As a first-generation student, Mario Agosto has always felt the pressure to succeed.
He said running for UF’s Student Body vice president with Impact Party is a larger platform to continue representing first-generation students. Agosto has never served as a senator. The election, to be held Tuesday and Wednesday, will be the first since 2014 with an uncontested vice presidential race.
“I am here to serve,” said Agosto, a 21-year-old UF criminology and law junior. “I am here to help others.”
Agosto grew up in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in a house built by his grandfather. Although he loved Puerto Rico’s mountains and being near his family, he also remembers being sent home from school after someone broke all of the building’s windows.
His mother wanted a better life for him and his four older siblings, so they moved to Ocala when he was 7 years old, he said.
Living only 45 minutes from UF, Agosto saw countless orange and blue shirts but never understood people’s passion for the university. He thought UF was out of reach for him and didn’t plan to apply, he said.
A friend, who was then a UF freshman, invited Agosto to tour the university with him and convinced him to apply. When he was accepted, he planned to attend, even if it
meant working a full-time job to afford it. Instead, he was offered the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholarship, available for first-generation students from low-income households.
“Being first generation, being Hispanic, it’s tough, because we have a lot of pressure on our shoulders,” he said.
Agosto has held leadership roles at UF through the Freshman Leadership Council, Florida Cicerones and the Hispanic Student Association, which he became president of in Spring 2016.
“It’s given me a purpose,” he said. “I’ve probably learned how to work with everybody.”
Jeremy Martinez, 20, said he knew Agosto would be his best friend Oct. 31, 2014, while playing basketball at 1 a.m. Martinez, who was Agosto’s roommate, was elbowed under his eye and had to go to the hospital, and Agosto stayed with him until he was released at 7 a.m.
Agosto shows the same dedication and support he gave Martinez that morning in everything he commits himself to, Martinez said. He said he believes Agosto will make a good vice president.
“I can tell that this is what he wanted to do,” the UF criminology and law senior said. “Beyond what he wanted to do, it’s something that the Student Body needed.”
Although Agosto said he is sad to leave his position as HSA president at the end of Spring, he’s ready to take on a new role with Impact. He said he admired the party because it has completed its promises.
Running unopposed, he’s looking forward to leading with his two friends, Smith Meyers and Revel Lubin.
“It’s not even about me,” he said. “It’s about literally all the people who have invested in me today.”
Mario Agosto
