500K Strong
Profiles of The Gator Nation’s newest alumni
The Spring 2025 commencement season marked a huge milestone for the University of Florida. The Gator Nation® has grown into a dynamic network of alumni — now half-a-million strong — that spans every Florida county, the nation and the globe. These 500,000 alumni are keen to connect, uplift and pave an Orange and Blue trail for themselves and future Gators.
To commemorate the exceptional class of 2025 and this historic alumni landmark, we selected five students who illustrate many of the best traits of what it means to be a Gator.
The pillars these students exemplify were based on the four figures found on the hammer-beam ends along the interior of UF’s historic University Auditorium. Each showcases a symbol of the university’s student population during the building’s construction in the 1920s: scholar, musician, engineer and athlete.
A century later, we modified these archetypes to reflect the pioneering nature of our modern alumni. Gators are:
Here are the stories of these accomplished and outstanding Gator grads — the newest members of UF’s 500K alumni community.
Athlete
Leanne Wong, 21
Major: Health Education and Behavior
Hometown: Overland Park, Kansas
Leanne Wong was one of thousands in the packed O’Dome stands when the Gators won the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball championship.
But when thousands of students flooded the court, she held back, careful not to be injured before her final meet as a UF gymnast.
Wong likely knew the O’Dome floor better than anyone there.
At 21 years old, Wong has already accomplished more than most could dream about in a lifetime. She’s an NCAA champion, a two-time Team USA Olympic alternate, a fixture on the academic honor roll, a business owner, a nonprofit founder, an author and, even, a homeowner. And it doesn’t stop there. She plans to become a medical doctor, possibly in sports medicine.
The only thing below average about Wong is her height: 5’1. But when she competes, she stands tall and keeps her black hair bundled into a bun that is accessorized with her signature bow bedazzled with “LW.”
This same arena was the site of one of her most notable accomplishments as a UF athlete: closing a gym slam or perfect 10.0 in all four events with her floor exercise routine against LSU during the 2024 season.
Now that she is graduating from the College of Health and Human Performance, she said she’s also proud of her work beyond the leotard and in the classroom. She graduated with high honors after assisting a research team on a project that tracked how physical activity acts as a complement or substitute for substance use.
The Kansas native initially came to UF in 2020 for the standout gymnastics program and strong academic environment. The palm trees were also a draw.
Five years later, she credits her community with her successes.
“Everything I have here and all the people that I know are everything that I need,” she said. “It’s been a blessing.”
Her UF coaches, especially Jenny Rowland, allowed her to excel both in college and in the world of elite gymnastics.
Noele Figueroa — whom Wong met in Tokyo during the 2020 Olympics but coincidentally lived in St. Augustine and owns a leotard company — helped Wong start her own gymnastics apparel business. Wong sold over 10,000 hair bows her first year.
Former Gators quarterback Danny Wuerffel and James Gadsby, executive director of the Wuerffel Foundation, talked her through starting her foundation with a mission to address food insecurity and food waste.
After graduation, Wong is taking what she calls “a break” — a five-day mission trip to Costa Rica to help set up filtration systems to provide families with clean water. When she returns, she will resume her studies to finish her combined master’s program and the remaining prerequisites to apply to medical school.
For what’s next in her sport, she’s taking it day by day.
While her schedule can get overwhelming, Wong said, “knowing that times get better and easier, and there’s going to be highs and lows throughout life” helps her keep moving forward.
Plus, she admits, she gets “bored a little bit easily.”
Creator
Austin Lee, 22
Major: Digital Arts and Sciences
Focus: Film Production
Hometown: West Palm Beach
Austin Lee didn’t know about the Digital Worlds Institute in the College of the Arts when he started at UF, but by the time he graduated, it was home.
An adviser introduced him to the institute that melds digital art, storytelling, computer science and technology, and Lee tried out all the programs it had to offer. He crossed off multiple disciplines until he landed on film his sophomore year. He was inspired by Darius Brown, an institute lecturer focused on video.
“He really made me feel like I was, for the first time in a really long time, accepted,” Lee said. “He made me feel like I was worth something, and that my creative visions meant something to the institution, meant something to me, meant something to him.”
