A Trinity family that lost their son to a fentanyl overdose in 2021 is funding a new residential recovery program at Saint Leo University, giving students in addiction recovery a path to a college degree about 20 miles from Wesley Chapel.
Dewey and Becky Mitchell donated $1 million to establish the Derek J. Mitchell Collegiate Recovery Program, named for their son. Derek died April 20, 2021, in Tempe, Arizona, after buying street Xanax that turned out to be laced with fentanyl. The program makes Saint Leo only the third college in Florida with a residential addiction recovery program and the only Catholic college outside the Northeast to offer one, according to the Hernando Sun.
"We've always felt like it sure would be nice if we could help people not have to go through the same thing that we've gone through," Dewey Mitchell said.
Derek Mitchell was a standout basketball player, swimmer, and honor student at Mitchell High School in New Port Richey. He graduated magna cum laude from Florida State University and ran construction projects in Texas and Arizona. He began using drugs in college, entered recovery, and appeared to be thriving. But when COVID-19 disrupted his psychiatric care and his doctor retired, he lost access to his Xanax prescription.
How the program works
Saint Leo is accepting students now for fall 2026, with a soft launch planned for January 2027 and full operation expected by fall 2027. Students must be sober at least six months before entering and must remain sober while enrolled. They will live together in an existing campus dormitory with access to counseling and support, and they will take classes alongside the general student population.
This is not a treatment program. Saint Leo University President Dr. Jim Burkee emphasized that students who enter are already in recovery and working to maintain sobriety while earning a degree. He described them as college students first: smart, accomplished, and disciplined people who will be significant contributors to the community.
Modeled on Minneapolis program
In April 2026, Dewey Mitchell, Burkee, and Vice President of University Advancement Stephen Kubasek traveled to Minneapolis to visit Augsburg University's StepUp program, one of the nation's oldest residential collegiate recovery programs. The visit convinced Mitchell to commit the founding gift.
Kubasek told FOX 13 Tampa Bay on July 9 that the program will likely draw students who previously felt college was not an option because of their recovery needs, rather than students already enrolled at Saint Leo.
Local context
The program arrives as Pasco County continues to grapple with addiction. The county recorded a drug-involved overdose death rate of 30.6 per 100,000 people in 2024, ranking 10th highest among Florida's 67 counties, according to USAFacts data. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in 58% of Florida's overdose deaths that year.
Dewey Mitchell, a real estate and commercial property executive, is now helping the university raise $10 million to fully endow the program. Saint Leo, a private Benedictine university founded in 1889 with more than 10,000 students, is hiring staff to run the new initiative.
Students interested in the program can find enrollment information at saintleo.edu.
