Making an Impact With CATapult

Jaime Winston BA ’22, Marketing & Communications 

The last few steps are often the most difficult.

An estimated 400 to 500 students, who are at least 75% of the way through their degree program, drop out of Weber State University every semester. While the university works to keep education affordable, financial issues are often the cause.

During his 2020 inauguration, former WSU President Brad Mortensen launched the CATapult Scholarship to help combat the issue. The scholarship program provides an upward burst of momentum for students nearing graduation but without the means to continue.

As of fall 2025, the scholarship has helped more than 2,314 students stay on track to graduate. Among them, the following Wildcats reached their goals.

The International Businesswoman

Gaby Gakwaya BS ’25 perfectly fit WSU’s international business economics major.

Her life experiences have brought her across the globe. She was born and raised in Belgium until her family moved to Rwanda. She then came to the United States to attend high school at Layton Christian Academy. As a WSU student, she returned to Belgium for an internship and also studied abroad in Germany. And running a business has always been in her family in Belgium and Rwanda.

“Just the words ‘international business,’ that’s what drew me into it,” Gakwaya said. “I’m an international student, so I just thought that would be a plus.”

However, once she began her classes, she realized it was more difficult than expected, especially when dealing with math or statistics.

She said professors like Valentinas Rudys and Nazneen Ahmad took the time to review homework with her and explain concepts. She was also inspired by the depth of Professor of Economics John Mbaku’s international research.

Paying for her final semester was also a challenge, as she didn’t want the burden to be on her parents. Thankfully, Gakwaya received an email one day saying some changes had been made to her student bill. Working in the registrar’s office at the time, she walked across the hall to the billing office to learn she received a CATapult Scholarship.

“They removed all the financial burden that I had,” she said. “I was so happy.”

Before CATapult, she had also received financial help from the John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics and the Study Abroad office, and she covered the rest with help from her parents and the money she earned working at the university.

Gakwaya received a minor and a certificate in French along with her bachelor’s degree. She uses her experience as an international student to assist others in navigating the university as a registrar’s success coach, helping students access transcripts, change names or addresses, or even navigate CatTracks.

“The registration office is like the heart of all the other offices because students will come to us, and then we will refer them to the right department,” Gakwaya said. “If we can help them, we always do our best.”

She now looks forward to earning her Master of Business Administration and, hopefully, finding a career that allows her to travel to more parts of the world.

Her advice to students struggling in class: “Push through it. It can be very hard. School is not easy, but I would say push through it because your reward will be very big.”

The Dedicated Nurse

Madison Doyle BS ’25 is a lifeline to patients at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

As a nurse, she provides assessments, medications, and treatments for about three to four patients at a time, admitted with cancer, sickle cell anemia, chemotherapy complications, or one of many other illnesses.

While growing up, Doyle said she saw her grandmother go in and out of remission with breast cancer. Eventually, her grandmother entered hospice care and later passed away. Doyle saw how caring nurses made a difference in her life. When looking for a job in healthcare, she was motivated to work with cancer patients.

“I just felt that I could make a difference,” Doyle said.

Born in Chicago, Doyle spent most of her childhood in the Charlotte metropolitan area, followed by moves to Florida and Colorado. “We just kind of had a rough go growing up, so my parents had to move around for jobs,” she said.

Doyle arrived in Utah in 2021 with her husband, Jackson, who was stationed at Hill Air Force Base. The mountains’ proximity to the city and how friendly the locals were surprised her. Deciding to make Ogden her home, Doyle worked as an ophthalmic technician when she decided to go further into healthcare.

“People talk up Weber State’s nursing program really highly around here,” Doyle said. “So, I immediately started looking into it.”

She completed the licensed practical nursing program at Davis Technical College before finishing the registered nurse program and bachelor’s degree in nursing at WSU.

Doyle began work at Huntsman in Salt Lake City while attending school full time, making time management challenging. “Sometimes, I would leave a night shift and go straight to class because I didn’t really have any other option,” she said.

