5. Fully leverage opportunities.

Over the past decade, South Carolina’s Legislature developed a series of incentives providing state funding for merit scholarships directed to students and research-driven economic development funding directed to institutions. No institution has benefited more than Clemson. Clemson is the No. 1 academic choice of the state’s highest-achieving students, the Palmetto Fellows, and has successfully competed for tens of millions of dollars in state funding for endowed chairs and research infrastructure. In late 2009, Clemson landed a $45 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy – the largest grant in University history – to build and operate a wind turbine test facility that could position South Carolina to take a leadership role in the development and manufacture of wind energy technology.

“What Clemson has been able to achieve in this area of what I think is going to be the new economy for the United States is incredibly impressive.” – U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham