Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellowship Program

The Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellowship Program was created in 2008 at Florida Southern College (FSC), in Lakeland, to help preserve and digitize citrus collections and memorabilia for inclusion in the State of Florida Citrus Archives held by the McKay Archives. This fellowship program is an opportunity for students to engage with collections about the citrus industry.

Each student is assigned a specific job during their fellowship term, ranging from handling intake of materials to scanning and appropriately cataloging the materials for research purposes and creating special displays. Projects currently underway include:

  • Processing and preserving collections like the Waverly Growers Records or the John A. Attaway Papers.
  • Scanning and adding select photographs to the Crate Label Database and Citrus Photograph Database.
  • Researching and designing physical and digital exhibits about special topics of the Citrus Industry
  • Researching and supplementing information on all of the Citrus Hall of Fame inductees.
  • Processing and preserving the Lake Avalon Grove Business Proposal manuscript. Conducting research on individual businessmen named in the proposal, photographing the land as it is now, and creating a digital project site with additional components.

The Hall of Fame currently sponsors four permanent fellowship opportunities each semester and one summer fellowship. Three of the fellowships are named after late Hall of Fame members, Frank S. Bouis and D. Victor Knight, Sr., along with a fellowship named after the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame. Students admitted to the program are typically in their junior or senior year and qualify for the program through interviews with faculty members from the Library and Archives. They are supervised by the FSC college archivist in the McKay Archives Center.

To make a donation to help with furthering education in citrus history and preservation efforts of the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame and the State of Florida Citrus Archives, send checks made payable to Florida Southern College, 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland, FL 33801 with the memo line to read: FCHOF Fellowship Program. For more information, to donate citrus memorabilia and antique artifacts, or to receive an invitation to Florida Citrus Hall of Fame events, please contact Brenda Eubanks Burnette at 561-351-4314 or [email protected].

Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellows

Fellowship Academic Year Fellow
Florida Citrus Hall of Fame 2022-2023 Blake Hale
2021-2022 Lauren Lassiter
2020-2021 Unfilled because of Campus
COVID-19 Employment Restrictions
2019-2020 Peter Edgar
2018-2019 Peter Edgar
2017-2018 Kelsi Shanks
2016-2017 Kelsi Shanks
2015-2016 Meredith Kaffee
2014-2015 Meredith Kaffee
2013-2014 Meredith Kaffee
2012-2013
2011-2012 Holly Bennett
Joshua Meadows
2010-2011 Holly Bennett
D. Victor Knight, Sr. 2022-2023 Emily Allen
2021-2022 Karah Holt
2020-2021 Karah Holt
2019-2020 Emma Edgar
2018-2019 Emma Edgar
2017-2018 Caitlin Harper
2016-2017 Caitlin Harper
2015-2016
2014-2015 Trudy Weber
2013-2014 Trudy Weber
2012-2013
2011-2012 Dalton Davis
2010-2011
Frank S. Bouis
Established 2011
2022-2023 R. Chandler Talkington Fletcher
2021-2022 R. Chandler Talkington Fletcher
2020-2021 R. Chandler Talkington Fletcher
2019-2020 Katie Poinsett
2018-2019 Emma Morton
2017-2018 Peter Edgar
2016-2017 Kaitlynn Hoffman
2015-2016 Anthony Woodside
2014-2015 Anthony Woodside
2013-2014 Justin Richards
2012-2013
2011-2012 Mary Yurso
Frank S. Bouis Family 2022-2023 Katie Poinsett
2021-2022 Katie Poinsett
2020-2021 Christine Sells
2019-2020 Christine Sells
2018-2019 Rebecca Rowe
2017-2018 Emma Morton
2016-2017 Peter Edgar
Emma Morton
2015-2016 Emma Morton
Selys Rivera
2014-2015 Selys Rivera

2022-2023 Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Fellowship Students at Florida Southern College

Emily Allen is the 2022-2023 D. Victor Knight, Sr. Student Fellow. She is a sophomore studying History and Pre-Law. As a new recruit in Summer 2022, she began learning about the Citrus industry by researching and editing social media posts while digitizing citrus recipes. She continues to write posts for the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Facebook page and digitizing issues of The Florida Citrus Reporter.

Chandler Talkington Fletcher is the 2022-2023 Frank S. Bouis Student Fellow. He is a senior working towards his BFA in Theatre Performance and BA in Communications. In addition to re-housing citrus documents, he is working on inventorying and digitizing issues of The Florida Citrus Reporter.

Katie Poinsett is the 2022-2023 Frank S. Bouis Family Student Fellow. She is a senior studying Art History with a Museum Studies focus and is a Resident Advisor on campus. She researched items for the monthly Facebook posts in celebration of the Citrus Hall of Fame’s 60-year anniversary history as well as other topics.

Blake Hale is the 2022-2023 Florida Citrus Hall of Fame Student Fellow. He is a junior studying Biology. Also a new recruit, he is learning about the Citrus industry by creating metadata for The Florida Citrus Reporter project.

Mylena Ferman is a 2022-2023 John M. Kennedy Family Fellow. She graduated in December 2022 with a double major in Communications and English. During her fellowship, she completed researching and producing 36 videos of the Orange Bird series published on holidays for the FCHoF Facebook page and weekly on the Florida Southern College Roux Library Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages.

Salvatore Ambrosino is a 2022-2023 John M. Kennedy Family Fellow. He is a junior studying Communications and English. Salvatore enjoys researching Citrus History to produce series of Facebook posts similar to the posts on the Orange Dome, when not working on refoldering and preservation tasks in Citrus collections.