Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Forged by FAU - Raul Valero
8/30/2020 5:55:00 PM | General, Men's Soccer
One of the skills you learn as an athlete is to work with others, (and) understand and respect others’ perspectives. This is an invaluable life skill that has aided me, for example, in group projects and working with clients.
Real estate attorney Raul Valero dreamed of a law career since childhood. He admired the nobility of law and the respect those practicing it garnered, wanting to follow their footsteps and help people along the way.
“I also wanted to be a writer, a director, an actor, a superhero, and Jedi,” Valero quipped. “But I always was drawn to law and being a lawyer.”
The Miami native’s first step toward the profession was football. A former two-time martial arts national champion, Valero traded the mat for the gridiron as a high school senior and impressed enough to earn a scholarship from nearby Florida Atlantic University.
FAU stood out to Valero because it offered a “great” coach in Howard Schellenberger, a “beautiful” beach-adjacent campus, and was close to home. The athletic scholarship was also a “tremendous financial help.” For those reasons, the offensive lineman signed with the Owls ahead of the 2005 season.
“It was an amazing feeling,” Valero said of earning an FAU athletic scholarship, “a dream come true.”
Valero played three seasons for the Owls, from 2005-07, and says the experience still helps him professionally. As a student-athlete, he followed a strict regimen of workouts, classes and practices, giving him a “edge” over his classmates at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Law. He also was “grateful” for the opportunity to be around teammates from a myriad racial, cultural and religious backgrounds.
“One of the skills you learn as an athlete is to work with others, (and) understand and respect others’ perspectives,” said Valero, who earned his FAU bachelor’s degree in management and marketing in 2010. “This is an invaluable life skill that has aided me, for example, in group projects and working with clients.”
At NSU, Valero served as the law review’s first Hispanic editor-in-chief and graduated atop his class in 2013. He has enjoyed a successful law career since and is currently an attorney with the firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, in their Boca office.
Valero now works a “few blocks” from the campus he played college football at, a rare opportunity he’s cherishing.
“A student-athlete’s bond with a university is more often than not greater than the bond between a university and the student population as a whole,” Valero said. “Student-athletes not only dedicate their time, but in some respects, their bodies to their sport and to their university. Therefore, there is a strong sense of university pride among student-athletes.
“Not only would providing scholarships to student-athletes bring in talent,” added Valero, referencing the scholarships FAU’s Paradise Club helps fund, “but it also may lead to these students giving back to the university.”
Valero is doing exactly that.
On July 1, Valero began serving on the Florida Atlantic University Foundation Board, a position in which he leads fundraising efforts and mentors student-athletes. He’s taken law-curious student-athletes out to lunch and spoken at events such as orientation.
Once a Miami kid with lofty law aspirations, Valero realized them with the help of an FAU athletic scholarship. And through his new role at the institution, Valero hopes to be as impactful a presence to the next generation.
“I enjoy giving back to FAU,” Valero said. “When speaking with the student-athletes, if I can have a positive impact on just one individual, it would make everything worthwhile. It is all about what you give back and how you can help others to achieve their goals.”
