Riding the Gator Line to campus, Dr. Fernell Jiménez-Pabón, sometimes catches himself looking at the faculty badge hanging around his neck. "Sometimes I look at my badge like it's a gold medal," he said.

Years earlier, he was riding the same route as a student, hoping simply to earn a bachelor's degree. For Dr. Jiménez-Pabón, now an instructor in UHD's Department of History, Humanities and Languages, the path to becoming a UHD faculty member began with what he describes as a happy accident. Initially intending to attend University of Houston, he decided to take a chance on the building in the Houston skyline he frequently passed. 

"I took the Metro because it was still fairly new at the time, and it stopped right in front of the university," Jiménez-Pabón recalled. "I thought, 'This has to be close enough,' so I went in to talk with an advisor."

That conversation was the start of a journey that would shape both his education and career. Balancing full-time work as a middle school paraprofessional supporting history and science classrooms, Jiménez-Pabón completed courses in both online and in-person formats before graduating in 2009.

"Before I knew it, I looked at my transcript and realized I was done," he said.

After earning his Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from UHD in 2009, Jiménez-Pabón continued teaching while pursuing a Master of Education in Technology Leadership from Lamar University. He later earned a Master of Arts in Spanish Translation from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley before completing his Doctor of Philosophy in Humanities, with an emphasis in History, from Faulkner University. 

Each degree opened the door to the next, gradually expanding both his expertise and his vision for what he could accomplish as an educator.

"Every time I finished a degree, I thought about what came next," Jiménez-Pabón said.

While UHD shaped his academic journey, Jiménez-Pabón said his passion for education began years earlier with someone who showed him what a classroom could be. 

After moving to the United States at 15 from Bogotá, Colombia, he met his high school art teacher and mentor, Don Allen, whose classroom became a safe haven during a pivotal time in his life. 

“He made his classroom a safe haven for kids like me,” Jiménez-Pabón said. "We played chess, created art and learned that education could be fun."

Years later, Jiménez-Pabón found himself back at the university where his own journey began, this time standing at the front of a classroom for the next generation of Gators and working alongside colleagues who were once his own professors.

Today, he teaches courses including Ancient Western Culture, Introduction to Latino Studies and First-Year Seminar, helping students explore history, culture and identity while navigating their own academic journeys.

His approach to teaching is rooted in the same qualities he admired as a UHD student: flexibility, understanding and a genuine passion for learning. Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, Jiménez-Pabón strives to create a classroom experience that reflects his own personality and encourages students to engage with the material. 

"Students can tell, whether it's online or in person, that it's my class," he said. "It has something unique to me."

After earning each degree, Jiménez-Pabón considered buying a class ring but decided to wait. Although it commemorates his doctorate, he said the ring represents every milestone that began with his first step onto UHD's campus. Today, together with the faculty badge he once compared to a gold medal, it serves as a reminder to keep moving forward. 

"Each degree made me realize I wasn't done yet," Jiménez-Pabón said. "Little by little, I kept pushing myself." That drive, Jiménez-Pabón said, was instilled in him by his mother, who encouraged him to keep going even in moments when he doubted himself.

Now, he hopes students see more than just an instructor standing at the front of the classroom. 

"I want them to see that anything is possible," he said. "Don't have dreams. You'll fall asleep. Have goals. You complete one small goal, then another, then another, and eventually you reach the bigger goal.”