When Luis Maldonado was a freshman at Stetson, he went to New York on Spring Break with a group of friends, and he set a goal: Visit all 50 states by age 40.

Now 38 and a federal immigration attorney in Atlanta, Maldonado is closing in on his goal. He has visited 47 states — only Oregon, Montana and Alaska remain.

“I definitely will be doing those three in two years,” said Maldonado ’01, (English, magna cum laude), who joined the Stetson University Board of Trustees last month.

Maldonado traveled last week to North and South Dakota, including to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, wearing a Stetson University t-shirt. He said he enjoys visiting such “American treasures.”

The sculptures of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were carved into the granite of the Black Hills by nearly 400 workers between 1927 and 1941, according to the National Park Service. Earning $8 a day, they used dynamite to blast through the rock, and then worked with tools and by hand to remove the last three to six inches of rock, as they dangled from steel cables and chairs.

“Mount Rushmore is one of those things that’s on a bucket list. You see these things on TV or postcards or on the internet. Any time you see one of those in person, it’s just kind of breathtaking, like wow, I get to see this,” he said.

He said he’s enjoyed the opportunity to travel with fellow Hatters since setting his goal. For example, he visited Kentucky with his roommate, Belkys Torres, ’01, during his senior year when they presented research at the University of Kentucky. More recently, he embarked on a six-state road trip with Kristina Jones, ’02.

After graduating from Stetson, Maldonado earned a law degree from the University of Florida and now works as legal counsel for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security.

“Whenever I have a chance to get away from work, I try to knock off another state in the process,” he explained. “I don’t take anything for granted, so the ability to have both the financial wherewithal and the time to be able to pursue a passion of mine is something that I enjoy.”

 

Send Us Your Travel Photos: #HatterTravels

Hatters love to travel – around the globe and closer to home. Send us your travel photos with a Stetson Hatters logo for our #HatterTravels photo album. Be sure to send at least 300 dpi to [email protected] and include: #HatterTravels in the subject line, your name, the degree and year you graduated from Stetson, your phone number, when and where the photo was taken, and full names and other information about others in the photo.

-Cory Lancaster