One of the first MFOS graduates looks back on the program’s generational impact, celebrates her daughter’s own University of Florida journey

This article was written by our grantee partner, the University of Florida, about a Machen Florida Opportunity Scholarship (MFOS) recipient. JSF helps support this nationally recognized program through a matching grant. The article is shared here with permission.

 

Khrysten Sears Spencer (B.A. ’09) wore an orange University of Florida (UF) alumni T-shirt and a blue Gator logo belt as she walked up the large white staircase in the Reitz Union. Her eyes widened as she took out her phone, paused and used it to scan the interior.

“It’s changed so much,” she said as she followed the crowd toward the freshman orientation.

Sears Spencer’s daughter, Allannah Dean, a member of the class of 2028, stuck to her side as they found seats in the first row in the ballroom for the beginning of Preview. They opened their pamphlets and chatted with another Gator family seated behind them before the speaker began.

This first-year orientation experience isn’t new to them.

Eighteen years earlier, Sears Spencer traveled with Allannah, who was under a year old, from their home in Belle Glade—a rural town lined with sugar cane and spotted with football fields about 255 miles south of Gainesville—to begin her own freshman year. It was a life-changing feat she may not have managed without being accepted into the inaugural 2006 class of Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars (MFOS), UF’s nationally known and recognized program for low-income, first-generation college students.

College Dreams Come to Life

Sears Spencer found out that she would be the valedictorian of Glades Central Community High School the day after she gave birth to Allannah. Both of her parents attended college but neither graduated. Her father was a carpenter and her mother worked as a child-care provider.

Despite her stellar academic achievements, doubt crept in. Some people told her she should shelve her dreams because of the responsibilities of motherhood. But she refused to give up.

“Just proving them wrong. It could be done. It would be difficult, but not impossible,” she said.

Sears Spencer’s mother was initially worried for her daughter. She had been a teen mom herself and intimately understood those complexities and hardships. But she quickly turned her concern to support, telling Sears Spencer to hunt for scholarships that would ease her financial burden. By then, she had already secured a Bright Futures scholarship to cover 75% of her tuition. They both hoped a full ride opportunity would present itself.

That’s where the newly created Machen Florida Opportunity Scholarship came in.

Leslie Pendleton, founding director of MFOS and now executive director of University Initiatives for UF Advancement, said former UF president Bernie Machen drove the program’s creation. He had assembled a similar program for first-generation students during his prior role as president at the University of Utah and dreamed of doing something larger and more impactful at UF.

“There is a hole in our financial-aid system,” Machen said when the program was announced in 2006.

He went on to describe how the University of Florida was losing out on hundreds of students every year who might qualify for Bright Futures scholarships but otherwise didn’t have the money to pay for room, board and assorted living costs. The year before MFOS began, there were more than 400 applicants from families making less than $40,000 who were ultimately admitted to UF but decided not to enroll. The MFOS program was designed to close that gap and ensure those students—students like Sears Spencer—could not only afford to enroll in UF, they could pursue their studies debt-free.

Pendleton helped build the early stages of MFOS. Not only did the university invest in scholarship support from the beginning, but it also provided numerous resources like peer mentors, financial literacy education and community building activities to make these students feel at home on UF’s campus.

“It wasn’t just, ‘Hey, we’re going to give you a scholarship, figure it out.’ It was, ‘We’re going to give you the support to succeed and thrive here,’” Pendleton said.

The vision was to build an inclusive community of scholars who would be the first in their families to graduate from college and who would go on to share their success across their communities, she said. Access was the key. President Machen wanted to make sure the University of Florida was within reach for all high-achieving students, not just those who could afford it.

Sears Spencer’s inaugural MFOS class had more than 400 students. Pendleton said it was important to start big so the incoming scholars felt like they were part of a community and were able to navigate their early college lives together.

The program has now grown into a national standout. MFOS students graduate at the same rate as their peers, they are successful in the workplace, and they give back to the university faster than anyone else, Machen said in a recent interview.

“When you really go inside these kids’ lives and look at what they’ve been through to get here, you can’t believe it,” Machen said. “What I came to realize is that we don’t make them special. We find them, and they are special. We just give them a little nurturing and a little help, and then they do the rest on their own.”

A Life-changing Gator Experience

Sears Spencer and her mother drove to Gainesville a week or two before officially moving to find a daycare that was reasonably priced and close to campus. She didn’t have a car her first year, so the woman who ran the daycare would pick up Allannah in the mornings.

She was also able to form a small community on campus. Her and another student who had two children would schedule playdates with Allannah, and a friend who Sears Spencer knew from high school offered to help whenever she could.

“I didn’t really have the traditional college experience because I was known as the girl who took her kid to college with her,” she said. “I had to take care of her. I had to get through it. That was sort of my mindset. I don’t have the luxury of playing around. I have someone to raise.”

During her time at UF, she did her best to experience campus life, going to sporting events and even having dinner at the president’s house where she met her scholarship’s namesake, President Machen. Sears Spencer graduated from UF in 2009 within three years, all while raising Allannah.

If not for MFOS and the University of Florida, Sears Spencer said she might never have found her current career path. She started as a psychology major but transitioned to a communications science and disorders degree. She now works as a speech-language pathologist in the Palm Beach County school district, where she diagnoses and treats kids who have speech and language disorders. She didn’t initially plan to go back to her hometown of Belle Glade, but she is happy to give back to her community.

“I do feel like being able to go off to UF, have everything paid for, that I was able to get into a career that I had never heard of before,” she said. “I am extremely grateful for it. I do not know where I would be without it because it really changed my whole path in life.”

 

I do feel like being able to go off to UF, have everything paid for, that I was able to get into a career that I had never heard of before. I am extremely grateful for it [MFOS]. I do not know where I would be without it because it really changed my whole path in life. —Khrysten Sears Spencer

 

Through Her Daughter’s Eyes

Allannah Dean also went to Glades Central Community High School, where she graduated No. 3 in her class and received a full Bright Futures scholarship.

When she graduated, she gave a farewell speech to her class. As Sears Spencer sat in the stands listening to her daughter, she thought about how just 18 years earlier, she delivered a similar speech to the same high school with an infant Allannah in the stands.

Allannah’s final college decision came down to the University of Miami and UF, but she found herself drawn to her mother’s alma mater. She visited Gainesville in the summer of 2023 for the UF Student Science Training Program, and she said she liked the college-town feel.

“I was raised to be a Gator,” she said. “It was a no-brainer.”

Allannah plans to pursue an engineering degree—for now she has her sights set on nuclear engineering. She started UF in Summer 2024 in STEPUP (the Successful Transition and Enhanced Preparation for Undergraduates program) within the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. The program offers an accelerated transition into university life and connects students to a community of mentors, faculty and industry leaders.

Allannah’s University of Florida bucket list consists of studying abroad, cheering at Gator football games and sunbathing at Lake Wauburg.

Sears Spencer said Allannah is quiet but more independent than she was at her age. She filled out every college application and financial aid paperwork on her own, and she was proactive at finding organizations to join at UF. But she still makes time to call her mom every day.

“This is where it all began for us,” she said. “I tell her all the time, ‘Enjoy your college experience. You’ll make lifelong friends, enjoy it. Don’t get too crazy, definitely, but enjoy it and also take advantage of the opportunities.’”

Sears Spencer knows firsthand the power of those opportunities. As she reminisced about her own time at UF, she said she’s grateful for how the MFOS program positively shaped her and Allannah’s lives and appreciates how special it is to bring the story full circle through her daughter’s own UF experience.