Ten outstanding Eagles inducted into FGCU Hall of Fame
- Laurie Dionne Babcock
- Student success
- Contributors: James Greco and Ava Schimitsch, Photos | Rob Salazar, Video
11 – minute read
Ten class of 2026 standouts have been inducted into Florida Gulf Coast University’s Hall of Fame, the highest recognition awarded to students.
The Hall of Fame honors individuals who demonstrate superior leadership, integrity and achievement through service, scholarship, academic excellence and campus involvement.
This year’s honorees boast more than 2,300 combined service-learning hours, and four are part of the Honors College.
“This prestigious honor is awarded annually to no more than 10 exceptional students who have not only excelled in leadership, service and academic endeavors, but have contributed to FGCU in extraordinary ways, led meaningful efforts with powerful impacts and demonstrated excellence beyond FGCU,” said Jessica Rhea, senior director of experiential learning and career development.
This year’s inductees shared highlights of their activities, accomplishments and aspirations.
Olivia Black
Olivia Black completed her bachelor’s degree in forensic studies in just five semesters, graduating last December. This fall she’ll finish a master’s in forensic studies. At 21, she is the youngest graduate student in the College of Arts & Sciences’ program. She was supported by the Alico Inc. Scholarship Fund.
Black’s service work has spanned Habitat for Humanity builds, beach cleanups, volunteering at local elementary schools, hosting a bone marrow drive, partnering with the American Heart Association, visiting patients at Golisano Children’s Hospital and coaching youth softball players. She also helped lead the Youth Impact initiative, hosting students from Orlando during their spring break to introduce them to college life.
The Fort Pierce native is an FGCU softball standout and served as a representative and president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. As chair of the community service subcommittee, she organized and expanded the annual canned food drive. In fall 2025 alone, the advisory committee contributed 336 pounds of food to the FGCU Campus Food Pantry to help combat student food insecurity.
Christina Colin
Immokalee native Christina Colin graduated with a double major in forensic studies and criminal justice in the College of Arts & Sciences. She served as special events committee director and later as president of Programming Board for two consecutive years, planning large-scale events to foster community and student well-being. As an Eagle View Orientation leader, she welcomed incoming students during their transition to college.
Her leadership was further shaped through Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, where she held multiple roles including cultural awareness chair, community service chair and vice president of recruitment. These experiences strengthened her commitment to ethical leadership, advocacy and service, which informed her work with the Student Farmworker Alliance as communications chair.
Colin also served as a scholar with The Immokalee Foundation, volunteered at a juvenile detention center, supported food distribution efforts with the Midwest Food Bank and St. Martin de Porres Outreach Ministry, and participated in beach and road cleanups through Healthy Earth. She received scholarship support from The Immokalee Fund.
Stevenson Destrat
Stevenson Destrat’s journey at FGCU began as a dual-enrollment student in the Accelerated Collegiate Experience. He returned as a peer mentor to 30 students and earned the Award for Excellence in Peer Mentorship in 2023-24. The Lehigh Acres native graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences with a degree in biochemistry.
He was involved in The Leadership Experience’s alternative spring break program, first as a participant. Then as student director for two years, he coordinated four weeklong service trips, leading 64 students to domestic service sites and where they contributed more than 2,880 service-learning hours.
Destrat served as a learning assistant for “Human Anatomy and Physiology,” vice president of programming for the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity and director of leadership development for Student Government. He collaborated with Career Development Services to host professional development workshops and helped raise more than $6,000 for Azul’s Attire to expand access to free professional attire for students.
This past fall, Destrat participated in a research cohort under biology professor Christina Anaya, logging more than 70 hours of laboratory research examining invasive species in Southwest Florida.
Noah Drebing
Lockport, Illinois, native Noah Drebing graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences with a degree in biology. He completed 225 service-learning hours while engaging in sustained campus leadership and community service and served as an instructional assistant for physics.
Drebing’s commitment to service was shaped by his experience in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, when he participated in self-organized neighborhood relief efforts to provide food, water, power access and support to displaced Fort Myers residents.
On campus, he served in multiple leadership roles within his fraternity, including holding positions as philanthropy chair and as scholarship chair. Through academic accountability initiatives and structured peer study support, he helped raise the chapter’s average GPA by approximately 0.2 points. He also led his chapter’s support of mental health awareness initiatives, raising more than $10,000 and generating over 350 service-learning hours benefiting FGCU and the Southwest Florida community.
Drebing’s service extended beyond campus through involvement with Best Buddies, fostering long-term inclusion and community connection, and Special Smiles, where he helped provide oral health education to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He plans to pursue a career in dentistry.
Benji Gans
Benji Gans graduated from the Lutgert College of Business with a degree in resort and hospitality administration. A member of the Honors College, the Jupiter native completed over 250 service-learning hours, earned placement on the Dean’s or President’s Lists for seven semesters and maintained a 3.858 GPA. Gans received support from the Allison Schroer Memorial Scholarship Endowed Fund.
