James Neil is an SSF alumnus who lived in the Lions Scholarship House and the EC Allen Scholarship House from 1982-1984. His favorite memories as an SSF resident were from socials with other houses. As a student, James received a degree in finance from Florida State University’s College of Business. Soon afterward, he started a 22-year career in corporate banking, while specializing in mortgage banking in the healthcare industry for the past 13 years.
James met his wife at FSU and told her that if not for SSF, he would have never met her. They recently celebrated 30 years of marriage and have 4 wonderful adult children, one of whom just got married! He and his wife are building their dream home on 23 acres of land outside of Austin, TX where they currently reside.
James considers the impact that SSF had on his life a blessing, “I came from a single parent family of 3. We had no money for college. With the scholarship and working 2 jobs, I made it through FSU financially fairly comfortably (when tuition was $25 a credit hour). If not for SSF, I would have enlisted in the Armed Services for college money, but who knows how that would have turned out. Very blessed.”