The Scholarship Luncheon student panel included moderator Kim White (left), Katie Collins, Erin Jones, Sara Mathews and Sergio Desiante. Photo by Angela Foster.
Katie Collins didn’t come to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga expecting to lead anything.
Now, as a senior, she’s the president of the Society of Women Engineers.
As part of a small but growing group of women in UTC’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, Collins said scholarships gave her the freedom to find her place on campus.
“All I’ve ever wanted to do is make a community for everyone and I feel like we do a really good job of that,” said Collins, a chemical engineering major from Memphis and recipient of the Curtis Scholarship.
Collins was one of four students who spoke at the luncheon held on Friday, April 4, in the Wolford Family Athletic Center. The annual event connects scholarship recipients with the donors who support them and gives students a chance to talk about what that support has meant.
“This is one of our most special events,” said Kim White, vice chancellor for advancement and executive director of the UC Foundation. “The students could hear from donors on why they’ve given back—and then for donors, you could hear from students about how generosity has made such a difference in their college experience.”
The event included a student panel discussion, music by the Choo Choo Saxophone Quartet and a video highlighting Vann Cunningham—a 1974 UTC anthropology graduate whose pledge created the Vann Cunningham Scholarship Fund in Anthropology and the annual Internship in Anthropology and Cultural Archaeology.
“I knew how that was because that’s what I had been through,” said Cunningham about his experience working through college. “At some point, money’s just money, and you’ve got to turn it into something—turn it into something that is lasting.”
UTC Interim Chancellor Robert Dooley praised the donors for their role in financially helping students.
“Donors, you put our students’ dreams within reach,” Dooley said. “Because of you, our students can achieve more in the classroom, on the field, in the lab, at their internships and in the professional careers they will embark upon after graduation.”
The student panel included Collins; Erin Jones, a mathematics major with an economics minor and recipient of the Ruth Clark Perry Memorial Mathematics Award; Sara Mathews, a business analytics major and recipient of the O’Brien Family COBA Scholarship for Study Abroad; and Sergio Desiante, a marketing major and recipient of the Nancy Noblit Scholarship.
Desiante, who moved to Chattanooga from Tampa, Florida, came to UTC to wrestle and is the first-ever Mocs wrestler to win the Southern Scuffle title.
“Without the scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to go to [UTC],” Desiante said. “I would’ve had to go back home, so I’m super thankful. Thank you to all of you.”
Mathews, a Rollins Scholar, said scholarships made her study abroad trip to Japan possible.
“I definitely would not have been able to go to college without a scholarship,” Mathews said. “Even for studying abroad … I would not have had that without the scholarship opportunity.”
Jones said the financial support gave her the ability to participate in work outside of the classroom.
“I can’t say enough how much they help ease the financial burden,” Jones said. “It definitely gives me time that I wouldn’t otherwise have to do stuff on campus and especially helps with my research.”
White, a 1982 UTC alum and former scholarship recipient herself, said the UC Foundation provided $3.48 million in scholarships last year—awarding more than 2,200 scholarships to 1,700 students.
“When I was a student, I was the recipient of a scholarship, and it really was life-changing for me,” she said. “It was so rewarding when I had the opportunity to do so to be able to pay it forward.”
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Photo gallery by Angela Foster
