Raised in a small town in Florida by two public school educators, Heather Pigman ’94 had only two criteria as she surveyed her college prospects — it had to be an in-state school to accommodate her full-ride scholarship, and it had to be somewhere that offered more opportunity than her beach town upbringing.
At that time, legacy universities in very small towns were really the only well-known game in town. But when a friend shared their plans to attend UCF in Orlando, Pigman took note.
“UCF was totally not on my radar, but Orlando was,” she says. “It might as well have been Manhattan, [New York]. Looking back, it’s wild how big I thought Orlando was.”
And while Pigman found the 3 a.m. grocery store runs and budding restaurant scene riveting, it was the pioneering spirit of her fellow Knights that really made her feel at home.
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“UCF attracts a certain kind of person — it did then, and it still does today. Those of us that don’t recognize or bow to limitations around who we are and what we can do. We’re just going to do it,” says Pigman, who earned a bachelor’s in history with a minor in political science.
This unflappable gumption was no new concept for Pigman — it ran in her blood. Pigman’s parents, both born in the coal mining area of Kentucky, experienced the realities of extreme poverty growing up. In fact, her paternal grandfather left school in just third grade to work in the coal mines.
Her father’s family sacrificed a great deal to ensure at least one of them could break free from the poverty cycle — and they chose Pigman’s father for that mission. He went on to earn two college degrees and become a teacher.
Then there was Pigman’s mother, who encouraged her daughter to use education as a tool to exploring paths beyond the typical careers she’d grown up around, such as homemaking, nursing and teaching.
“My mother only gave me one stipulation around college,” says Pigman. “She told me, ‘You can go wherever and do whatever, as long as you’re not going to limit yourself to the choices your father and I made.’”
Once Pigman knew what she was not going to do, she used her time at UCF to explore the different career paths available to her. It was a guest lecture featuring a group of lawyers that finally guided her toward practicing law.
She sat captivated as they engaged in a passionate, but civil debate on hot-button issues of the time. The intelligent conversation, the carefully constructed arguments — it left her inspired.
Today, Pigman is a sought-after attorney with Hollingsworth LLP in Washington, D.C. And while she continues to carry that renegade spirit forth through her work, she has felt a calling to support the next generation of barrier breakers through her alma mater.
This UCF Day of Giving, she’s committed a new gift of nearly $1 million to student scholarships, as well as student development and experiential learning services, through the Collins/Pigman Family Endowed Scholarship and the Experiential Learning Fund.
“My parents believed that education changes lives — especially because it changed their lives. These scholarships are my way of paying it forward,” Pigman says.
This is the latest in a series of gifts that Pigman has given to support UCF students, including endowed funds, which are already impacting Knights today, as well as a planned gift intended for future generations.
“My parents believed that education changes lives — especially because it changed their lives. These scholarships are my way of paying it forward.”
“This scholarship came from the idea that if there’s someone out there who wants to go to college and doesn’t have the same academic free-ride I had — maybe they had to work their way through high school or they faced some other challenges — that they would be able to do so,” Pigman says.
In addition to funding tuition, books, housing and living expenses through the scholarship fund, a portion of Pigman’s pledge is allocated to supporting students in their pursuit of experiential learning opportunities, such an internships.
“Sometimes you just need a little financial support in order to take advantage of these massive opportunities,” says Pigman. “And they can be helpful in so many ways — whether it be securing employment, getting a foot in the door or even just finding out if a field is really for you.”
An internship is what guided Pigman to the area of law she practices today. A law school professor recommended her for a summer clerkship with a judge in Miami. The additional living costs on top of her student loans were intimidating, but Pigman’s parents helped cover the expenses, and what she experienced that summer shaped her future.
It was a critical turning point in Pigman’s career, one that would not have been possible without a little help. UCF’s experiential learning fund, to Pigman, felt like a golden opportunity to offer that same kind of support to others.
“My parents instilled this idea of boundless opportunity in me and my UCF experience continued broadening the possibilities. Nothing felt off limits — there was nothing I couldn’t do. And I’m thrilled to carry that legacy forward and hopefully stoke that same fire in new generations of Knights.”
