Fellow:Tori Hooper


Name Tori Hooper School (Cohort) Utah Valley University (2020 cohort) Majoring in Exercise Science and Biology Country USA Email Special:EmailUser/Vahooper

Bio

Tori Hooper started her college career as a varsity basketball player at a university in Virginia. After serving a religious mission, she needed to return home for family reasons. During that time, she attended a community college in Virginia. She loved the college’s focus on student success and the involvement of her professors, but she wanted a bachelor’s degree. That eventually led her to Utah Valley University.

In her time at UVU, Tori served as a residential community leader, planning events and encouraging students to continue their education at UVU. She also served as an assistant in the Student Government and Clubs Office. She was a student researcher in the biology and exercise science departments on campus. Worked on research about the Human Microbiome and Hippo-therapy. She was the program director and basketball coach for the UVU Special Olympics and was involved with the Center for Social Impact and the Pre-med Association. Within the Honors program, she served as a selected student ambassador, to help non-traditional students within the program. She served as the Student Director of the Excellence and Innovation Initiative on campus for two years. This was a program that matched students to interdisciplinary projects within the university to an industry facing project. This is where students could gain hands on experience. As well worked as a student associate on the Wolverine Fund, a student led venture capital program. She was a Station1 research fellow for MIT's Frontier Fellowship that focused on socially-directed science and technology education, research, and innovation. In her last year of school she was selected to be the Lead Presidential Intern in the office the President. Where she compiled research on innovation, speakers, and non-traditional education; created data analytic reports on graduation rates, diversity and inclusion, and technology; and helped manage Presidential communications including PowerPoints, speeches, and social media accounts.

Currently Tori is a project and operations manager for the Innovation District at The Point Project Utah and the Utah Innovation Fund. She is helping to build out the innovation ecosystem at the Point. Focusing on how to connect higher education, government, and industry to create a more collaborative ecosystem. As well as help with back end operations for a venture capital fund that invest in deep tech companies coming out of Utah institutions of higher education.