{"id":233817,"date":"2026-04-16T05:23:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233817\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:23:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:23:38","slug":"ucf-lands-50m-pledge-the-biggest-gift-in-schools-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/233817\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF lands $50M pledge, the biggest gift in school’s history"},"content":{"rendered":"

A University of Central Florida<\/a> alumnus has committed to donating $50 million \u2014 the largest philanthropic gift in school history \u2014 to establish the Barry S. Miller College of Business<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UCF Trustees approved businessman Barry Miller\u2019s gift as officials hailed it as transformational for the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply grateful to Barry for his extraordinary belief in this university and in the impact our students make. This is a defining moment for UCF and a powerful signal of who we are and where we are going,\u201d UCF President Alexander Cartwright<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Miller is President of the Florida-based Voloridge Investment Management<\/a> and Voloridge Health. He graduated in 1995 from UCF, becoming the first in his family to get a college degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been something that I\u2019ve been thinking about for a couple of years,\u201d Miller told Trustees during Wednesday\u2019s meeting. \u201cThis is the ultimate way for me to make that difference for others that are perhaps less fortunate with first-gen students and scholarships and things that have been near and dear to my heart throughout the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s $50 million is pledged to be paid over several years, although the school could not immediately provide details Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

UCF Foundation CEO Rod Grabowski<\/a> said Miller had been meeting with school leaders to brainstorm the future of UCF\u2019s business school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those conversations, one theme became very clear. Barry wanted to make an investment that would be greater than a building or a name or even a program. He wanted to make an investment that would serve as a catalyst for the future of the UCF College of Business and our students who will go on to build, lead, and transform the world,\u201d Grabowski said.<\/p>\n

UCF plans to use the money to invest into business and technology education by paying for five endowed faculty chairs in fintech, AI strategy, cyber risk, trust and disinformation; adding a new master\u2019s degree in technology leadership and innovation; and helping more students get access to internships, simulations and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A University of Central Florida alumnus has committed to donating $50 million \u2014 the largest philanthropic gift in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[104388,104375,104389,139,141,140,104390,7219,2103,104391],"class_list":{"0":"post-233817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-alexander-cartwright","9":"tag-barry-miller","10":"tag-barry-s-miller-college-of-business","11":"tag-orlando","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-rod-grabowski","15":"tag-ucf","16":"tag-university-of-central-florida","17":"tag-voloridge-investment-management"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}