Endowing a chairship is the most comprehensive way to honor Dr. Frederick S. Humphries. It is the highest academic award that the University can bestow on a faculty member, and it lasts as long as the University exists. Thus, it is both an honor to the named holder of the appointment and also an enduring tribute to the person it is named in honor of it.

In 1987, Dr. Fredrick S. Humphries established the Florida A&M University Graduate Feeder Scholars Program, a direct pipeline for high achieving sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled at FAMU in any academic discipline, to attend nationally renowned universities to pursue graduate level degrees at no cost to the student. Dr. Humphries’ vision for this program was to ensure that his students had the ability to pursue and earn their degree of choice both at FAMU and beyond. Thirty-Four years later, the “Feeder Program” has been copied by a host of Research 1 Institutions in their desire to expand their diversity in graduate programs. Thus, the Florida A&M University Graduate Feeder Scholars Program has become the “Flagship Pipeline Program” in America. Additionally, since 1987 FAMU has maintained more than 20 partnerships with universities such as Florida State University, the University of Florida, Cornell University, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina A&T University for more than 30 years. These types of institutions have proved their commitment to the Graduate Feeder Scholars Program and to inducted Graduate Feeder Scholars by agreeing to provide full funding for up to five Feeder Scholars in graduate-level programs each year.

The Life-Gets-Better Scholarship was conceived and designed by former President Frederick S. Humphries, Ph.D., in 1986 “to capture and recruit the best and brightest African American students in partnership with corporate America.” These students were designated as National Achievement, Merit Finalists and Scholars by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. In response to “A Nation at Risk,” he conceived the Life-Gets-Better Program (LGB), a unique industry-sponsored, full scholarship program for these students at Florida A&M University majoring in Engineering, Physical, Life, Natural and Computer Sciences and Pre-Law. In recent years, the Board of Governors modified the Performance-Based Funding Model for all State University System (SUS) institutions, by replacing the six-year graduation rate metric with a four-year graduation rate metric. FAMU’s most recent four-year graduation rate is 22.5 percent. The goal is to increase the four-year graduation rate to 40 percent by 2022. FAMU leads the SUS in providing access and opportunity. For example, two-thirds of FAMU students receive Pell Grants and one-third are first-generation college students. Consequently, a large portion of the student body come to FAMU with significant financial need. In response to these changes FAMU is re-launching the Life- Gets-Better Scholarship Fund with a goal of $6M annual recurring dollars to provide scholarships to recruit and retain the best and brightest students.