On Dec. 14. 2024, Seminole Hard Rock’s Winterfest boat parade hosted its 53rd annual event along a stretch of 12 miles, from the New River in Fort Lauderdale to Lake Santa Barbara in Pompano Beach. 

After a 20-year hiatus, Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science recently participated in the parade alongside 100 other boats associated with schools, organizations and communities around South Florida. 

After a month-long community-driven voting period, they were able to take home the event’s largest category, the “People’s Choice Award” on Jan. 12.

Gloria Trevino is the SeaTech coordinator at FAU’s Dania Beach Research Center. She shares what the school’s win means for staff and students. 

“It was nice that everybody came together. Trying times — everyone is struggling in one way or another, whether it be the cost of living or all of that,” she said.  “Coming together to work towards one goal was nice for everyone.”

After hearing about the event and how FAU hadn’t participated in 20 years, Trevino enrolled the school’s Ray McAllister research boat for this year’s event. 

The boat, which students use for research projects, was decorated by students and staff for the event. Trevino shares that the experience of decorating the very boat they used to conduct research on was memorable. 

“I take pride in the boat, having helped to rebuild stuff. It was a nice, relaxed experience, which makes it special. Being on the boat for this event — was surreal because you can feel the electricity in the vibe from the event,” she said. 

“Beforehand, I don’t think that nobody mentioned starting back up and doing it [again], and this year I just wanted to do it, and [the Engineering department said], ‘Okay Gloria, go ahead and do it,’” she said. “I managed to pull everybody together.” 

Decoration and setting up for the event took about a month for Trevino and her team of students and other staff. Alina Khan, an FAU senior multimedia studies major, shares that she wishes they would have started earlier. 

“If I had to change anything, it would be to start decorating earlier so we can have more time,” she said.

Khan joined the project after hearing about it through peers and deciding it looked like a “new” and fun opportunity to try. 

“I wanted to participate because it looked fun, and I have never been on a boat before this,” she said. 

Trevino shares that the event allowed students from all of FAU’s colleges and programs to get together. 

“Some of it was students who wanted to be there [but] couldn’t be there, and we even got one of our FAU police officers to come on board,” she said. “We had graduate students and some student workers. It was a nice mix of staff and students from both campuses.” 

Mackenzie Smith is a third-year doctorate ocean engineering student at FAU. She helped prepare the boat decorations for the event. She explained some of the challenges of the event setup.

“The most challenging part of the process was supporting the lights securely to the boat, and being exposed to the weather conditions sometimes posed a problem,” she said.

Smith explains that it was worth it in the end, sharing her favorite moments of the night. 

“The dancing on the bow of the boat at night with all our FAU team, supporting and broadcasting FAU, seeing all the lights and decorations that took hours to set up, and interacting with everyone on other boats and land,” she said.

Trevino shares that coming together and being with a group of students excited to be on the boat was her favorite part of the experience.

“Students were on — as soon as the parade started, and that was a couple of hours — hours of them screaming, dancing, waving, hooting and hollering the whole time,” she said.

As for the event’s future, Trevino shares that she hopes to return with a bigger team and prepare even further in advance. She hopes the event can encourage more generations of students to get together.

“Being out there and talking about FAU, talking about engineering, [helped us] get our name out there,” she said. “We plan to get there even earlier next year so that we can talk with the community more.”

Gabriela Quintero is the Student Life Editor for the University Press. For more information on this or other stories, contact Quintero at gquintero2022@fau.edu.