For Rick '80 and Lisa Hughes, including UNC Charlotte in their estate plans was never really about what happens after they are gone.

It was about what it means right now.

It was about gratitude. Reflection. Opportunity. It was knowing future students, many of whom they will never meet, may one day walk through doors that once changed their own lives.

"I'm the only member of my family to ever go to college," Rick Hughes said. "When I say only member of my family, I'm talking about both sides - mom and dad's side, both."

His parents, he said, sacrificed for their only child to make sure he had the opportunity to earn an education.

"They went without what they wanted, and many things they needed, for me," he said.

Rick came to Charlotte with a simple goal: earn a degree and create opportunities that had never existed for his family before.

"I didn't have any high expectations other than the fact that I just wanted to get a college degree," he said. "And I was hopeful that it would help me get a good job."

It did far more than that.

Rick credits UNC Charlotte with helping prepare him not just for a career, but for life.

"The professors that I had did an outstanding job of letting us know, as students, that this degree is not necessarily going to get you a job," he said. "But it's going to get you in the door. And then you've got to prove yourself once you get in the door."

That foundation helped launch a successful career and a life Rick once could not have imagined for himself.

"If you'd have told me when I was at Charlotte that at some point in time, I'd be able to give back to the school, I would have said you were crazy," he said with a laugh. "But we are, and we're very blessed and feel very humbled to be able to do that."

Today, the Hugheses are ensuring future generations of Niners have opportunities. In addition to their annual giving and being season ticket holders for Charlotte Football, the couple has established planned gifts supporting scholarships in the Belk College of Business, the School of Nursing and Charlotte Athletics. Their estate gift establishes endowed scholarships designed to help students with financial need pursue their education and graduate with fewer barriers standing in their way.

For Lisa, supporting students in their pursuit of an education, especially nursing students, is deeply personal.

After graduating from Cabarrus County Hospital School of Nursing in Concord in 1980, Lisa built a career rooted in care, service and sacrifice. She also never forgot what it took for her family to help her get there.

"We lived from paycheck to paycheck," Lisa recalled. "I can remember times when I was going to nursing school, and Daddy would give me $20 a week for food or whatever I needed."

Sometimes, she suspects, it was money her parents could not really spare.

"He'd fill up my gas tank, and then I'd get $20 a week," she said. "And I know there were times that that was the last $20 he had."

Even now, decades later, the memory stays with her, shaping how she and her husband think about education, opportunity and financial strain. They understand that for many families, higher education is not simply a milestone. It is a sacrifice.

That understanding helped shape the couple's decision to support multiple areas of the University, including business, nursing and athletics.

Some students will become business leaders. Others will become nurses caring for families during their most difficult moments. Others will compete as student-athletes while balancing the demands of academics and athletics.

All of them, the Hugheses believe, deserve opportunity. That belief inspired them to include the University in their estate planning.

Rather than seeing estate planning as something distant or transactional, the Hugheses viewed it as an opportunity to intentionally shape the kind of impact they wanted their lives to have.

"We wanted to leave behind a legacy that was going to help somebody else," Rick said.

Not status. Not possessions.

"We didn't want our legacy to be, 'Yeah, Rick was the guy with the Porsche' or 'the guy with all the boats,'" he said. "That's not what we wanted. We wanted to leave behind a legacy that was going to help somebody else."

For families considering including UNC Charlotte in their estate plans, the Hugheses encourage people not to overcomplicate the conversation. Start small. Ask questions. Think about what mattered in your own life and who helped create those opportunities for you.

Lisa believes many people underestimate the impact even modest support can have on students and families carrying financial stress.

"There are kids out there right now whose parents are struggling just to help them get through school," she said. "If you can help ease that burden for somebody, why wouldn't you?"

For the Hugheses, that support does not have to begin someday in the future. They believe philanthropy can be both immediate and lasting - an opportunity to help students now while also creating opportunities for generations to come.

"You don't have to wait until you're gone to give," he said. "We encourage people to do a little of both. Give something now so you can actually see the impact it's having on students, and then include something in your estate plans so that impact continues long after you're gone."

At its core, their decision to give to the University is one deeply rooted in gratitude.

Gratitude for opportunities they once worried they could never afford. Gratitude for parents who sacrificed to help them pursue an education. And gratitude for institutions that helped shape the course of their lives.

For Lisa, that perspective has only deepened over time.

"It has been the honor of my life to take care of others," she said.