Doing it all at FIU: One student’s experience

Olbin Gil is the poster child for running with every opportunity that FIU throws his way. During the past three years, the mechanical engineering major revived a now-thriving automotive club on campus, accepted an invitation to an entrepreneurship competition that had him founding a viable business, participated in exclusive seminars on politics and economics led by visiting foreign dignitaries and attended a weeklong out-of-state retreat, paid for by the university, to debate the pros and cons of capitalism.

One thing leads to another

When Gil saw that the sustainable-engineering club he had joined as a freshman appeared on the verge of disbanding a year later when its president and most of the rest of the members graduated, he at first shunned the suggestion that he take over the flailing group. Prodded, however, he thought creatively about how to reverse its fortunes – the goal being an entry in the global engineering competition Shell Eco-marathon – and parlayed an invitation to a career fair in North Carolina into a fundraising trip. Not far enough along in his studies to interview for actual jobs, the then-sophomore made a pivot: “Instead of pitching me,” he says, “I pitched the club.”

Approaching the 50 or so companies recruiting talent, he made a plug for financial support and eventually collected thousands of dollars. He made up the needed balance with a fruitful appeal to the Student Government Association and soon had 50 students lined up to build an electric vehicle for a race in Indianapolis against universities from throughout the Americas.

Gil shares that everything from drumming up the money to completing and shipping the car in time cost him untold hours of sleep and keenly tested his fortitude. “It was very, very challenging,” he recalls. “It was a stretch for me.”

But pushing himself, he adds, paid off in newfound knowledge and a heightened ability to execute under pressure. “I went from not knowing anything to knowing a lot about a lot of different things.”

That success caught the attention of folks at StartUP FIU, the university’s innovation hub. They called on Gil to compete in the Ford Motor Company’s Tech for Social Impact Accelerator, which encourages the development of “actionable solutions” to community challenges. Soon he assembled a small crew to create an online marketplace for local farms and restaurants to connect, something he recognized as often difficult for two parties that are typically small businesses operating on tight margins. The resulting project won the $25,000 top prize and led to participation in a separate, second competition as well as Gil’s being named to the South Florida Business Journal’s list of young innovators and presenting earlier this year at the eMerge Americas tech conference. Today, with several new staff on board, he continues to actively land sponsors for the enterprise as he looks to commercialize it in the coming years.

Big-picture economics

The meaningful leadership experiences and skills that he acquired organically by saying “yes” to whatever came his way quickly led Gil to seek out other types of opportunities to further his interest in business. Specifically, he looked to FIU’s Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom, a think tank dedicated to advancing policies and education around economic prosperity.

His first interaction came as part of small-group meetings that the center hosts to join students with visiting diplomats who showcase real-life examples of how government decisions and policymaking impact economic activity. Gil signed up first for a series of sessions with a former president of Ecuador and a second with a former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States.

When he heard from a friend that the Adam Smith Center supports students’ attendance at a weeklong retreat around the work of the late free-market economist Milton Friedman, he applied. The gathering in Vermont brings together students of a variety of majors from around the country and, sometimes, even abroad to read and discuss the Nobel laureate’s scholarly work.

Participating in Capitaf -  a blend of the words “Capitalism and Freedom,” the title of Friedman’s 1962 book - made sense in the context of both Gil’s interest in business and his desire to comprehend why some countries excel economically while others do not, he says, among them his impoverished homeland of Honduras, which he and his family left more than a decade ago.

“There are economic systems and political systems [that], as a mechanical engineer, I do not understand,” he says, “but I think it is important to know how they work because they influence not just me, they influence my parents, they influence my community and the entire nation.”

Gil also believes that exposure to diverse perspectives and thinking critically through the act of debate advance him as an individual.

“I went with an open mind,” he recalls of the curiosity that guided him. “I just wanted to learn.” Meeting other university students from different backgrounds, he appreciated “how passionate everyone was about their viewpoints” and “to just have a free place where you can talk.”

Among the topics discussed: the role of the government in the economy, the ethics of free markets and the impact of economic policies on individuals and society.

The conversations drew out students’ ideas as well as reactions to the reading material, and a facilitator served in the role of devil’s advocate, Gil explains, with no particular agenda beyond spurring thoughtful, constructive dialogue around subject matter on which few might otherwise ever engage with peers.

“Basically, if we were going one direction, [the facilitator] would try to counterargue,” Gil says of the push to get students to consider all sides. “There’s no right or wrong answer,” he explains, and no specific takeaway beyond the imperative to continue such intellectual exploration for the rest of one’s life.

Full circle

Now entering his final year at FIU, Gil is putting what he has learned inside and outside the classroom toward his senior design project. For that requirement of graduation, which he will present on campus for evaluation in December, he is working with classmates on improving the aerodynamics of race cars competing in the International Motor Sports Association endurance competitions.

Already well-practiced in reaching out to others for information and resources, he started by seeking input from the various racing teams that stand to benefit from his work. One representing Cadillac responded, and soon he and the fellow members of his group attended a race in Sebring, Florida, where they met with the all-important race engineer as well as others.

Looking back upon a period of intense activity as an undergraduate, Gil sums up what drives him to seize every promising experience that comes his way: “The main, conscious reason why I accept multiple opportunities [is] because I know that the version of myself in the end is going to be way, way better than when I first started.”

And whatever proves the most difficult, he continues, will result in the biggest payoff.

“If you already know what to do, then it's not really a growth opportunity. It is just a task,” he states. “A challenge,” on the other hand “is an expectation that you are going to grow with the journey.”