- Utah Valley University received a $500,000 donation for its Care Hub.
- The hub offers resources like food housing and emergency support for students.
- The donation will expand the hub's space to meet growing student needs.
OREM — More than any other school in the state, Utah Valley University hosts a healthy population of nontraditional students.
About 29% of UVU's students are adult learners (25 or older), 14% of students support at least one child and a whopping 82% of students are employed.
With this unique student body comes unique challenges, which is why the university in 2022 established the Care Hub, which connects students to essential resources, including food, housing, health, safety and emergency support.
On Wednesday, the Care Hub got a significant boost, by way of a $500,000 donation from philanthropists Melissa Layton and Emily Wright.
"As we learned about the Care Hub and how it kept students in classes that have come up against difficulties as small as needing gas for the week or as big as needing a place to live, it just hit home that this is a need that we could help with," Layton said in a statement. "This is the place, these are the students, this program is amazing, and I knew that this was something that we really did want to be involved in."
Michelle Kearns, UVU's vice president of student affairs, reiterated the complex challenges facing many UVU students, some of whom balance work, parenting and financial stress while pursuing their education.
"For many of our students, the difference between staying enrolled and stepping away isn't grades, it's groceries," Kearns said in a statement. "It's child care. It's a safe place to sleep. It's knowing someone will help when life becomes overwhelming."
The hub's food pantry and housing resources — which include an emergency short-term housing program — serve as a cornerstone for the university's mission of expanding access and supporting students in a way that leads to retention and graduation.
Since 2024, the Care Hub has served over 7,500 students and distributed over 52,000 pounds of food.
In that time, UVU has seen a 13% increase in retention and persistence compared to university averages.
Kearns added that the $500,000 will be used to address "urgent" plans to expand the Care Hub's physical space, noting increased demand for food access, private consultation areas, and resource navigation services.
"Help at the right moment doesn't just ease stress, it restores the bandwidth a student needs to focus, study and persist," Barney Nye, UVU associate vice president of access and outreach, said. "That simple shift — from survival mode to learning mode — has a ripple effect you can feel all the way to graduation day."
