Dr. Taylor Randall
President of the University of Utah

"I want to be the first to welcome you as new students to the University of Utah.  We are so excited you have chosen the U, and even more to have you back on campus. It is you that brings so much energy and vitality of what we do here as a university.  Our number one goal as leaders is your success as students, both academically and in your health and wellness. This is going to be an eventful year for me too, as the new university president. I am excited to begin this journey with you, and continue to chart an upward path for the U, as one for America's leading research universities.  I have big aspirations for the University. It begins right now with each of us. Have a great year and go Utah."

 

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Taylor VanderToolen
Student Body President 

"I’m Taylor VanderToolenand I’m your Student Body President! I’m entering my fourth year at the University of Utah, studying Quantitative Analysis of Markets and Organizations and Finance in the David Eccles School of Business. I can say with complete certainty that I am more excited about this upcoming year than everbefore! I am excited to see all that you will experience your first year and all that you will accomplish during your time at the U!"  

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Annie Isabel Fukushima, Ph.D. 
2022 New Student Welcome Faculty Speaker

Dr. Annie Isabel Fukushima is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at University of Utah. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Utah, Dr. Fukushima earned her doctoral degree from University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of the award-winning book, Migrant Crossings: Witnessing Human Trafficking in the US (Stanford University Press, 2019). She is the Co-Principal Investigator for the Gender-Based Violence Consortium where her research partners with communities to respond to pressing issues of violence facing us: human trafficking, domestic violence, and racialized and gender-based violence. Her expertise is nationally recognized in which she has served as an expert witness for civil, criminal, and immigration cases.   "We each have our own story to tell and that central to our own academic journeys are to discover purpose with a sense of self. " 

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Alicia Baker
2022 New Student Welcome Student Speaker

Alicia Baker, is a Utah local, born in Syracuse, Utah, just 45 minutes away from campus. Alicia is going into her junior year here at the University of Utah and is majoring in QAMO while obtaining a minor in Environmental & Sustainability Studies. In her time here at the University of Utah, Alicia has held several student leader positions. Alicia spent summer of 2021 working for the Office of Orientation & Transition as an Orientation Leader and then went on to serve as an Orientation Team Leader for the orientation of summer 2022. During the 2021-2022 academic year, while balancing her role as an Orientation Team Leader,  Alicia also worked for the Honors College as an Honors Peer Mentor, served on the executive board for the student organization, Fashion in Business, and worked in housing as a Resident Advisor, which she plans to continue this year.
“I was so shy and quiet in high school and I felt like that’s all people ever saw me as and so when I came to college, I knew that I wanted to break out of my shell and really immerse myself into the experience and not be that shy girl anymore. Coming to school here, I got to start fresh and forge a path that I know high school Alicia would be so proud to see. It doesn’t matter who you were before today, you get to be whoever you want to be now.”