He pursued interdisciplinary coursework in finance, lodging management and hospitality operations, applying classroom theory to real-world analysis through projects such as an Honors “Corporate Finance” class company valuation of McDonald’s Corp. He also earned the certification in hotel industry analytics.
Gans served as president of FGCU’s Club Managers Association of America student chapter. Under his leadership, the chapter won a national new member recruitment contest, secured its first external sponsorship and hosted a panel of Southwest Florida club general managers to connect students with industry leaders and career mentorship.
Boaz Ginns
Honors College member and Cambridge, Massachusetts, native Boaz Ginns graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences with dual majors in criminal justice and forensic studies. He served as Alpha Epsilon Pi president and Interfraternity Council treasurer and received the Council Impact Award from the Southeastern Greek Leadership Association. He was inducted into the Order of Omega honor society.
Ginns held campus positions with Campus Reservations, the School of Resort & Hospitality Management and the Lucas Center for Faculty Development. His service projects included a campus food drive, creating hygiene kits for the Lee County Homeless Coalition and role playing for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office training academy.
He presented research on dark web criminal behavior at Eagle X, which led to a Homeland Security Investigations internship and a career focus in public safety.
Madison Hanson
Englewood native Madison Hanson graduated from Lutgert College with a finance degree and completed more than 1,082 service-learning hours. Through the Honors College, she completed academic contracts that enhanced her own knowledge and contributed to faculty research and curriculum development. Recognizing a gap in financial education related to emerging technologies, she founded FGCU’s Crypto Club, creating a learning environment for more than 76 members to develop technical and financial literacy in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.
Hanson served as president of Omicron Delta Kappa, helped manage the Eagle Fund and worked as a Bloomberg Lab monitor. She also supported student success and retention as a house manager with the Southern Scholarship Foundation.
With the alternative spring break program, Hanson participated as a student, student assistant director and student director. Designing and leading service experiences, she helped guide more than 50 students toward deeper community involvement.
Hannah Mathis
Tampa native Hannah Mathis graduated from the U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering with a degree in civil engineering. As president of the Society of Women Engineers, she grew membership from 10 to 45 students and plans to continue this work by establishing a parent chapter in Southwest Florida.
As part of a leadership initiative after Hurricane Ian, Mathis founded Restoring, Educating and Preparing SWFL, known as REPair, and developed it into a registered student organization. She organized a forum on rebuilding and preparedness and presented the initiative at international conferences.
Mathis received the Florida Medallion Scholarship, the Whitaker College of Engineering Visionary Impact Program Scholarship and the Drs. G. Burtt & Ruth W. Holmes Engineering VIP Program Scholarship.
She also completed internships in stormwater and land development engineering and served as a Whitaker College ambassador and as an outreach and marketing assistant. In the latter role, she produced creative informational content highlighting campus resources, student experiences and career pathways.
Samanique McIntosh
Samanique McIntosh graduated from Lutgert College with a degree in supply chain management. A native of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, she worked as a SPARK mentor, where she welcomed more than 200 incoming students and helped shape their transition to FGCU. She also served as an Eagle View Orientation team leader and Student Life Skills courses mentor. With more than 200 hours of service, she redesigned the Emerging Eagles program curriculum and expanded participation from 10 to more than 30 members, for which she was named Enlightened Leader of the Year.
Through Soulflowers, McIntosh facilitated self‑esteem workshops at a juvenile detention center, and volunteered at Dunbar High School, the Harry Chapin Food Bank and Pretty Girls Poppin Inc.
She served as a university ambassador and on the Lutgert College student advisory board. She maintained a 3.9 GPA and completed Honors College contracts, including a digital mental‑wellness mapping project and an emotional intelligence training module informed by employer interviews.
McIntosh also worked as an Amazon operations manager intern and held the first student internship with FGCU’s Procurement & Payment Services.
Kevin Roblejo
Naples native Kevin Roblejo will graduate this fall with a degree in biology from the College of Arts & Sciences. He pursued applied conservation and environmental stewardship through field research tracking gopher tortoises using radio telemetry. He earned certifications in wildlife research ethics, laboratory biosafety and permaculture design and applied his studies in his role as a gardener at the Naples Botanical Garden.
Roblejo served as president of Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity, leading the chapter to its largest membership to date while achieving its highest GPA in more than five years. Under his leadership, the chapter earned recognitions as Unified Greek Association Chapter of the Year and for Excellence in Programming & Collaboration. He expanded the fraternity’s Boys Don’t Cry initiative into an annual program that challenges harmful models of masculinity and promotes emotional intelligence, accountability and cultural responsibility.
Roblejo also served as assistant director of FGCU’s alternative spring break program, where he redesigned site leader training through assessments, personalized development plans and structured reflection models. These improvements enhanced leader preparedness and are being considered for broader implementation within The Leadership Experience.
He received support from the National Save The Sea Turtle Foundation Scholarship and Pop and Marj Kelly Scholarship Fund.