The Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Program (MFOS) is a full grant and scholarship package that helps first-generation, low-income undergraduate students who are residents of Florida to earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of Florida.
Since its inception in 2006, the program has reached its 15th-year mark with thousands of successful alumni stories. As of 2010, The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) began collecting interviews with initial founders, alumni, and current scholars. In 2020 Dr. Leslie Pendleton asked Dr. Paul Ortiz to continue capturing and documenting the program’s legacy, which led SPOHP to undertake the project and carry out over 50 interviews and create a documentary to be premiered during the first-generation week. To watch the MFOS film trailer click here.
To supplement the history of MFOS, SPOHP created a Spring 2021 internship with a focus on educational equity in higher education. SPOHP Interns had the opportunity to work collaboratively with UF Oral History and the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars program to create a historical timeline on MFOS. At the end of the internship, the students interacted and met some of the program’s founders, such as Bernie Machen.
During the summer of 2020, SPOHP created a podcast episode on MFOS. To access the podcast, click here.
To access MFOS interviews, visit SPOHP’s UFDC by clicking here.
To watch the videos of MFOS founders, alumni, or current scholars, visit SPOHP’s YouTube playlist by clicking here.