Carlos Rodriguez is a member of the inaugural class of the James M. Seneff Honors Program, a new community of top undergraduate business students who benefit from an especially rigorous curriculum. It is no surprise that Rodriguez was chosen as a Seneff Scholar, given his list of accomplishments and his passion for student- and community-centered activities.

In addition to playing saxophone in the FSU Marching Chiefs, Rodriguez is involved with the Academic Recruitment Organization, which reaches out to successful high school honors students to show them how they can be successful at Florida State and stay in Florida, rather than aspiring to an elite, out-of-state school.

He also volunteers at the Center for Leadership and Social Change, helping to organize PeaceJam Southeast, an international education program, and working with students in grades K-12 to engage them in the organization’s global call to action through service learning. Rodriguez completed a project with FSU’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, exploring the ways Southeastern U.S. authors, such as Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner, responded to natural disasters by weaving community resilience into their writing. “That project really helped me to synthesize ideas from written text and develop critical thinking,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez has volunteered at Camp Kesem at FSU, a weeklong summer camp for children affected by a parent’s cancer. “We help them understand that there are other kids out there like them, and that there are supportive people who want these kids to be happy and successful in life,” he said.

Rodriguez, who is minoring in Italian studies, participated in the FSU study abroad program in Florence, Italy, and enjoyed it so much that he plans to return after graduation as a program assistant helping students get the most out of their experience in Italy. Rodriguez said he chose to major in marketing and management information systems because he wanted to learn about something that would feed his love of technology and business. “I enjoy exploring the consumer mindset. Instead of only numbers, this area of study also looks at how consumers interact with their environment,” he said.