Pablo Ávila just graduated from the University of Memphis as a Student Marshal with two majors, two Outstanding Senior Awards, and a whole lot of Memphis to show for it.
Born and raised in Bogotá, Pablo spent a gap year doing community service work in Mexico. That experience deepened something he had always carried: a drive to serve, understand people, and contribute to the communities around him. Anthropology was the natural fit. The University of Memphis had a practicing anthropology program that stood out, and his brother was already in the city. He made the move with intention.
What happened next is exactly the kind of story Memphis keeps writing for people who bring that energy to it.
Plugged Into the City
From his first semester, Pablo connected his academic work directly to the people around him. He started volunteering at Amigo Community Center, an amazing local nonprofit that connects resources to Memphis’s Latino community, and that work grew into a paid internship through the university. A full semester of real work alongside a community he was proud to be part of.
“My volunteer work opened that door so I could get paid, have an internship experience, and keep supporting that community,” he says.
He also partnered with the Benjamin L. Hooks Public Library on the 901Voices oral history project, pitching and leading interviews with Latino Memphians whose stories hadn’t been formally documented. His academic work didn’t stay in the classroom. It went back to the people.
“My work and research projects in school translated and contributed to the overall image and work being done in Memphis,” he says. “I thought that was super cool.”
Memphis Was Also Where He Found Home
During that same gap year in Mexico, Pablo met Katie, another participant in the same program. Memphis became the place they could both land, and they built a life here together. They enrolled at UofM and got married at Shelby Farms in the summer of 2023.
“We both came into Memphis from different parts of the world and fell in love with it.”
Pablo graduated as a Student Marshal for the College of Arts and Sciences, earning the Outstanding Senior Award for both of his majors and the Dean’s Award for the college. Katie walked across the stage as a Student Marshal too! He is about to transition into a full-time at the Consilience Group, a Memphis consulting firm where he grew from intern to part-time to the real thing, and Katie will being teaching young Memphians at Richland Elementary.
They are not leaving. That is what Memphis does for people who show up for it!
