Educated Here, Employed Here, Gives Here: Demicia Colbert ’12 ’16MNM
In the photo above, Demi Colbert ’12 ’16MNM stands with her two daughters, Gabriella and Isabella, and her mother, Ruby McDowell.
From first-generation student to steadfast advocate, Demicia Colbert is turning her UCF journey into a mission to open doors for others and teaching the next generation to do the same.
Demicia “Demi” Colbert ’12 ’16MNM remembers the moment learning became something bigger than herself.
She was a child, sitting beside her father, sounding out words.
He was learning to read alongside her.
“I didn’t realize it at the time,” she says. “But my dad didn’t learn to read until I did.”
Colbert, the youngest of six, grew up in Orlando in a family where opportunity was not assumed, it was built piece by piece, lesson by lesson. Her parents, originally from Kentucky, made sacrifices to send her to private school. Her father, who had not made it past middle school, learned phonics as she did, determined to keep up with his daughter.
Education in her household was not abstract. It was immediate, shared and hard-won.
And it became the foundation of everything that followed.
Without naming it at the time, her parents were teaching her something lasting. When someone needs help, you step in.
Colbert’s children, Gabriella and Isabella,
have grown up being part of Knight Nation.
Becoming the First
As a first-generation college student, Colbert stepped onto UCF’s campus carrying both pride and pressure.
There was no roadmap. No one to call who had done it before.
But there was resolve.
She navigated college the way many first-generation students do, figuring things out in real time, learning new systems and pushing forward. Along the way, she discovered not only her academic path, but something deeper. A sense of belonging and possibility she had not fully imagined.
She found more than an education at UCF. She found an expanded view of what her life could become.
And when she graduated, she was not ready to leave that behind.
Staying to Serve
Colbert did not just build a career after UCF. She built it at UCF.
In her role with Advancement & Partnerships, she works closely with students navigating financial barriers, helping connect them to scholarships and resources that often determine whether they stay enrolled or step away. It is work that requires both persistence and compassion, and one she approaches with a deep sense of purpose.
On a recent afternoon, she sat across from a student weighing whether they could afford to continue their education. Together, they walked through options. Scholarships, emergency support and next steps. It is a conversation Colbert has had many times, and one she never takes lightly.
Because she knows exactly what that moment feels like.
Over time, those conversations have added up. There was the student preparing to leave because they could not cover tuition who stayed after finding support. Another was balancing coursework while helping support their family, unsure how long they could keep going. These moments rarely make headlines, but Colbert carries them with her. They are a steady reminder that behind every scholarship is a decision point and a future that can change with the right support at the right time.
Scholarships, for Colbert, are not just line items or fundraising goals. They are lifelines. They are turning points. They are the difference between leaving and staying the course.
“I see myself in those students,” she says. “I know what it means to need that support.”
Her advocacy is steady and deeply personal. She remembers what it felt like to navigate college without a roadmap and works to make sure fewer students have to do the same.
With Colbert’s history of growing up as a first-generation student, as a UCF employee dedicated to ensuring students have access to opportunities, she delights in all things UCF, especially our beloved Knightro.
A Family Commitment to Giving
For Colbert, philanthropy is not just something she supports professionally. It is something she practices and passes on.
After losing his mother in a nursing home, Colbert’s father was motivated to start a nonprofit focused on protecting other families.
Through her family’s foundation, Colbert helps lead efforts focused on food distribution, meeting immediate needs for families who might otherwise go without basic necessities. The work is hands-on and rooted in the same values she grew up with. Show up. Help where you can. Do not look away from need.
That same philosophy shapes how she raises her daughters.
In many ways, she is passing on the same lesson her parents showed her years ago. When you are in a position to help, you do.
Conversations about giving are part of everyday life. Who needs help. Why it matters. How even small acts can create meaningful change.
And now, that lesson has come full circle.
One of her daughters is enrolled at UCF, walking the same campus that transformed Colbert’s life, this time with a clearer path shaped in part by her mother’s experience.
Colbert is a big UCF fan, obviously, and meeting Shaquem Griffin has been just one of the many highlights of her time at the university.
The Ripple Effect
It is easy to measure impact in numbers. Dollars raised. Scholarships awarded. Students supported.
But for Colbert, those numbers only tell part of the story.
She sees the full picture every day, in her work at UCF and through her family’s foundation. The same belief guides both. Access changes everything, and stepping in at the right moment can alter the course of a life.
At UCF, that might look like helping a student find the financial support to stay enrolled. Through her family’s work, it might mean putting food on the table for a family in need. Different settings, same purpose.
And over time, those moments begin to connect.
The student who almost did not enroll, but did.
The one who almost left, but stayed.
The family who needed help and found it.
Each outcome becomes part of something larger, a ripple effect that extends far beyond a single decision point.
Colbert understands that impact is not confined to one role or one organization. It moves across the spaces she inhabits, professional and personal, shaping how she shows up and how she gives.
That is how change happens.
Not all at once. Not always visibly.
But steadily, across generations.
Her journey began with a father learning to read alongside his daughter.
Today, it continues in the students she supports at UCF, in the families her foundation serves and in the daughters she is raising to understand that giving is not just something you do. It is something you carry forward, something you learn, something you live and, if you are lucky, something you pass on.
Join us in powering what’s next. Through Go For Launch, you can help create more opportunities for students to gain experience early, expand their ambitions and build momentum toward futures they don’t have to wait to begin.
