Celebrating Southwest Floridians

55 years invested, helping us realize our dreams

When you’re at Florida SouthWestern State College, or FSW, you’re part of a big family that includes nearly 1,000 colleagues and 22,000 students. Together our impact in this region goes far beyond the financial, which, by the way, is over $410 million in Lee County alone. While that can be easily calculated, there’s another impact that is just as important: people. Working together, the FSW family effect is one that carries for generations.

As faculty, staff and administrators, we have a special responsibility of not only ensuring the smooth operations of the college, but also reaching out to our students to make sure they feel welcome. Our students have their own career goals, and we’re here to help them realize those dreams.

The result? We educate and train students so they are fully prepared to fill jobs that make our region a great place to work and play: teachers, healthcare workers, public-safety specialists and business professionals, for starters.

Whether it’s a few semesters, two or four years, our students are in our care as they pursue their career dreams. These students are an important part of the FSW family. And like family members, we cheer them in good times and offer guidance in challenging times.

Along the way, we want our students to take advantage of the FSW college experience. This involvement includes study abroad, undergraduate research, over 30 student clubs, intramural sports, community engagement and athletics. Our students come from this region, around the state, this country and, yes, the world. We host multicultural events on campus, and our students showcase their talents in studentproduced theatrical productions, art displays, and orchestra, jazz and band concerts.

May 5 marks the first commencement ceremonies in our new Suncoast Credit Union Arena. How rewarding it will be to see family and friends there to support these graduates, and for me personally shaking their hands, it will be gratifying. Just as our students learn and grow, so too has this institution.

Over the years we have developed key partnerships with institutions such as the University of Florida, Western Michigan University, and Naples Community Hospital, Lee Health and many business organizations. This outreach is part of our goal to be a key resource for Southwest Florida. We are the state leader in fiscal management for CareerSource’s FloridaFlex Grants, which supports customized training for new hires or businesses in Florida. In the past six years, we have managed over $6 million to train 3,500 new hires for companies including Hertz, Gartner, Arthrex and Chico’s FAS.

Our Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall and Suncoast Credit Union Arena is a cultural hub for the region, places for concerts, performances, community events, FSW athletics and much more.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of this college. Looking ahead, we’ll continue educating and training the professionals our region needs. The majority of our graduates stay here to make a positive impact. We’ll also continue being a good partner to area businesses and organizations. To learn more, visit us at fsw.edu.