Page 20 - 2025 April Report

University of Florida – Machen Scholars graduation reception
Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Graduation Reception (MFOS)
Attendance: Bea and Caleb Awoniyi on behalf of the Foundation.
The University of Florida’s Earl and Christy Powell University House was full of life and laughter on Monday, April 7, 2025, when the MFOS graduating seniors, their faculty mentors, and staff of Student Life came together to celebrate. MFOS scholars are first in their family to graduate college (first generation college graduate). There were stories of doubt, challenges, failures, successes, learning, but more importantly, there were stories of resilience.
Like proud parents celebrating the proud moments in their children’s life, President Emeritus Bernie Machen with his wife, Chris Machen, could not help but smile, hug, and take pictures with the students and guests as they arrived. Caleb and I were fortunate to be seen and especially welcomed and hugged by them. President Machen remarkable statement about JSF’s partnership, “look at what we’ve done together with JSF.” Many of these students graduated debt free or very little debt.
As Caleb and I walked around to shake hands with and congratulate the graduates, we ran into Karina Ortega, someone familiar to the JSF Board. Karina shared her talent as a violinist when the Board met in Gainesville last spring. We might remember her interview with our CEO, that night following her performance. Karina is graduating with her BS in Dietetics. She plans to go to medical school but before then, she plans to work as a medical assistant.
Unlike in the past when many students were considering gap years, the
2025 event was filled with many students who have either secured a job or
heading into graduate school. Karina was standing with another graduating
MFOS scholar. Oliver Paralta. Oliver earned his BS in Computer Science and
has already secured a job with Google as a software engineer. Oliver plans to leave his family behind in Miami to begin his own future in California.
As in the past, two graduating scholars were tapped to speak on behalf of their peers. The choice of the two was remarkable; their speeches were as revealing as they were uplifting. The first speaker, Star, challenged her peers to embrace the next step, as they step into the unknown. Something, she said, they’ve now mastered because after all, college in general and UF in particular were unknown to them few years back. The second speaker, Marcus Acosta, encouraged the scholars to be willing to change but not reduced by what happens to them. He spoke about how they’ve been able to navigate and changed but not reduced
by the uncertainties education and the doubts they felt coming to the UF campus.
Following the ceremony, President Emeritus Machen and Vice President for Student Life, Dr. Heather White, took pictures with each scholar. Here is Karina’s picture with the two.
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