Mora Gutierrez grew up in Rahway, New Jersey. A first-generation college student, UConn was her dream school, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like basketball,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s one of the reasons a lot of people come here, and I really like the campus. But also, when I toured UConn Stamford, it was similar to my hometown \u2013 the city kind of vibe, but not too big of a city. A small city. I wanted to go there first.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so, she did.<\/p>\n
The pre-med psychology major spent her first two years at UConn Stamford, and she immersed herself in the unique UConn experience that Stamford has to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, coming from high school and kind of being a little nervous about the big campus and adjustment, I liked that there were smaller class sizes,\u201d she says. \u201cThe library is downstairs, the dean\u2019s office is on the third floor, advisors on the second floor. It\u2019s really easy to navigate that, and living there just reminded me of home.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her first year, while searching for a student-worker position on campus, Mora Gutierrez learned about efforts to bring La Comunidad Intelectual<\/a>, or LCI \u2013 already a long-time learning community at UConn Storrs \u2013 to UConn Stamford. After meeting with the professor spearheading the effort, Mora Gutierrez joined the team.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were no events, no structure to the program yet, because we were a small campus and it was a new thing,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had to get people to actually want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n While working on LCI, Mora Gutierrez also learned about efforts to expand the successful First Year Experience peer mentor program<\/a> to the regional campuses. Also launched initially at UConn Storrs, FYE mentors play key roles assisting first-year students with their transition to college.<\/p>\n Mentors work cooperatively with instructors to serve as role models, attend and participate in FYE classes, and connect with and assist incoming students inside and outside of the classroom.<\/p>\n In the summer before her sophomore year, Mora Gutierrez and some friends worked with faculty organizers to start putting together their new regional campus mentoring program.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it started, we got placed into classes, and I was in the FYE for people who want to learn about Latino culture,\u201d she says. \u201cI was in a special topics class, and I had about 25 students. I loved being there every single day. It was really fun, there\u2019s no power dynamic, it just felt like I was there to guide them and be an extra person in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s a professor and all the students, there might be a power dynamic, or you might be scared to ask questions. But I was always happy to help, and sometimes lead the class, and I think that made it more engaging for the students. It\u2019s just more fun when someone else, kind of close to your age, is leading the class and you feel comfortable asking them questions and being silly and funny.\u201d<\/p>\n She used her interactions as a mentor to also help introduce interested students to LCI.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d come to our lounge, or to our events,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n And she created a new map activity for her FYE students to help them learn more about the city of Stamford and get out into and more comfortable with the community around them. She and her students began by meeting at Mill River Park in Stamford, just across the street from campus.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we just went around, all through downtown, where all the main restaurants are, kind of just making a little circle,\u201d she says. The students then had to do a reflection exercise and list three places they saw, and upload a photo of the spot and where it was.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s probably 50 establishments there, so it just had the student familiarize themselves with where they are and what places they might want to go to eventually. If they commute, maybe they haven\u2019t even stepped outside into the town, because they just go to class.\u201d<\/p>\n The activity, she said, is still in the curriculum \u2013 and it, along with her dedication to her students, helped earn her an inaugural John T. Szarlan First Year Experience Peer Mentor Award<\/a>, presented by UConn\u2019s provost in 2025.<\/p>\n Where to Go<\/strong><\/p>\n The provost\u2019s award ceremony in Storrs helped open even more doors for Mora Gutierrez when she changed campuses for her junior year. She was encouraged to apply for a Jordan Smith Undergraduate Fellowship<\/a> from the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, based at the University of South Carolina.<\/p>\n The fellowship recognizes students for their work on behalf of first-year students and the impact their efforts make on the students and cultures of their institutions.<\/p>\n Mora Gutierrez learned she\u2019d been one of five students nationwide selected for the fellowship last summer while on vacation with her family.<\/p>\n Her mom traveled to Seattle with her in February to attend the organization\u2019s annual conference and accept her award.<\/p>\n \u201cShe met me there and she was like, \u2018This is so cool,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cWe just had a blast there.