Marco Rubio will speak this afternoon at the historic Freedom Tower where he will share his candidacy for the 2016 presidential race. During his time as Florida senator, he’s also held another title: Professor Rubio.
Abel Ramos Taype was 23 years old and a few electives short of graduating with a degree in international relations from Florida International University.
Upon looking for one of those final electives needed to graduate, an international relations course billed with two lecturers caught his eye.
“So I saw this class taught by Marco Rubio and I just decided ‘yeah why not?’” Taype says.
That 2013 summer course had Marco Rubio and Dario Moreno as professors. Moreno acted more as a traditional college professor by hosting office hours and conducting research.
Rubio was more of a consistent guest lecturer, showing up every other day, according to Taype. He would promptly arrive and usually leave right after class, at times staying to have one-on-one conversations with students.
But what surprised Taype was the separation between senator and professor.
“He was really open to critics and to other opinions and ideas that probably he wouldn’t contemplate because of his party affiliation, you know he’s a Republican,” Taype says.
Like many other university professors, Rubio didn’t pass up on chances to test his comedic skills.
“He would throw sometimes jokes about policy and current events but not that much, not that often,” Taype added.
Marco Rubio has continued lecturing alongside Moreno at FIU on Monday and Friday mornings for a course on Florida politics.
