\u2019ve seen around 40 artists in concert, from the Black-Eyed Peas to Pitbull.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While serving as senior class president and president of the National Honor Society in high school, Victor Garcia hit his stride. Through those roles, he helped organize everything from homecoming events, spirit week and school dances to food drives and Christmas toy drives. He combined service with excellence. This led him to pursue a career in hospitality \u2014 and it brought him to FIU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear amazing things about FIU,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m excited about the community of people. Also, nothing beats FIU\u2019s hospitality program. And it\u2019s here in Miami, a tourist destination. I couldn\u2019t let that slide by me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Garcia is a National Merit Scholar. He graduated with a 5.25 GPA and was among the top 10 students of his class. He received awards, including AP Scholar with Distinction and Highest Academic Distinction. He also earned an AP Capstone Diploma from College Board. As part of the program, Garcia conducted his own research, surveying 200 students, analyzing correlations, writing a literature review and delivering a 20-minute presentation on his findings about the effect of sibling competitiveness on academic performance and motivation.<\/p>\n

He was honored with the Archbishop Thomas Wenski Catholic Leadership award, which recognizes students across Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Miami for their service and leadership in religious activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\nVictor Garcia<\/em><\/div>\n
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\"victor-garcia-collage.jpg\"
Top: Inspired by his grandfather, Victor Garcia places donated flowers on graves to honor the memory of those no longer with us. Bottom, from left to right: Garcia and a peer from St. Brendan work as anchors on the school’s morning news. Garcia was part of the team that put together the announcements, filming, editing and anchoring the news; Garcia flaunts his Panther pride with the Roary statue; and he snaps a photo with students and a teacher involved in St. Brendan’s spiritual retreats in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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As a senior,\u00a0Garcia launched a service project dear to his heart. He heard his grandfather saying he wished he could put flowers on his mother\u2019s grave. But his grandfather couldn\u2019t bear the trip\u00a0to Spain because of his physical conditions. It sparked a fire in Garcia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He reached out to local flower distributors. He asked them to donate blooms that would otherwise be thrown away after beginning to wilt \u2014 all with the goal of honoring the memory of those who are no longer with us. Several distributors agreed. Garcia would then drive to the distributors, pick up the flowers and donate them to funeral homes or place them on graves of people in cemeteries that had empty flower vases.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to do for the community what I wish I could do for my grandfather,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew how meaningful it would be to him, and what it could mean for others, too.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Like many enterprising Panthers, Garcia begins his journey as an FIU Honors student while working. He has a part-time job at the renowned Ritz-Carlton hotel in Key Biscayne.<\/p>\n

Garcia comes from a lineage of entrepreneurs \u2014 his grandparents founded Miami-based Lupa Shoes. He also comes from a proud Panther family. His parents are both FIU alumni and his sister is currently studying at the university.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This summer, Garcia attended\u00a0Panther Camp<\/strong>, a three-day, team-building experience for incoming freshmen. \u201cIt is a great experience,\u201d he says. \u201cI have people that I consider are part of my community at FIU because of it.\u201d<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on August 21, 2023 on news.fiu.edu. Written by Gisela Valencia   The Class of 2027 is raising the bar on success. These students spent almost their entire high school careers dealing with the effects of COVID-19, remote learning and lockdown. Yet, this class soared above it all. These gutsy students transformed the challenges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16432,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16429\/revisions\/16432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}