At FIU, we proactively identify problems that could stand in the way of students moving through FIU. And we provide guidance and solutions to help students overcome them. Seeing through the eyes of our students, we tackle challenges from a student-centered perspective and implement practices that keep them on the path to graduate in four years, while equipping them for their next steps as professionals, entrepreneurs, or graduate students.
For some students, just a few hundred dollars can mean the difference between completing their course load and graduating on time, dropping out to earn enough money to return to FIU, or not finishing their degree at all. Nationally, approximately 15 percent of college students drop out with 75 percent of their credits completed, mainly for financial reasons.
But at FIU, these students have the opportunity to receive completion scholarships that could change their outlook on the final year of school. The Braman Family Foundation Completion Scholarships offer students in their final year at FIU and Miami Dade College $1,000 awards to help them persist to graduation.
Wisdom Offor (’18), an FIU Track and Field star who recently earned a bachelor’s degree in sports and fitness, was one of the first recipients of the Braman Family Completion Scholarship. Offor says earning the Braman Family Completion Scholarship, which also provided him with a success coach to plan his short- and long-term goals, “was a blessing.” Now, he is headed to nursing school and hopes to combine his degrees in a career as an orthopedic nurse working with athletes.
For FIU, student success does not only mean scholarships. In times of need, we are also ready to lend a helping hand when the going gets tough for our students.
FIU Students from Puerto Rico: Mariela Serrano (left) and Sarah Colon (right)
When hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the Caribbean during the 2017 season, they left a great need among students in their wake. FIU was quick to respond in a number of ways. We partnered with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York to support displaced students from Puerto Rico. Grants from the Knight Foundation and Carnegie Corporation provided funding for tuition, housing, books, meals, and other costs associated with relocation.
FIU has a deep commitment to community. In times of anguish and turmoil, it is natural for the university to step in to help. While Hurricane Maria exacted an emotional and personal toll in the lives of Puerto Rican students, they were not alone. FIU, the Knight Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation made it possible for these students to continue their academic journeys. We became their safe space, their home, and their opportunity to remain resilient.
Our students have a bright future in the South Florida community and beyond. To learn more about how FIU supports student success, visit give.fiu.edu.
Professor Emeritus Walter M. Goldberg and Rosalie Goldberg
FIU is working on the front lines to address public health crises and natural disasters. Our researchers are finding cures and developing life-saving interventions, and they are tackling some of the greatest challenges to the sustainability of our planet. To continue this work, we need to attract and retain top scholars who can focus on targeted areas and find solutions. Our own faculty are getting behind this need, helping FIU to secure the necessary human resources.
This past fiscal year, Professor Emeritus Walter Goldberg and his wife, Rosalie, created the Walter and Rosalie Goldberg Professorship in Tropical Ecology in the College of Arts, Sciences & Education. This specific professorship is designed to expand FIU’s growing expertise in conservation, sustainability, resilience, and human disruptions to tropical ecosystems like invasive species.
The Goldbergs’ desire is to open this position to any professor within the field of tropical ecology. By broadening the range of candidates, the Goldbergs’ have made it possible for the university to attract an expert with the breadth needed to solve the many challenges facing ecosystems across the world. In addition to advancing solutions to tropical ecology’s biggest problems, the person who fills the professorship will act as the FIU spokesperson on these issues.
A solutions center for a better global future, FIU is also attracting investments from community members who share our research mission.
When Aquarius Reef Base, the world’s only undersea laboratory, was the target of a government shutdown in 2013, FIU stepped in to save it. Aquarius has produced more than 800 research papers, hosted NASA astronauts for training, and been home to more than 100 missions, all while allowing “aquanauts” to stay underwater for days and weeks at a time. FIU took over its operations, but still, there was a concern about how the university could support it in the years ahead. That’s when Miami businessperson Manuel D. “Manny” Medina, passionate about the project, stepped in and made a donation to support the on-land marine base.
“My family and I have been blessed to gain so much from the ocean,” Medina explained. “By helping fund Aquarius, we’re fortunate to be able to play a role in ensuring that my grandchildren and great grandchildren can continue to enjoy all that the ocean offers.”
The Medina family’s gift also provided funding to develop a viable business plan for the Medina Aquarius Program and to launch an entirely new education and outreach program that has reached more than a million school-aged children worldwide.
From creating faculty positions dedicated to the pursuit of new lines of research to invigorating a program that helps us better understand and preserve our environment, our philanthropic partners are securing FIU’s role as a preeminent research institution. To learn more about FIU’s research preeminence, visit beyondpossible.fiu.edu/preeminent-programs/.
