On a summer day exactly 50 years ago, FIU history was made.

On June 22, 1965, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns signed Senate Bill 711, introduced by Senator Robert M. Haverfield, paving the way for the creation of our FIU.

We’ve come a long way! From our opening day enrollment of less than 6,000 students to our current Panther family that is 54,000 students and more than 200,000 alumni strong. We have prepared generations of student not only to take good jobs but to create good jobs; we have grown into an anchor institution and a solutions center for our community and beyond.

Here are just a few of our notable accomplishments:

• FIU graduates command higher salaries than graduates of any other university in the State University System; our students are employed or attending graduate school at higher rates as well.
• FIU is ranked number 13 among institutions whose students graduate with the least debt load, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 edition of Best Colleges.
• FIU is among the top universities in the country in terms of engagement and contributions to its community. Washington Monthly ranked FIU 24th out of 277 higher education institutions.
• Our Model United Nations team is ranked number four in the nation and continues to be the highest ranked team in Florida and the highest ranked team from a public university.
• Our College of Business is widely recognized for its quality and impact. Recently U.S. News & World Report placed the College of Business at number 15 among the top business schools for the International MBA in its 2016 edition of the Best Graduate Schools. The College of Business’ Online Corporate MBA program also was ranked No. 14 in theFinancial Times 2015 edition of the Online MBA Rankings.
• FIU is the top university in the continental U.S. in graduating Hispanics with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), according to Excelencia in Education. In fact, we award more bachelor’s and master’s degrees to Hispanics than any other institution.
• We are making our mark in health care with our Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences, our Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work.

This is still only the beginning for our ambitious institution.

We have come this far thanks to hard-working students, world class faculty, dedicated staff, successful and steadfast alumni and the support of our donors and community. All of them are telling and living the FIU story, helping us to truly become one of the world’s great universities.

To learn more about our five decades of history or to share your FIU story, please visit fifty.fiu.edu.

Here’s to 50 more years of Panthers turning the impossible into the inevitable!