Pablo Avila: Swinging Big Dreams at GBC

MEET Pablo Avila ‘23

Pablo Saenz Avila has been playing golf since he was six years old. Hailing from Bogota, Colombia, he traveled 2,300 miles to play golf for Goldey-Beacom College.

“In Colombia, it’s pretty common to dream of getting a scholarship to play sports in the United States,” Avila said. And this is how meeting a college recruiter changed his life – forever. Although during the process, he sustained a few injuries and lost hope of coming to the U.S. Fortunately for Avila, it all worked out. He was given the opportunity to not only attend GBC, but to join an entirely new, freshmen Men’s Golf team.

“It was a new start in my life with a new Golf team, and I liked the coach,” Avila said. But he admits he was nervous at first, especially about speaking English and being with so many Americans. He met all the Colombian students first and soon realized there were a lot of international students, many of them athletes.

Avila enjoyed the small, family environment that Goldey-Beacom offers. No matter where you’ve come from, students always find a home here with people just like them who were a little afraid at first, but who took comfort from being with other international students. “What’s funny is, I came here thinking my English is going to improve 100%,” Avila said and smiled. “Sometimes I speak more Spanish than English!”

He continued, “Knowing a lot of international students makes my approach to people a lot different. Now, when I meet new people from a different country, I probably know something about that country – because I learned from my GBC friends.”

Avila wants to play golf professionally, and that means being able to perform in any climate. After mostly playing in hot Florida weather prior to GBC, he experienced the weather uncertainty that Delaware is known to dish out. “This semester has been tough for all of us, even though we have Canadians on the team, and they’re used to cold weather,” Avila said. “We have been playing in really terrible conditions like winter, literally six degrees Celsius. It has been tough for everyone.” However, Avila and his teammates know that extreme weather conditions teach a lot about perseverance.

He noted, “The best experiences are the ones where you’re learning more about yourself. As an international student, you’re by yourself, and you just have to get used to it. Literally, your team is going to be your family for four years.”

It’s all about balance which, for Avila, isn’t that difficult. “I have a full-time schedule, but it still allows me to participate in golf practice and our game schedule,” said Avila. He noted the professors understand that student-athletes are committed to sports and academics.

He has a lot of free time for himself as well as his friends and family. He said, “I think it’s easy to balance. I don’t find it that stressful. I feel I’m living life.”

It turns out that Avila has developed a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. “I had a financial management class with Assistant Professor of Finance, Dr. Robert McConkie. I have been applying all the tools he gave me in a company that I have, and it has made an impact on me, especially the financial tools. I am actually applying them.”

He shared a little bit more about his company. “I started a real estate and investment company with my dad a few years ago in the U.S. It picked up faster than I was expecting. That’s something that I wouldn’t have done if I wasn’t at GBC. Like they say, you’ve got to dream big, and you’re going to achieve big goals.

Managing the company doesn’t require much time, so it’s easy to work into his schedule. “I structured the company in a way that I don’t really need to be involved 100%. I work on it for about an hour a day and check how everything is going.”

One of Avila’s best college memories so far is when his teammates celebrated his birthday during a CACC tournament. “My teammates caught me by surprise,” he said. “They started singing Happy Birthday with all the other teams from other colleges during the CACC banquet. Yeah, my 21st birthday.”

This article was previously featured in The Goldey-Beacom College Magazine