Kayla Kidd, a dedicated junior at the University of Utah, is taking on a new challenge despite her already demanding schedule.
Studying criminal justice with aspirations of entering law school, she is also a member of the Ute Indian Tribe and wishes to advocate for the Uintah and Ouray Reservation where she was raised.
This past academic year, Kidd accepted a request to mentor fellow Ute students, motivated by her own experience of lacking support during her transition to college.
“I just wanted to make it easier,” Kidd shared. “I didn’t really have that chance for me. I didn’t really have a person to talk to about my struggles.”
The challenges faced by Ute students have been increasingly highlighted by The Salt Lake Tribune, revealing that they often lag behind their peers in educational attainment.
As the state of Utah derives its name from the Ute tribe, the importance of the tribe’s cultural and historical identity underscores the urgency of addressing these disparities.
Many Ute students, particularly those from the Uinta Basin, confront significant obstacles, with dropout rates from high school being alarmingly high.
When it comes to standardized test scores, Ute students consistently rank the lowest among all racial and ethnic groups in Utah.
Last year, the Tribune explored the longstanding relationship between the Ute Indian Tribe and the University of Utah, facilitated through the Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach Fellowship.
As recently as 1951, only 11 Ute students began their studies at the Salt Lake City campus.
Fast forward nearly 75 years, and that number has diminished sharply to just seven Ute students enrolled in the current academic year, receiving either tribe-specific scholarships or third-party financial aid.
Since the inception of the Ute Tribe scholarship in 2014, a mere six students have successfully graduated with the assistance of this funding.
Authorities on the issue acknowledge that a collaborative effort involving multiple stakeholders is essential to remedying this situation.
A key component of future efforts will involve the next Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Ute Tribe and the University of Utah.
The current MOU, which permits the university to use the tribe’s name in athletic contexts, is set to expire in 2026.
The university has expressed intentions to broaden its scholarship offerings, potentially including students who identify as Ute without meeting traditional lineage specifications.
Kidd stands as a strong advocate for this initiative.
Though she grew up on the reservation, she herself does not fulfill the blood quantum requirements for the scholarship.
Despite this, she is undeterred in her commitment to foster positive change in her community and for her peers.
“We just try to make it easier,” Kidd stated, describing the essence of her role in the mentorship program.
Her mentorship can range from accompanying freshmen to their first football games at Rice-Eccles Stadium to aiding them in the complexities of schoolwork and financial aid applications.
Kidd emphasized the importance of providing guidance that she wished she had as a freshman, noting, “If you would have asked me as a freshman, I would’ve had no clue. Now I know a lot. I’ll most likely have an answer.”
While the program has yielded mixed outcomes—one student has already dropped out—Kidd reports success stories as well.
“Now she’s doing great on her own,” she said of one of her mentees who has thrived.
Kidd anticipates increasing her mentorship capacity in the fall, eager to assist a larger cohort of Ute students with their academic and emotional needs.
Whether it be through course registration or providing a homesick student a weekend trip back to the reservation, Kidd is ready to offer her support.
“It’s no problem,” she reassured, “because I’m going to the same place.”
image source from：sltrib
