Deja Stover

UTOP 2016, Mentor – UTOP 2018

UTOP changed my life that summer and gave me friends, family and mentors that still continue to pour into my success as a student.

I started my UTOP experience as a mentee in the summer of 2016 and was completely blown away by everything that was being poured into me in such a short time. It was during this time that I realized I wanted to separate myself from the majority by being a leader on campus for everyone, but definitely for people who looked like me. The experience of my first summer with UTOP taught me a lot about what I wanted out of my college experience. I was surrounded by strong young men and women who were driven to complete their dreams and it only inspired me more to complete mine. UTOP changed my life that summer and gave me friends, family and mentors that still continue to pour into my success as a student. I came back to UTOP in 2018 as a mentor so that I could have the opportunity to shine a light on people coming into the university taking advantage of such an amazing program. As a mentor, I gained insight on my interactions with people and it made me want to go further into learning about myself and people. As a Social Work and Sociology double major, those things were important for me. I gained an unimaginable number of connections and networking relationships and continue to do so by being a part of the OADI office in any way I can.