Lee dove into video, drawn to using technology to capture and preserve memories and movement. He became known as the “video production kid” in the tight-knit Digital Worlds community and later worked as a video teaching assistant.
For his final project at Convergence, the institute’s annual celebration showcasing the talent of graduating students, Lee delved into his past.
He grew up in restaurants. At one point, he tried content creation for social media by making short videos of himself preparing dishes but realized he preferred being behind the camera. He knew he still had some final thoughts about food that he wanted to share before closing that chapter of his life.
In 16 weeks, he lined up interviews with local chefs, managed production schedules and deadlines and crafted a documentary pulled from his own background. His final film showcased two head chefs from Gainesville restaurants, a retired chef and then Lee himself.
The colors of his film emulated a warm nostalgic energy, and shots bounced between the chefs talking during a sit-down interview to them in their culinary element. The documentary’s themes became more visceral and intimate as it moved along.
At the Convergence celebration in April, he wore his old chef coat and black apron as a homage to his restaurant days. His table was topped with printed menus and a small TV that played his documentary on a loop. It was also featured along with other students’ films in the theater room.
“It went almost exactly how I wanted it to. It felt almost relieving to get it out there and tell people about it,” he said.
When winners were announced in the Grand Ballroom of the Reitz Union, Lee excitedly jumped up and down for the winners, clapped loudly and, at one point, ran to hug a friend when her name was called.
His friends and other artists at the institute taught him both how to take criticism and to know when to stand by his art, helping form his creative identity.
“I don’t think I would have become an artist or reignited my passion for creating stuff had I not gone to UF,” he said.
Explorer
Julianne Owen, 23
Major: Aerospace Engineering
Hometown: Ponte Vedra Beach
Julianne Owen knew the perfect spot on campus to watch a rocket launch.
She sent out a message to her group chat of about a dozen friends — other UF students of varying majors — to see who may be up to join.
They gathered on top of the parking garage by Hume Hall as Owen shared fun facts about the rocket set to launch. Then they finally spotted the small candle in the sky. One of her favorite viewings on campus was during a clear night speckled by stars, and the rocket that blasted into the stratosphere used technology she learned about firsthand during her NASA internship.
“A ton of people worked together to make this launch happen. And now you get to see it, even if it’s this tiny pinprick in the sky,” she said. “That rocket is going somewhere very, very far away. And here I am on the ground just watching it.”
Owen saw frequent rocket launches on the West Coast during her internship last summer in Los Angeles with SpaceX. She was one of 31 applicants selected nationwide and UF’s first student selected for the prestigious Matthew Isakowitz fellowship.
“It’s a little scary working in the industry because you realize there are so many moving parts,” she said. “Everyone’s systems have to work really well for this to not go wrong.”
When Owen heads back to California this summer for a full-time job working on the SpaceX Dragon team as a life support systems engineer, she will bring with her the encouragement of her UF community.
One of her mentors was Jane Shin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department. Shin allowed her to embrace her curiosity and pursue any interest she wanted if it related to the overall goals of the lab.
Melissa Johnson, Ph.D., interim director of the UF Honors Program, helped Owen balance her NASA co-op rotations and stay on track with her coursework. She was always there to offer Owen advice and send over any opportunities she came across.
“There were so many people who encouraged me to apply to things. Just go for it. See what happens,” she said. “I don’t know if I would have had that sort of support at any other institution. It’s the people at UF that make it so unique.”
Scholar
Rida Rizvi, 29
Major: Master’s, Molecular Cell Biology
Hometown: Karachi, Pakistan
Syeda “Rida” Rizvi was about to step out for a breather after a long day of presenting when the winners for the 2025 UF Health Cancer Center Research Showcase were announced.
She suddenly heard her name called out in a pronunciation so perfect that she couldn’t miss it.
On Feb. 12, Rizvi was one of five winners out of 190 chosen for the best poster award.
“I was very pleasantly surprised, but happy, and felt like my hard work was acknowledged,” she said.