The situation became more complicated when Jackson medically retired from the military in 2022. “Our lifestyle changed a lot while I was in the middle of nursing school,” Doyle said. “He was very supportive that I continue and not give up.”

Jackson soon began his own degree program at another university. “So, it’s just two adult students going back to school,” Doyle said. “It was kind of a really rough time for both of us, but we really supported each other through it.”

Then Doyle received word that she would no longer receive the Pell Grant she relied on for her education. “I was absolutely freaking out,” she recalled.

Bridget Jensen, WSU scholarship director, helped Doyle reapply for the Pell Grant and also convinced her to complete a scholarship application. She received a CATapult Scholarship to help her finish her degree the same day she applied.

“I remember coming home to my husband, being like ‘I don’t know if this is real. I feel like this is a mistake.’” Doyle laughed. “I was just so taken aback by the generosity from Bridget and the CATapult Scholarship donors as well.”

Doyle now hopes to pass the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation’s exam to become an Oncology Certified Nurse. This will tell patients she understands the development of cancer and what they may expect before, during, and after treatment.

The Sales Professional

Lisa Salvitti AS ’25, BS ’25 completed her Weber State degrees after a number of tragedies proved to her that she is a survivor.

She first came to Weber State after high school, changing majors several times before marrying and leaving school to save money. After having children, she planned to return, but decided it wasn’t the best time while going through a divorce.

Returning later, she left again after losing her boyfriend in a devastating car crash. Financial issues later prevented her from making a return.

“I became homeless and was living in my car with my son,” Salvitti said.

She planned to return once more, but the car she lived in soon broke down.

Salvitti decided to go to truck driving school to earn her commercial driver’s license and become a truck driver so that she could provide a better life for her family.

“I didn’t know how hard it was to back up a semi or anything,” she said. “I just thought, ‘Oh, that pays good. We can have a place to sleep.’”

She said it was a difficult journey entering the male-dominated field, and she faced bullying as she learned. “I have had to fight tigers to get my experience in trucking,” she said.

While driving allowed her to see beautiful settings across the country, she said she unfortunately had to stop for brief periods due to injuries and other traumas.

Soon after, her mother’s health declined and she was put on hospice care. Salvitti planned on splitting her time between school and caring for her mother, but decided not to return when an injury to her back put her in extreme pain.

After losing her mother, Salvitti finally returned to Weber State, where she only needed a year of classes to complete her professional sales degree.

“I enjoy sales, because it’s psychology,” she said. “You grow as a person because you learn so much about yourself, you learn about relationships, you learn about personality types.”

The CATapult Scholarship was the break she needed.

“I applied, and that’s when they said, ‘Hey, we’ll give you a scholarship,’” Salvitti recalled. “I’m so grateful for that.”

It covered the whole year. “I was floored; I just couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Salvitti now looks forward to her future.

She plans to use her professional sales knowledge to support her businesses and set an example for her two children and four grandchildren.

Salvitti’s TikTok nickname, Woman of Valor, and transportation business, Valor Trucking LLC, are a tribute to her grandson, whose middle name is Valor. She hopes to soon get a custom T-shirt company off the ground, along with a brand of spaghetti sauce, Salvitti’s Spaghetti Sauce, inspired by her grandmother, Carmella. Like her grandmother, Salvitti once ran a bakery and hopes to return to the food business with a drive-thru restaurant she wants to call Kyrie’s Kitchen, named after her granddaughter.

Through her experiences, she learned that while you don’t always get over hard times, you can get through them. They deepened her religious faith and turned her focus to helping others. She now advocates for truck drivers and against violence.

Salvitti said she’s thankful to her son Andrew, who helped her through difficult times, and WSU professors, especially Paige Young, for their encouragement.

She’s also thankful to family who have passed away — her parents, who taught her that hard work pays off, and her brother, Tony, who saved her life when she was young.

She plans to publish a book about her experiences to inspire others facing hardships.