Charles Kemp and Scrappy. Photo by Angela Foster.
When Charles Kemp walks across the McKenzie Arena stage at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga undergraduate commencement ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 13, he’ll be thinking about how far he’s come—both as a student and as a storyteller.
He’ll also be doing so already holding a full-time job with the “UT” acronym on his business card.
Kemp, earning a bachelor’s degree in communication with a marketing minor, works as a digital content strategist in the UT System’s Office of Communications and Marketing in Knoxville.
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Balancing a full-time job with his final semester of coursework has made his final months at UTC “definitely untraditional,” he said, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I like doing things that not many people do,” he said. “At the UT System, I think this is my dream job. I get to go around making videos, taking photos, meeting people. I’ve been to more places in the state since January than I have in my entire life.
“I think my story shows what can happen when you stay focused and make the most of what’s in front of you.”
Kemp’s path to that dream job began at UT Southern, where he started college before transferring to UTC in 2022. He already knew what he wanted to do—create. He had discovered video production in high school and came to Chattanooga determined to turn those interests into a professional path.
The Memphis native soon found a home in UTC’s Division of Communications and Marketing working under Executive Video Producer Mike Andrews.
“I reached out to Mike before I even got to UTC,” Kemp said. “I told him, ‘Hey, I’m doing this type of work as a student at UT Southern,’ and he said, ‘You can do the same thing at UTC.’”
During his time on the UTC campus from August 2022 through December 2024, Kemp could be found behind the camera, in front of the camera and everywhere in between—capturing the stories that define the UTC experience.
Andrews said Kemp’s personality and work ethic stood out immediately.
“How confident he is, how he makes people feel at ease, how he draws people into his project and his vision of a project,” Andrews said. “He kind of elevated our expectations of what a student can bring in here and accomplish.”
Andrews quickly learned that Kemp wasn’t afraid to take creative risks, citing a project that featured UT System President Randy Boyd and the cheer teams from Chattanooga and Knoxville.
“Charles was a cheerleader for UTC, going up to Knoxville and working with Randy Boyd and teaching him how to cheer for UTC,” Andrews said. “Then the cheerleader from Tennessee did the same and they went back and forth.
“We improvised and had the idea of taking him to the Vol Shop. Charles walked in mic’d up and ad-libbed, ‘Way too much orange,’ and we just fell over laughing. It was an inspired moment and indicative of what he could do and how he could do it.”
Charles Kemp at the University of Tennessee System’s “Find Your Future” high school visit to Walker Valley High School in September 2025. Photo by Angela Foster.
At UTC, Kemp served as an anchor for Mocs News, appeared on the cover of the UT System’s Our Tennessee magazine, studied abroad in Mexico—“I’d never been on a plane before”—and worked on dozens of projects as part of the University’s video team.
He said his experiences as a student worker set the foundation for his professional confidence.
“Being in the MarCom space showed me how professionals operate,” he said. “It gave me a foundation—how to plan, how to talk to people in the field, how to broaden my network and make things happen. I learned from everyone around me. They let me try things and trusted me with real projects.
“I started seeing ads I created on TV or YouTube—stuff that the University would put money behind. That journey, going from low man on the totem pole to sitting right next to the videographer on staff, really did wonders for my confidence.”
Between classes, campus involvement and video production work, Kemp’s days were packed—but he relished the pace.
“I’m one of those people who always needs to be doing something,” he said. “That’s probably why I loved working with the video team. Every day was different. You never knew who you were going to meet or what kind of story you were going to tell.”
He also learned what it meant to collaborate with people who had higher expectations than he had ever faced.
“When you’re working with professionals, it’s a different level,” he said. “Deadlines are real. Clients expect things on time. People depend on you to get it right. That was the biggest adjustment at first—but it was also where I grew the most.”
In January, Kemp accepted a full-time position with the UT System. As a digital content strategist, he now travels statewide to film, photograph and produce stories from every UT campus and institute.
While working full-time, he completed his remaining UTC coursework online. His final semester included fulfilling his Department of Communication internship requirement by working on a project supervised by Andrews.
“Mike had an idea—what if you just send us packages from what you normally do at work?” Kemp said. “It’s been fun to keep that connection and still be part of the UTC story, even from Knoxville.”
Charles Kemp in Knoxville during the 2025 University Photographers’ Association of America Symposium. Photo by Angela Foster.
Melissa Tindell, vice president for communications and marketing for the UT System—and a UTC doctoral student in the Learning and Leadership program—first met Kemp several years ago when he attended the UT System’s Summer Communicators Retreat as a student intern during his time at UT Southern.
“He had a lightness that just exuded from him, just immense joy in his being,” Tindell said, “and that really stuck out to me and so many others.
“Fun fact: Charles did the first-ever back flip at a communicators retreat. That was another reason he stuck out to us.”
That impression never faded. After Kemp transferred to UTC, Tindell and her team stayed in touch, checking in periodically on his progress.
“At such a young age, he had a great head on his shoulders,” she said. “We would always check in with Charles. We’d have business from time to time at the system level and we would try to catch up with him.”
When the opportunity came to hire him full-time last winter, Tindell said she jumped at the chance.
“We had to get really creative about what that hire might look like since he was still an undergraduate,” she said. “Full credit to UT Chattanooga for working with us to figure out a way to allow him to take his remaining coursework online while he worked full time here.”
She called the arrangement “a wonderful partnership” between UTC and the UT System office—and a reminder of what can happen when leaders think outside the box.
“It’s a real testament to not getting stuck in the mindset of, ‘This is the way we’ve always done things,’” she said. “If you see a high-potential, high-capacity individual, think creatively about how to make it work.”
Tindell said she has been proud to see how Kemp has adjusted to professional life.
“I have to remind myself regularly that he’s 22,” she said. “He presents so much more mature than that.
“With his classes, we’ve had to juggle some things on our end from a workload perspective, but at the end of the day, it’s all worth it to see Charles succeed.”
During his time on the UTC campus, Charles Kemp was a member of the UTC cheer team and appeared on the cover of the UT System’s Our Tennessee magazine.
For Kemp, commencement marks the culmination of a journey that took him from Memphis to Murfreesboro—where he attended high school—to Pulaski to Chattanooga and to Knoxville.
And, of course, across the entire state filming and creating stories.
“It’s going to be great to cross that stage and say, I finished this in one go,” he said. “My grandmother always says, ‘Charles, I know you work hard and I know you do all these things, but bring me that paper.’ No matter what I do, she’s like, ‘That’s good, that’s great, but make sure you bring me that paper.’
“I can’t wait to say, ‘Here it is.’”
He knows the moment will carry emotion. And like many stories he’s helped tell for others, this one ends with gratitude.
“I’m just thankful,” Kemp said. “UTC gave me opportunities I didn’t even know existed. I learned how to work, how to connect, how to see the world differently. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.”
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