Mateo Jimenez and Melissa Callejas, Hispanic outreach specialist for The Enterprise Center, meet about a Hispanic outreach brochure model to inform the community about digital equity. Photo by Angela Foster.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior Mateo Jimenez wants to change the world.
Need proof? Look no further than the top of his Facebook page.
“Be yourself. Strive. Succeed. Inspire. I want to change the world someday.”
“To me,” said Jimenez, majoring in political science with a minor in sociology, “that means giving back to my community and being a resource and an advocate for many avenues.
“Here in Tennessee there are rural communities lacking access to internet and infrastructure, so I want to support those communities that need someone to advocate for them. I also want to advocate for the immigrant families here in the U.S. A lot of programs currently in place have requirements—and a lot of immigrant families aren’t able to meet those requirements because they don’t have citizenship or residency, so a lot of immigrant families are falling through the cracks.”
Jimenez, a first-generation college student on a path to earning his degree in December, has been a student leader and advocate since arriving at UTC. His college resume includes being a member of the freshman senate and spending three years with the Student Government Association, including a stint as the executive team’s chief of staff.
This fall, he will spend his fourth year as a member of UTC’s Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature team, better known as TISL, where he currently serves as treasurer.
He is leaving his mark off campus, too.
In August 2022, he was selected as an American Connection Corps/Regional Connectivity Fellow for Lead For America—a national nonprofit organization that trains college students to serve as full-time local government or nonprofit employees in their home communities. Fellows are placed in positions where they can directly impact challenges such as education, healthcare, economic development, environmental sustainability and social equity.
“Right now, I am partnering with Thrive Regional Partnership; they serve the tri-state Chattanooga area with footprints in northeast Alabama, northwest Georgia and southeast Tennessee,” said Jimenez, a 2019 East Ridge High School graduate. “Many of those areas are rural, so we have been looking at how we can bridge the digital divide within those areas.
“What I’m doing now is visiting nonprofit organizations and having conversations. What do they wish could be improved? What can be better?”
The projects Jimenez has been a part of include raising awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program in the Hispanic community, providing outreach on matters related to digital literacy, digital equity and digital inclusion.
He also has participated in the Tennessee Broadband Accelerate Program—a collaboration of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, and Heartland Forward—as a community liaison for Roane County, Tennessee. The new program will focus on planning and building capacity to assist Tennessee communities in utilizing funding for broadband infrastructure.
Learning about the digital divide is new to him. However, learning about inequities between urban and rural communities is not.
Although Jimenez has lived in Chattanooga since he was a toddler, he was born in a rural part of North Carolina—where his parents initially emigrated from Guatemala.
He has quizzed his parents about the differences between rural and urban life.
“I asked them why they moved,” he said, “and they talked about lack of jobs and lack of infrastructure, businesses, opportunities. Taking in their grievances got me thinking, ‘What about other rural communities? Are there rural communities that don’t have the infrastructure?’ I want to see how I can reach them. How can I better serve rural communities?
“It’s a passion that I’ve developed,” he continued, explaining what he has learned during his time with Lead For America. “Before this, I didn’t know what digital literacy was. I didn’t know how the digital equity space operated. Learning so much about this space has grown my passion.”
Jimenez spoke about that divide earlier this year at the annual National Digital Inclusion Alliance in San Antonio.
“It was my first conference with a lot of professionals and policymakers,” he said. “My presentation was, ‘How can we bring more young people into this space?’ That’s something I saw at NDIA; there weren’t many young people except for us fellows.
“I was beyond grateful to share my story and the importance of uplifting young individuals in the digital equity space in front of 800 digital inclusion practitioners, policymakers, advocates, researchers and other digital inclusion leaders.”
During his early days at UTC, Jimenez met Lane Gutridge, a campus student leader and now the University’s alumni affairs and special initiatives coordinator. At the time, Gutridge was a freshman senate advisor.
“I remember when Mateo interviewed for freshman senate, he already had some impressive leadership experiences,” Gutridge recalled. “He was really ambitious in the things that he wanted to do, his ideas and goals and directions. So I remember thinking Freshman Senate would be a great thing to develop a lot of his leadership skills—and he stepped into leadership quickly.”
Gutridge served as the SGA president from April 2020 to April 2021. For part of that term, Jimenez was a member of his executive team as chief of staff.
“Mateo had a big drive and passion and was very ambitious,” said Gutridge, who received a bachelor’s degree in marketing from UTC in 2022. “You could tell he was always looking for an opportunity to make a large impact.”
Jimenez said being an American Connection Corps fellow has allowed him to grow as a person, garner knowledge of the digital equity realm and how nonprofits work, and learn how to connect with organizations.
He plans to use these newfound skills following his undergraduate days.
“I want to go to law school after graduation; I want to study immigration and constitutional law or immigration and criminal law,” Jimenez said. “I do see myself being in a public service role someday.
“I hope to inspire growth. I hope to inspire students here at UTC to apply to be American Connection Corps fellows. And I really hope to leave an impact not only in Chattanooga but also in the surrounding region.”
Mateo Jimenez spoke at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance in San Antonio (photo courtesy of Mateo Jimenez).
