By Adrienne Sylver
When Mridul Pahwa received FIU’s Presidential Merit Scholarship in 2023, it was enough to propel the university to the top of his college dream list. But it was a fortuitous conversation with a stranger — an FIU alumnus from his hometown of Indore, India — that closed the deal and made FIU his academic destination of choice.
“A mutual friend connected the two of us and when we talked, he told me wonderful things about the computer science program and the faculty at FIU,” Pahwa says. “FIU had a great reputation in computer science and AI, and what he told me, coupled with the scholarship, made my decision an easy one.”
Still, nothing could prepare Pahwa, an only child whose mother is a teacher and whose father owns a furniture and carpentry business in India, for his first journey out of the country. When he landed at Miami International Airport in August of 2023 without a SIM card, he couldn’t even order an Uber. After rejecting an expensive taxi ride, he reached out to a student from an FIU group chat, requesting help from someone he’d never met.
“She booked me a ride and became a really good friend of mine,” he says.
The student’s willingness to help was a preview of what was to come. As soon as Pahwa stepped foot on campus, he found himself surrounded by a community that was welcoming, supportive and invested in each other’s success.
That sense of community proved invaluable as Pahwa dove into his studies and became involved in campus groups, including INIT, the largest tech organization at FIU.
“I started going to the INIT events and knew immediately that these were my people,” he recalls.
“The culture here is incredible. At FIU, if someone has information, they want to share it, not keep it to themselves.”
The Road to Google
Google in Residence visiting lecturer Niki Zarkub, who taught Programming 1 alongside associate teaching professor Maria Charters, reviewed Pahwa’s resume and provided a referral to the company’s internship program. In the summer of 2024, following his freshman year, Pahwa interned at Google’s Sunnyvale, CA, office through its STEP (Student Training in Engineering Program).
His classes at FIU helped him learn not only the technical skills to be successful, but also to take accountability for his own work.
“My professors taught me what it meant to be passionate about my work, and the importance of going the extra mile,” he says.
During his first Google internship, Pahwa developed a dashboard to track machine-learning pipelines. His stellar performance, which included his ability to quickly grasp the scope of the work, earned not just a return offer, but an invitation to skip the typical sophomore -level program and move directly into the junior-level internship. As part of the Keychain team in the summer of 2025, Pahwa worked on encryption and authentication tools. This May, he’ll return to Google for his third consecutive summer.
“It was surreal as a freshman going to the Google office,” he says. “I felt intimidated at first, but I quickly learned that the people are so smart and also humble.”
A Culture of Community
Back on campus, Pahwa has passed on what he’s learned at Google by teaching INIT workshops and serving on its Executive Board. He is also a teaching assistant with FIU’s Tech Talent Academy.
“I feel like I owe FIU,” he says. “I want to give back to the community and be there for others who come in as clueless as I was.”
Looking ahead, Pahwa is exploring quantum computing as an area of interest. He also enjoys reading and discussing research papers and has taken numerous courses through Google’s in-house education platform.
His takeaway from his time at FIU and Google is two-fold, he explains.
“It’s impossible to know everything, but it’s possible to learn anything with the right mindset and effort. What has stood out to me at FIU is that instead of an environment built purely on competition, I experienced a community rooted in support and collaboration. Knowing someone is always willing to guide, encourage, or simply listen provides a sense of reassurance that makes all the difference.”