To call Makayla Buchanan a success story from an early age is an understatement. But for Makayla, she credits much of her success to the Bright Futures Scholarship.
The Green Cove Springs native participated in the dual enrollment program at her high school. By the time she graduated from high school with her diploma, she had also earned her associate’s degree. By the age of 19, she earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and by the age of 21, she had her master’s degree in public policy.
Today, Buchanan is the Director of Early Learning and Literacy with the Florida Chamber Foundation, an organization leading Florida in future-focused research. Prior to her current role, she worked with the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations and has expertise in government affairs. Due to her professional success, Buchanan was named to the Jacksonville Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 List.
The daughter of two life-long public-school educators who also graduated from Clay High School, learned early on the importance of education and how it would play in her future. While her parents had purchased Florida Prepaid tuition plans for Buchanan and her sister, they told their daughter that high grades and test results could result in qualifying for the Bright Futures Scholarship.For Buchanan, this decreased the stress of paying her way through college.
"My parents helped us understand the importance of how scholarships could keep our options open,” says Buchanan. “Both of my parents worked simultaneously while going to college, so they wanted to make sure my sister and I didn’t have to face the same obstacles they did.”
Once at the University of Florida, Buchanan took a heavy course load to accelerate the path to her degree. Though Bright Futures paid for her tuition, she worked part-time as a substitute teacher in a drop-out prevention class. Additionally, she went on to intern with Senator Marco Rubio’s Jacksonville field office, where she “fell in love with the policy side of things.” Having found a passion in policy, she went on to earn her masters degree in public policy from Liberty University.
As a professional working mom, Buchanan credits the Bright Futures Scholarship for her success. “My scholarship let me take advantage of opportunities such as my internship, which got my foot in the door of education policy,” she says. “It took the pressure off myself and my family in paying for school without debt so that I could focus primarily on school work and internship opportunities. If it were not for the Bright Futures Scholarship, I would have never had the opportunities that have led me to where I am today.”
The Florida Lottery puts education in the spotlight with the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. The Florida Lottery is committed to helping students shine inside and outside of the classroom so they can have brighter tomorrows. Since 1988, the Florida Lottery has contributed billions of dollars to education sending nearly one million students to college on Bright Futures Scholarships. Plus, every time you play, you play it forward