By Lorie Briggs, University Communications and Marketing
Vivek Mankar never realized how much the stranger in the green jacket would change his life.
Eight years ago, Mankar left work and took a three-hour train ride to attend USF’s information session in Mumbai, India. He arrived late, tired and sweaty, and slipped into a hotel conference room filled with prospective students — many sitting beside their parents.
Mankar was there alone. And he wasn't sure he belonged.
He almost didn’t go.
At the time, he was working at Accenture in Pune and contemplating an enormous leap: Leaving his family and his country to pursue a master's degree in information systems in the United States. His family couldn't afford it. He would have to figure out the financing later.
Mankar had grown up in a small village in India, where his parents still live. His childhood included periods without reliable electricity or running water. He had worked in door-to-door sales. It was a living, but he wanted more.
He took a leap of faith.
What he remembers most from that evening isn’t anything about curricula or admissions requirements.
President Limayem honored Mankar during his fall address
He remembers a professor in a green jacket.
That professor was Moez Limayem, then-dean of USF's Muma College of Business and now university president.
Limayem challenged the students to think beyond simply earning a degree. He asked whether, after coming to the United States, they would be willing to break out of their shells, form friendships outside the Indian community, and truly become part of life in Tampa. He even challenged them to become close enough to an American friend that they might be invited to Thanksgiving dinner.
“I remember briefly asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Then I heard him speak — the professor in the green jacket.”
Mankar took the challenge to heart and took Limayem's message with him.
"If I can work hard enough and break out of my shell and not worry about what's coming — because I don't know what's coming — but prove to myself that I can do this," Mankar recalled.
When he arrived in Tampa, his planned housing arrangement fell through. For a short time, he had nowhere to live. He didn't tell his parents, knowing they were already worried about him. Fortunately, other students offered him space on their living room floor.
A conversation with an Uber driver helped him learn about a fledgling company that might have an internship opening.
Without a car, Mankar would leave his apartment near USF around 5 a.m. and ride his bicycle about six miles to the company’s Waters Avenue office. He would then bike back through Tampa rush-hour traffic to attend an evening information security class taught by Professor Manish Agrawal.
Agrawal only recently learned about those rides.
"I had no idea," Agrawal said. "I am not sure my class was worth it, but it demonstrates drive. It’s a signal of a student who would not wait for good things to happen to him. A student who would find a way.”
Mankar arrived at USF interested in data science and machine learning, but his coursework and participation in ReliaQuest Labs pulled him toward cybersecurity — a field he hadn’t considered before. That hands-on experience led to an internship at Data-Tech, giving him an opportunity to apply what he was learning in a professional setting.
Mankar also credits faculty members Balaji Padmanabhan and Clinton Daniel with shaping his USF experience.
In Daniel's data visualization class, students were once given art supplies and asked to draw what "home" looked like to them. For Mankar, the exercise reinforced something that would become important in his career: Technical knowledge mattered, but so did creativity and the ability to communicate a story.
Daniel doesn't remember Mankar specifically. But he remembers the exercise. The box of colored pencils still sits on a shelf in his office as a reminder of the sacrifices students make.
After graduating in 2021 with a degree in business analytics and information systems, Mankar worked as a cybersecurity consultant at EY. He soon joined Paligen Technologies full-time, becoming the company’s fourth employee.
Mankar and his wife, Shae, pose with President Limayem following the fall address
Today, at age 32, Mankar is chief information officer for the Tampa Bay-based defense manufacturing company, which employs 400 people.
And Mankar followed through on the challenge he heard that night in Mumbai.
He built friendships far beyond the community he knew when he arrived, celebrated Thanksgivings and other American traditions, and made Tampa Bay his home. Today, he lives in Safety Harbor with his wife and their two young daughters.
Nearly eight years after that evening in Mumbai, Mankar decided to tell Limayem what had happened.
He sent him an email.
"You may not remember a USF information session in Mumbai in 2018, but I have remembered that evening — and you — for nearly eight years."
Mankar told Limayem that what he said that night had changed his life.
Limayem remembers the session and his green jacket, but he doesn’t remember Mankar specifically. For him, it was one of many recruiting events he attended as dean.
But the email deeply affected him.
He invited Mankar back to campus to honor him during his first fall address as president and encouraged Mankar to return to USF classrooms to share his experiences with today's students.
"Vivek's story is a reminder that we don't always know which moments will matter," Limayem said. "A conversation after class, an encouraging word or an introduction can stay with a student for a lifetime. Universities accomplish extraordinary things. But ultimately, we change lives one person at a time."