Two days before Mother’s Day, Mahone walked the stage thinking of the one precious family member who couldn’t be there — but her presence was deeply felt. His mother, Tara Mahone, was the inspiration and impetus behind Mahone’s completion of his third degree from UofL, a in the College of ������Ƶ and Human Development.

“She, along with my father, did a phenomenal job raising me and my brothers, presenting opportunities to us and leading us,” said the Hopkinsville, Ky., native. “She was a living example from the beginning.” His mother’s model included investing time in their hometown leadership programs serving others in the community, which Mahone emulated with his own involvement in programs including Boys and Girls Clubs, Youth Leadership and Upward Bound.

Mahone said he watched his mother earn two associate degrees and a bachelor’s degree despite undergoing dialysis for renal failure, all while raising three sons. Then, while Mahone was earning a degree at UofL, she was completing her own master’s degree in criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati. “We had this fun back and forth on who would get the best grades each semester,” he said.

But in January 2021, Tara Mahone was unexpectedly diagnosed with Covid-19. Within three days, she was hospitalized, and only five days later, she passed away. “That cut me to the core,” he said. “It’s tough when the first person you lose is your mom.” Added to that pain was the fact that Daquarius’s mother passed just months before his wedding.

Making his journey count

Mahone said he knew early on that his own path would lead to UofL. When he first toured the campus with Upward Bound, a federally-funded college preparation program, he knew he was home.

“It felt really close knit, just big enough.” With financial assistance from a , Mahone entered UofL and completed his Bachelor of Science in Communication in 2017. A short while later, he became a university employee, working first as an administrative assistant and then program coordinator at the on campus while pursuing his master’s degree.

Mahone said it was his mom’s spiritual faith and love for serving youth that was his catalyst to pursue a PhD degree in 2022.

“I was looking through student development theories and how students overcome adversities,” Mahone explained. He studied the theory of community cultural wealth, which examines forms of “capital” students can use to succeed.

“When I think of my mom on dialysis and yet still getting a degree in community college, and being a wife, and raising sons who play sports, that’s aspirational capital.”

Mahone’s guiding principle is to impart future college students with a sense of belonging and inspiration around what they can contribute to society.

A rising tide

In 2024, Mahone got an opportunity to bring these theories to life when he became director of , a newly launched college readiness program at UofL. Designed to serve students in grades 8-12 and help bridge the educational divide for first-generation students, the program seeks to build a thriving college-going culture. Cardinals Rising held a reception in April to welcome its first 60-student cohort to campus.

“Our vision is a community where the talent and potential of all students is recognized and nurtured, and they contribute to the workforce of the city and state through collaboration and innovation,” he said.

Coming full circle

“The last thing my mother said to me while she was alive was ‘I am more than a conqueror,’” said Mahone, a Biblical reference to Romans 8:37. The passage assures believers they can transcend challenges and transform their lives.

Having overcome many hardships himself and achieving this most recent dream, Mahone is glad to help others do the same.

“And so that’s aspiration capital, spiritual capital, all coming alive,” Mahone said. “I am fortunate to be in a place where I have hope, and I feel that a great deposit was left for me and through me.”

In the 50-plus years since he first stepped foot on campus as a freshman, Fitzpatrick has served in positions with the Athletics Department, Enrollment, Minority Affairs and as an assistant to the president. He eventually “meandered” over to the office of Community Engagement and will retire in May in that capacity.

Perhaps with a little bit of serendipity, Fitzpatrick took a major gamble to get his UofL career up and running. After working with Athletics for about a year, a job came up as a board-appointed administrator. It was only guaranteed for 30 days.

“Our Upward Bound program was in disarray,” Fitpatrick said. It was his job to fix it within those 30 days.

Not only did he fix it, the program recently helped students attain more than .

“I took a chance and accepted the job and Upward Bound is still at the University of Louisville today,” he said.

Since overseeing the Community Engagement department, UofL has collaborated with community partners for the Signature Partnership initiative, provided services in underserved neighborhoods and helped build stronger communities internationally. In , the university reported 1,358 partnership and outreach activities in collaboration with community partners and over 520,000 hours of student community service.

