2007 to replicate nationwide, has allowed her and her colleagues to train those involved with the University’s CRP. Last January, Harris came to the University to work with Desprez and E. Royster Harper, vice president for student affairs, to jumpstart the program.

Harris said in her experience of replicating Texas Tech’s program at 15 other schools, she has never met someone with as much dedication and persistence as Desprez.

“The program is going to be a great opportunity for the University to really set the stage for doing some work with students,” Harris said. “I couldn’t be any more committed to this program being a real positive thing for the University and the students involved.”

Harris believes the program has been a success because of the feeling of belonging individuals develop in groups that offer social support.

“With drug use, you think a lot about peer pressure, and people being pressured to use drugs, and recovery — especially for the college population — kind of turns that around so that you are pressured to be clean and sober to remain part of that community. That’s key.”

To Harris, a program like the CRP helps students become who they were meant to be.

“These programs are opportunities to go forward with your hopes, dreams and a future that really matters,” Harris said. “The most exciting thing about a Collegiate Recovery Program is that it allows you to flourish. It is a great chance at being the kind of person you were supposed to be before the drugs and alcohol got a hold of you.”

Recovery in college allows students to start again in a new place with a new potential, Desprez said.

“Who do you know that doesn’t believe in a second chance? Collegiate recovery support is most fundamentally a second chance.”