\u201d<\/p>\n At the conference, she learned about the proliferation of AI use amongst high school students, particularly those using platforms like ChatGPT for companionship, as well as aways to help retain students through their first year in college and onto graduation.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely think that the first-year experience is incredibly important, and I realized how important it was when I took a step back and looked at other schools,\u201d Mora Gutierrez says. \u201cThere were a lot of professors from other schools saying how they don\u2019t even have a program yet. And I couldn\u2019t imagine my first year without this program in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Since changing campuses from Stamford to Storrs this year \u2013 a move that she acknowledges was bittersweet for her \u2013 she\u2019s continued working as an FYE peer mentor. Instead of taking students around a city-based campus, her courses had her leading first-year UConn students over the Discovery Trail and Horsebarn Hill.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a very interactive class,\u201d she says. \u201cAt first, it was kind of hard to get students talking, which it always is. But this was a very special group. It was like a 20-person group of friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Which is what Mora Gutierrez hopes she\u2019ll be to the students she works with as a mentor: A friend. Someone they can talk to when they need to. Someone to help them when they can\u2019t figure out where they\u2019re supposed to be, or how things around campus work.<\/p>\n \u201cI had an international student, and English wasn\u2019t his first language,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes, there was an announcement for class, but he didn\u2019t know how to use HuskyCT because he\u2019d not used that type of platform, coming from school in another country. He didn\u2019t know where all the spots were on campus or how to search for them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe instructor saw he was skipping class, and then, when I dug into the matter, I was able to pinpoint the problem. I gave him all the links in one document, so he could just click in it. They\u2019re all labeled. And then, he would start showing up for class, because he knew where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n A Collective of Caring<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, we have to see what everyone is going through, really,\u201d says Mora Gutierrez.<\/p>\n And that lesson doesn\u2019t just translate to people on campus for Mora Gutierrez.<\/p>\n Not growing up in Connecticut, she took some of her first weekends after moving to Storrs to visit Hartford, where she\u2019d never been.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the capital, so let me go see,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd when I was alone, maybe getting food, there were a lot of homeless people on almost every corner. It was summer. I didn\u2019t really understand why there were so many people, and a lot of people just didn\u2019t look happy. Obviously, I wouldn\u2019t be happy either if I\u2019m just out in the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019d been told all her life, she said, not to approach people. They\u2019re dangerous. But that\u2019s not what she saw in Hartford.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a group of homeless people with chairs, and they\u2019re sitting, and it\u2019s like, ok. They\u2019re nice people,\u201d Mora Gutierrez says, and so she asked a friend to help. \u201cI bought a cooler, bought some water, bought some ice, and we just went to Hartford and gave out water bottles. And that was the first part where I realized I really like doing this. It\u2019s really fun. I like seeing the smile on everyone\u2019s faces.\u201d<\/p>\n Mora Gutierrez started going back to Hartford every weekend, bringing food and different supplies with her and handing everything out.<\/p>\n She began recognizing faces, and they started recognizing her, and it soon became more than an exchange of items between strangers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would look forward to seeing me and saying hi, even if I\u2019d run out of supplies for the day,\u201d she says. \u201cThe would be like, can you just stay for a second, talk to us, ask what I\u2019m doing in school. And it was just like, wow. They\u2019re not scary. They\u2019re not mean. They\u2019re not dangerous. They\u2019re sharing their stories and talking to me.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, alright, let\u2019s make something with this.\u201d<\/p>\n Last June, Mora Gutierrez established a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in her home state of New Jersey called Care Collective<\/a>. Her organization is currently working in three states \u2013 Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania \u2013 to provide care kits to unhoused people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are completely student-led,\u201d Mora Gutierrez explains. \u201cI have about 30 interns, we\u2019re all unpaid, and all randomly around the country \u2013 we have six UConn students, but some in New Jersey at Rutgers, in Maryland at Morgan State, and then we\u2019re all the way in California at Stanford University, with someone who just wants some research experience.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/stamford_230203b0191-1024x684.jpg\")
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-28_CareCollective-StephanieMoraGutierrez-13-1024x683.jpg\")