There's a lot of attractive selling points about a future career in architecture -- the job can be creative, challenging, even city-changing.

But Christ-like? At Florida International University -- for one day at least -- architecture students do in fact walk on water.

Around noon Monday, under a sunny, windy sky, more than 100 other students gathered 'round a 175-foot lake on FIU's Modesto Maidique Campus to watch a contest that was neither religious nor awe-inspiring in nature. Try chuckle-inducing.

A group of college students flailed about in the water, some struggling to move forward at all, others quickly losing their balance and -- splash! -- getting soaked.

Onlookers ranged from the supportive (``There you go! Push!'' one shouted) to the type of folks who watch Nascar only to see the next fiery wreck.

``Belly flop! Belly flop!'' one student pleaded.

It's an annual ritual that's been going on for nearly two decades, concocted by FIU professor Jaime Canavés for his Materials and Methods of Construction class.

Students spend about half a semester designing and building giant, floating shoes.

Thirty-one out of 35 students successfully crossed the water, with the first-place finisher earning an A for the assignment, 10 points extra credit, and $500 cash.

``The key concept is in the length and the traction,'' said first-place finisher Cristina Fernandez, who timed in at a minute and a half flat. Others took much, much, longer.

Fernandez, a sophomore architecture major, trudged across the lake in a pair of 8-foot canoe-shaped wooden shoes equipped with metal plates underneath -- the equivalent of cleats on an athlete's sneakers.

Those metal plates, while key to victory, weren't quite so miraculous if and when the shoe-wearer lost balance. While on her feet for the important do-or-die walk, Fernandez had taken a dunk during previous practice walks, and has the deep scratches to prove it.

``I have a huge gash right here,'' Fernandez said, pointing to her right leg.

Fernandez's partner on the project -- many students worked in two-person teams -- had also fallen off the winning shoes during practice runs. In the process, Anna Miorelli discovered that FIU's murky lake is still home to some active marine life.

``I thought I got bit by a turtle,'' Miorelli, 18, said. ``There's tons of turtles in there. There's big fish also.''

Other than the rare scratch or twisted ankle, the annual walk-on-water project has been injury-free, Canavés said. Injury concerns did, however, make school administrators reluctant back when Canavés first proposed the idea.

Canavés' logic was this: the school of architecture already had a cardboard boat race project for students -- why not do something more creative?

At first, administrators refused to allow a walk-on-water event on campus, so Canavés held it at a lake near his home.

A couple of years later, Canavés saw a group of engineering students out on the FIU lake, testing an amphibious vehicle.

``I said if engineering can do it, then architecture can do it also,'' Canavés said.

And thus an FIU tradition was born.

Over the years, there's a been several interesting shoes taken out on the lake.

One student painted the shoes to resemble two red lips, while there was another who tried -- and failed -- to make shoes out of assembled basketballs. A third student who was a Japanese male dressed as a geisha.

Fernandez isn't receiving the only A for this year's assignment. Everyone who made it across the lake gets an A, while non-finishers will get grades based on how far they got.

Canavés believes FIU to be the first school to create a walk-on-water event, though he said another college in San Diego now does it as well. Next year, for the race's 20th birthday, Canavés hopes to have some Guiness Book of World Records observers on-site -- yes, there is a category for water-walking.

There's also a lot to learn from the experience, Canavés says.

``Part of being an architect, you have to design a building that functions within the program of the building,'' Canavés said. ``That building has to be structurally sound, it has to resist wind forces. . .this is not any different in that sense.''

Plus, ``every so often you do buildings that float, like a house boat,'' he said.

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