FMU’s First Generation Fund in Day of Giving spotlight

Francis Marion University is joining thousands of non-profits around the country in Tuesday’s annual Day of Giving.

Friends of the University are encouraged to make a gift to the FMU’s First Generation Fund. 

Gifts can be made online at www.connect.fmarion.edu, or by contacting The FMU Education Foundation at 843-661-1225.

FMU’s First Generation Fund provides resources for students who are the first in their family to attend college. These students face unusual challenges, and additional hurdles in pursuing the dream of a college education. The First Generation Fund, created just a few years ago, helps them find a path.

Typically, around 40 percent of FMU’s student body are first generation students. Ensuring that those students receiving a quality college education produces long-lasting benefits in families, and throughout the community.

Teresa Myers Ervin, the newly elected Mayor of Florence, was a first generation student when she earned her nursing degree from FMU in 1990. Ervin was not a beneficiary of the First Generation Fund — it didn’t exist then — but she understands all that it can mean. 

“What many don’t know is that I was the first in my immediate family to attend a four-year institution,” says Myers Ervin. “Thanks to FMU, I wasn’t the last person in my family to complete a college degree either. All three of my young adults are also FMU graduates. We’re proud to be an FMU family.”

Myers Ervin says education is critical to Florence and to communities across the state. 

“One of my priorities as Mayor of Florence is to ensure access to higher education in our community,” says Myers Ervin. “We’re doing all we can to retain graduates from this community, in this community. Having an excellent university like Francis Marion right here in our own backyard is critical to our success, and helping a first generation student sets the stage for a community where all generations have the gift of education.”

Gifts to the First Generation Fund and used for direct grants to first generation students at FMU. All donations are tax deductible. 

The FMU First Generation Fund

• Gifts support students who are the first in their family to attend college
• Gifts provide direct aid to these students
• Donations are through the FMU Education Foundation and are tax deductible.
• To make a gift, go online at connect.fmarion.edu/donate or contact the FMU Education Foundation at 843-661.1225.