Southern Utah University is no stranger to forming families. In their time as T-Birds, students form friendships and relationships that often last the rest of their lives. The school’s loving atmosphere even draws some of these families back to their college roots in Cedar City.
Not only did one of these families, Amie and Jeff Tukuafu, find love for each other during their college days, they also found a strong connection to SUU that holds true to this day. The Tukuafus both hold leadership positions as part of SUU’s staff, putting countless hours into improving the school while raising their superfan son, Ace.
Although Jeff and Amie eventually met each other in southern Utah, the paths that brought them together started in two very different places.
Jeff, a talented young athlete who’d honed his specialty in football by his senior year of high school, was searching for a college sports culture he wanted to be a part of. After looking into a few options, he decided that the Thunderbirds seemed to value dedication and persistence, two of the qualities he exemplified most.
The diligent defensive lineman redshirted his first semester at SUU, then played four successful seasons after that, beating teams like the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and No. 1-ranked Eastern Washington University to put the Thunderbird football team on the map.
During Jeff’s time in football, he followed the advice of one of his coaches to study business because it would be applicable to anything he went into.
“I loved my time at SUU. It was a great experience,” Jeff said. “It wasn’t easy. I had a lot of adversity and trials I went through, but I grew as a person. I found strength, I found lifelong friends, I found my wife and I found mentors and people I idolized and wanted to be like.”
Although SUU convinced Jeff to become a T-Bird right away, it took a bit more time for Amie to join the ranks.
Her mother served as the registrar at Snow College, so Amie received free tuition at Snow for two years. In her time there, she participated in cheer and dance and reinforced her growing love for higher education. Although she loved her time there, Snow didn’t offer four-year undergraduate degrees, so she had to make a decision on where to complete her bachelor’s in public relations.
Her mom had studied at SUU in the midst of managing life as a single parent, and she spoke very highly of her experience, influencing Amie’s eventual decision to attend college in Cedar City. She managed to lock down a transfer ambassador position during her studies, setting her up with great experience in the field of recruiting.
“I honestly had such a great experience here as an undergrad student, and I was only here for two years, but I had incredible professors, I loved the atmosphere and culture and we had really solidified such a fun group of people that I knew were so genuine,” Amie said.
Now united by their T-Bird connection, the two started hanging out in their graduating year of 2012 before heading in totally different directions. While Jeff finished up his final season of football, Amie joined SUU’s recruitment team in the region of Salt Lake. There, she met her current boss, who recruited her to work as the ambassador advisor at Snow for almost three years.
Once Jeff finally hung up his football pads, he took jobs in anything from construction to Hollywood production before settling on a job in the oil fields of Roosevelt, Utah.
Despite the distance between them, Jeff and Amie grew closer until 2015 when they got married. Because they wanted to stick together in one place, they needed to solidify the location where they wanted to start the next stage of their life.
They saw two options for making their new home: living in Roosevelt where Jeff could continue his work in the oil fields or returning to Cedar City where Amie’s former boss had offered her a position as an ambassador advisor.
Ultimately, education took priority for the Tukuafus, as they chose to make the trek back to SUU for Amie’s job and both of their master’s degrees.
“It had always been in my mind to come back and to help it reach new heights,” Amie said. “We saw so much potential that I wanted to make sure it was more widespread. I feel very confident this is the best undergrad experience you’re going to find, for sure within the state of Utah.”
Having left his opportunity in the oil industry behind, Jeff tried reaching out to his old Thunderbird football coach for a job with the team, but no paid positions were available. Instead, he worked odd jobs for a while, searching for the right career to settle into.
He found it in 2016 after a coaching change in SUU’s football program opened the spot of director of football operations.
Now both officially members of the SUU staff, they worked their way up the ranks into the vital roles they hold currently: Amie as the associate director of admissions and recruitment and Jeff as the senior associate athletic director for facilities and events.
Amie’s work in admissions and recruitment primarily requires her to oversee the Welcome Center staff as well as run the prospective student communication plan, which keeps future T-Birds updated on what’s happening at SUU.
Especially in a small town like Cedar City, jobs in college recruitment can prove particularly difficult. According to Amie, over 90% of SUU’s students come from more than 50 miles away. Yet, preparedness and competitiveness has put her and the rest of the staff ahead of the curve.
“We’ve been able to kind of do the impossible. Schools across the country, especially regional public institutions, are declining at a scary rate. We’ve bucked the trend and have been going in the opposite direction for the last seven or eight years now,” Amie explained. “I think it’s because most of our staff is alumni. It has helped us really share our authentic love for this university.”
Throughout Amie’s time here from 2015-21, enrollment has grown by 58.1%, and over 15,000 students are currently part of the T-Bird Nation.
Meanwhile, Jeff’s efforts have mostly involved growing athletics, where his love for sports has kept him.
“I think that I saw him find his total passion in university athletics,” Amie stated. “Not the coaching element, because a ton of people think that’s what he does, but he really is so logistic and administrative in the best ways, and I think it is so required to be successful there.”
Jeff’s job entails helping to purchase equipment, serving as a primary contact between coaches and administrators and coordinating with Facilities Management to ensure that all aspects of SUU sports are running smoothly.
“I work as hard as I can and do what I can to help the athletic department and the university because I love this place,” Jeff said. “I’ve bled, sweat and broken bones for this institution, so I just want to leave it in a better place than I found it.”
In the middle of their impressive eight-year career at SUU, the Tukuafu son, Ace, was born into the bustling world of the T-Birds. Within 48 hours, his dad headed straight out on a football trip.
Since Ace has two parents hard at work dedicating time to the university, the Tukuafu family relies on the amazing SUU community to help support them.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have Ace go here to the SUU Center for Hope since he was eight months old,” Amie shared. “We have an amazing partnership there with people who really care about him and amazing students and teachers who are just so kind to him. It gives me and Jeff the ability to be able to do what we do. We love it.”
The Tukuafus hope that their son, an avid fan of the Thunderbirds, will become one himself, but more than anything, they hope their examples show him the importance of hard work.
For the time being, Ace will continue to explore SUU campus like he owns the place, implanting himself as a special member of the T-Bird family, just like his parents.
The Tukuafus have loved their time at SUU both as students and staff, but the reason they keep doing what they’re doing is because they want others to experience the same joy.
“SUU is a special place. I love being here and working here,” Jeff said. “For those that are here, I hope you’re exploring that and finding that experience.”
Author: Kale Nelson
Photos courtesy of Amie Tukuafu
Editor: Kale Nelson
This article was originally published in the Spring 2024 edition of the University Journal.
