Apparently, this Florida college makes its students ‘walk on water’

An architecture student is going viral after sharing his college’s “ridiculous” annual tradition.

Matheus Stancati studies architecture at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. On TikTok, he shared a throwback video from his sophomore year, during which he had to “walk on water” in order to pass a class.

“The things they make us do,” he captioned his clip.

As Stancati explains, the goal of the project was to create a pair of shoes that can effectively float on water. The students then test their shoes at the end of the semester — in the middle of a lake on campus.

@matheus_stancati

The things they make us do 🙄 ##architecture ##university ##fyp ##student ##itstheforme ##design ##learnontiktok ##tiktokpartner ##4u ##project

♬ ON IT – Sam Woolf

The “Walk on Water” is a longstanding tradition at the school. As Stancati puts it, large groups of students show out each year to “watch architecture students dying.”

“Thankfully, I ended up crossing because this is Florida and I don’t know what’s in there,” Stancati said, referring to the state’s alligator population.

The TikToker then followed up in his video’s comments with more details. Apparently, the students work in pairs, meaning not everyone has to cross the lake in order to pass.

“Two people design and build and we choose one to ‘walk,'” he wrote.

FIU has returned to on-campus classes in a limited capacity, but it’s unclear if the “Walk On Water” will still happen. Either way, TikTok users seemed stunned by Stancati’s experience.

“Architect professors be like … ‘walk on water,'” one user joked.

“What if you can’t swim?” another asked.

Others were more jealous than surprised, saying they wished their schools would try something similar.

“This sounds like how school should be,” one user wrote. “Challenging and fun projects to expand our creativity and knowledge, not assignments and due dates.”

“My architecture classes are NOT like this. Nice,” another added.

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