{"id":146043,"date":"2025-04-10T09:30:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T13:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=146043"},"modified":"2025-05-05T11:15:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T15:15:56","slug":"pushing-past-your-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/pushing-past-your-limits\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing Past Your Limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raised in a small town in Florida by two public school educators, Heather Pigman ’94 <\/strong>had only two criteria as she surveyed her college prospects \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cUCF was totally not on my radar, but Orlando was,\u201d she says. \u201cIt might as well have been Manhattan, [New York]. Looking back, it\u2019s wild how big I thought Orlando was.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ready to make your own mark on Knight Nation? Celebrate UCF Day of Giving on April 10 by <\/em>making a gift<\/em><\/a> to the college, program or area that\u2019s most important to you.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cUCF attracts a certain kind of person \u2014 it did then, and it still does today. Those of us that don\u2019t recognize or bow to limitations around who we are and what we can do. We\u2019re just going to do it,\u201d says Pigman, who earned a bachelor’s in history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This unflappable gumption was no new concept for Pigman \u2014 it ran in her blood. Pigman\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Her father\u2019s family sacrificed a great deal to ensure at least one of them could break free from the poverty cycle \u2014 and they chose Pigman\u2019s father for that mission. He went on to earn two college degrees and become a teacher.<\/p>\n

Then there was Pigman\u2019s mother, who encouraged her daughter to use education as a tool to exploring paths beyond the typical careers she\u2019d grown up around, such as homemaking, nursing and teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother only gave me one stipulation around college,\u201d says Pigman. \u201cShe told me, \u2018You can go wherever and do whatever, as long as you’re not going to limit yourself to the choices your father and I made.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n