Mike Colby is certainly no underachiever. In the past 21 months, the Full Sail University Digital Arts & Design student created and launched his own Enthused clothing line company, was recognized twice at the 2008 ADDY Awards, created a logo for a nationally aired television show, and received the Advanced Achievement Award for his class upon graduating this May.

“I honestly didn’t come into Full Sail with the mindset that I was going to try to get involved with as much as possible,” Mike insists. “I just came in wanting to learn and take a look at what was going on around me. Now that I’m looking back and updating my website and portfolio, I’m really amazed at how much stuff I did in 21 months.”

Mike had always been into drawing and doodling artwork and pictures, but he entered Full Sail to get the formal training he knew he would need to get his clothing company off the ground. “The software I learned here at Full Sail really enabled me to put my ideas down on a shirt,” he says.

Those very same courses that enabled Mike to use his layout skills for his own venture also opened other doors of opportunity while he was still in school. After creating a mock Nike sneaker advertisement in his Motion Graphics Project class, Mike submitted his work into the ADDY Awards – a last-minute move that almost didn’t make the deadline.

“When I went to try and enter the Nike ad, I was told that I was too late; the application was due that day,” Mike recounts. “My friend happened to have a laptop on him, so I ran back into the room and asked if I could sign up right there on the spot. I was able to register within minutes of the deadline.”

Shortly afterwards, Mike got the call letting him know his Nike ad won a Gold award at the 2008 Orlando student ADDY ceremony. It went on to win Gold again in the 2008 South East Regional student ADDY awards.

Mike was also responsible for coming up with the winning logo for the Full Sail DAD program’s re-branding of nationally-syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz. With so many honors and accomplishments under his belt prior to even finishing school, Mike is surprisingly down-to-earth about the whirlwind of a ride his Full Sail experience has been.

“I definitely feel like I juiced this whole school for as much as I could,” he explains. “You can’t just sit there with the information that they give you in class. You need to get out there and explore. I’d go home after class and stay up till 6 a.m. working on stuff I learned that day just because I loved it so much.”

With graduation now in the recent past, Mike now looks forward to the future, and will be putting his design skills to use by continuing to develop Enthused. “I loved going to school at Full Sail. It’s going to be tough leaving, but now I guess it’s time to get into the real world,” he says.

When it comes to sharing any words of wisdom to incoming students at Full Sail, Mike’s advice is clear. “Definitely go beyond just the classroom. You need to go home and apply it to other things if you want to do this for a living. After all, I think that’s why everybody is here.”