As she walked up to the stage to accept the award, the principal investigator of her lab, Maria Zajac-Kaye, Ph.D., had a huge smile as she recorded Rizvi with her cell phone, which Rizvi thought was very sweet of her and a testament to the positive dynamic of her lab.
Rizvi is a Fulbright Scholar from Karachi, Pakistan. Fulbright is the U.S. flagship program of highly competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists. Rizvi said she only put down subject preferences, not locations, to determine her host institution.
She chose UF after interviewing with Vinod Vijayakurup, Ph.D., who would be her future supervisor, for a role in Zajac-Kaye’s lab. She thought their mission aligned with her interest in cancer biology.
Rizvi’s research in the lab focused on better understanding pancreatic cancer and identifying newer treatment strategies.
Pancreatic cancer is particularly aggressive and rampant across the U.S. It can be hard to diagnose due to its common symptoms, she said.
Her entire two years at UF were focused on that research, consuming her days from the moment she woke to when she went to sleep. The poster she presented at the showcase was based on this research.
Everyone from the lab stopped by to see her presentation, including her colleague Maria Guijarro, Ph.D., who predicted her win. It was the only “I told you so” in her life that didn’t sting. These were the connections that made Rizvi’s UF experience so worthwhile.
“It really matters the lab that you’re in, the people who surround you,” she said. “You could be in the best university, but if you’re not among the right people, then it can be very traumatic, especially in research, because there’s so much going on. You need support. You need advice. So you have to have the right people. And I think I was very, very, very fortunate to have found that in my lab.”
As Rizvi prepares to head back to Pakistan this summer to pursue her Ph.D., she said she was grateful to experience “the true essence of American culture” by meeting so many people at UF from different backgrounds and learning “street smarts.”
“I’m going to miss every single inch of the good, the bad,” she said. “I am going to miss every single thing.”
Leader
Joshua Thomas, 21
Major: Political Science
Minor: African American Studies
Hometown: Jacksonville
Even as an elementary schooler, Joshua Thomas always wanted to be an attorney. He remembers seeing news reports of injustices and feeling inspired to become someone who can right those wrongs.
His parents and older sister didn’t go to college. His mom worked for an insurance company and his dad held various jobs after his time in the Army.
But Thomas said he knew he “had to go to college no matter what.”
In high school, he stayed involved: student government, band, honor societies and more.
UF was not on his radar during his initial college search. He was motivated to go to a private college, but he realized the cost was out of reach. So, when he started looking at local universities — weighing the academics, reviewing scholarship opportunities and praying — he landed on UF.
“Had I not gone to UF, I would be a completely different person,” he said. “I can’t exactly pinpoint in what ways, but I will acknowledge that UF has prepared students for a future in a way in which other universities can’t.”
Since then, he hasn’t looked back and has taken every opportunity presented, starting with the Leadership Development Institute at the Black Student Union (BSU) and later joining the Theta Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Thomas continued to move up in those organizations, eventually serving as treasurer of BSU and president of his fraternity’s chapter.
He went on to become a Florida Cicerone, leading campus tours and pointing out historical facts about UF with ease. He served a year as president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council and held leadership positions in UF Student Government. All this led to his induction into the Florida Blue Key student honor society, where he served as treasurer.
Thomas’ junior year schedule was so hectic that he mapped out each aspect of his day. He calculated exactly how long it took to do his daily necessities such as showering, eating meals and commuting to campus.
Juggling all these organizations and leadership roles helped him learn not to get caught up in the idea of what a leader is or the power that a leader wields. He focused on becoming the type of person who can support and advance a group of people from point A to Z. And he plans to take that experience on his next journey to become a lawyer — and maybe one day a judge.
Thomas said he thinks often about a quote by Olympian sprinter Wilma Rudolph: “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit.”
“Being a leader and having the passion and willpower to lead others, the energy you give off — good energy, hopefully — and the willingness and the power of your dreams and human spirit, will bleed into other people,” he said.
Spring 2025 University Wide Commencement
500K: Behind the Scenes
Images from the 500K video shoot coordinated by UF Advancement
Go Gators!
