A late Ferris State Pharmacy alumni gifted the school $6.59 million dollars to create an endowed scholarship for pharmacy students.
Ferris State University is planning to give away millions of dollars in scholarships to its pharmacy students after receiving its largest financial gift in its 134 year history.
The contributors were the late Dewaine and Jana Robinson. Dewaine, who was a Ferris State pharmacy graduate, made it clear he wanted his money to help fund the education of future pharmacists at Ferris, so his $6.59
million gift will start an endowment scholarship for those students.
Shelly Pearcy is the Vice President of Marketing for Ferris State University. She said the scholarship is a huge help to pharmacy students.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the opportunity that the Robinsons’ gift presents for Ferris students,” she said, “Their gift truly represents an extraordinary act of philanthropy that will help make the dream of becoming a pharmacist at Ferris true for students now and for many years to come.”
Pearcy also said this donation works in conjunction with Ferris’s “Now and Always” fundraising campaign. The campaign, hoping to raise $115 million, will support many aspect of student life and success at Ferris.
“We have three overarching priorities for the campaign, one being to increase student scholarship support,” she said, “The second being funding to increase support for program expansion and innovation, and then finally the campaign will support building partnerships, particularly in the west Michigan area.”
Pearcy says that Ferris State’s pharmacy program graduates around 140 students every year, and that approximately half of all pharmacists in Michigan are Ferris State alumni. Dewaine Robinson, the man who gifted the money, was among them, and was recognized in 1980 as Michigan’s Pharmacist of the Year.