For Venezuela native Sofia Morón Márquez, the path to graduating from Florida Gulf Coast University began with her escape from what she characterized as “a country in chaos.” It also afforded her the chance to pursue a dream of competing internationally in karate and earning a college degree.
After graduating magna cum laude in December 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in integrated studies and a focus on exercise science, Morón Márquez has added one more dream to her list: She began work toward a master’s degree at Florida International University.
Her online MBA program with a specialization in sports management – a partnership between European University of Madrid and global soccer superpower Real Madrid – brings together renowned sports leaders and executives and top faculty from across the globe. It prepares students to successfully manage institutions in fast-changing global environments, she said.
Morón Márquez started studying karate at age 4 with her mother as her coach. By 10, she was already representing Venezuela in international competitions including the Pan-American, European and World championships. But things began to change in her hometown of Lecheria, a coastal city on the northwestern coast where her father was police chief.
“Our beloved city, which once was a very peaceful town, became like a war zone: tear gas, gunshots, rocks, fires, army and state police,” Morón Márquez said. “My family quickly realized that the situation was terrible and sooner or later I would have to leave in order to remain safe. For months, I was like a prisoner in our apartment, not able to roam freely.”
Conditions deteriorated to the point that she fled Venezuela and moved to Miami in 2017. “I left first because of an injury that I needed to treat before the World Shotokan Karate Federation World Championship,” she said. “I started school in the United States but was thinking that I was going to go back home. But, because of political persecution in the country, my family and I decided to stay in the U.S.”
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