In retrospect, Fitzpatrick’s dedication to the University of Louisville and its programs should be of no surprise. As he took a chance on the institution by accepting a temporary job that evolved into a lifelong career, UofL also took a chance on him.

The first-generation college student was dismissed from his high school during his senior year for “failure to adhere to school regulations and dress codes.” It was the late 1960s and racial tensions were high following the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

“You would laugh. I had a light mustache. But the reality of it was that was the excuse for the district citing me for civil disobedience. There was no due process. I was just told to leave,” Fitpatrick said.

His case caught the attention of both the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights and the ACLU. Together, they sued the school district and the case went all the way to federal court. The court didn’t want to set a precedent on this case, according to Fitzpatrick, so his case was ruled against. That’s not to say all was lost, however.

The case also caught the attention of an adjunct law faculty member at UofL, who worked out an agreement that he could take one course in public speaking to make up for his one missing high school credit. He enrolled as a freshman in 1970.  

“UofL took a mighty chance on Ralph Fitzpatrick,” he said. “The long story short is that was the start of my academic career and what got me to the University of Louisville.”

At that time, he was inspired by the active environment on campus, led by the late Blaine Hudson and the first wave of African American students post-desegregation.

“I was blessed to be one of those students. We had probably one of the best support systems of all time. UofL created the Office of Black Affairs. There were about 10,000 students at the time and 200 African American students. They understood the need – we had that level of support and we had each other,” Fitzpatrick said.

He reminisces about his early days at UofL with fondness and it’s clear his affinity for UofL was solidified immediately.

Now, he reflects on that time as it relates to UofL’s current work in becoming the premier metropolitan research university, as well as the premier anti-racist metropolitan research university.

“That word ‘metropolitan’ means more than just being located in Louisville. Our university has a footprint in everything that moves in this city and even in the state,” he said. “You can’t talk about education without the University of Louisville. You can’t talk about health without the University of Louisville. You can’t talk about economic empowerment …”

It’s worth noting that now such reflection comes a bit intuitively as he prepares for retirement after a lifelong career here. He is optimistic about the path UofL is on, which is further along than it was when he came on board. He is especially optimistic that the university still has that support system in place for first-generation African American students and faculty.

“Those levels of support are our greatest window of opportunity,” he said. “We’ve got to walk the walk because so many are dependent on us. As long as folks of goodwill can come to the table and work together as a family, we can make those things happen.”

Check out the full conversation between Ralph Fitzpatrick and UofL President Neeli Bendapudi below. 

“Upward Bound has been an irreplaceable experience,” said Clark, a senior at Ballard High School and the mistress of ceremony at the banquet. “Without it I would have been completely lost in the college application process. It isn’t just academics that Upward Bound has helped me with, it’s the lifelong bonds that I’ve formed as well. I think without Upward Bound the course of my life would be completely different, and not for the better.”

Upward Bound, a federally funded program that has existed on the University
of Louisville’s Belknap Campus for more than 50 years, serves high school students from low-income and first-generation families. The goal of the Upward Bound Program is to increase the rate at which its participants enroll in and graduate from institutions of post-secondary education.

The banquet was held at the Brown & Williamson Clubhouse and celebrated the seniors that participated in the program and recognized more than 90 of the participating 165 students in the program who attained a 3.0 GPA or higher.

“The University of Louisville exists for one primary purpose and that is to educate our students and produce a citizenry that’s prepared to go forth and take their rightful place in this society,” Ralph Fitzpatrick, vice president for community engagement, said during the ceremony. “I’m proud as a vice president at the University of Louisville to go back to my institution tomorrow and report that all is well.”

Dwayne Compton, associate dean for community engagement and diversity and the chief diversity officer for UofL’s School of Medicine, was the guest speaker for the evening.

“I oftentimes see students and see myself when I was sitting in your seats,” Compton said. “Do self-reflection, think about what it is that you want out of life and establish your own partnership of success.”

More information about the UofL’s Upward Bound program is .