On Monday, Jan. 29, Chancellor’s Blue Ribbon Award recipients for the second half of 2023—Gassim Abazid (UTC Police Department), Stephanie Orr (Undergraduate Admissions), Shari Kappel (Administrative Specialist for Management, Gary W. Rollins College of Business), Brandalyn Shropshire (Undergraduate Admissions), Lili Reynolds (Registered Nurse, University Health Services) and Emma Sampson (MPH Program Manager, Health and Human Performance)—were recognized with a luncheon in the University Center.
Strength in numbers: UTC students can now lift alongside one of the world’s best female weightlifters
UTC junior Olivia Reeves, a leading 2024 Olympic weightlifting qualifier, ranks second in the world in her weight class and broke seven world records in her last competition in Qatar in December. In her spare time, she wants to help put the UTC Weightlifting Club on the map.
Mocs Recovery Program earns national accreditation
The Mocs Recovery Program, a collaboration between the Center for Wellbeing and the Counselor Education Program, has been fully accredited through the Association of Recovery in Higher Education’s Standardized Review for Collegiate Recovery Advancement. As a result of the ARHE review, the Mocs Recovery Program received the designation of a “fully reviewed program” with an overall score of 92%.
Shot at a goal: UTC soccer star wants to become seventh doctor in her family
UTC graduating senior Mackenzie Smith aims to become the seventh physician in her immediate family, but medical school will have to wait until after her soccer career ends. Smith has her eye on playing professional soccer overseas. Then, the two-time all-Southern Conference player and biochemistry major plans to join her five siblings and father and attend medical school.
Noted achievement: Trio of UTC music therapy graduates ‘confirm they picked the right career’
Keely Phillips and Kyndall Blum are the first students to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as music therapy majors for all four years they were enrolled. They are graduating as part of December commencement ceremonies. Joseph Taylor, who transferred from Belmont University in Nashville to UTC as a junior, also is graduating with a music therapy degree—the first transfer student to earn the degree.
UTC School of Nursing voted tops in nation in Nurse.org competition
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of Nursing has been selected the best in the country by student and alumni voters in the inaugural Top Nursing School in the United States – Student Choice Awards contest launched by Nurse.org—an influential national organization.
Tied to the ‘Thread of Fate’: UTC’s Remote Area Medical chapter prepares students to help others
Now in its second year as a student organization at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Remote Area Medical (RAM) chapter brings students to free pop-up clinics across the state to assist in providing vision, dental and general medical care to people in need.
Combating the heat: UTC students recognized for their work
Last summer, four UTC students worked with Dr. Dawn Ford and the Hamilton County Health Department on a tabletop exercise to come up with ways to respond in the event of extreme heat. In one of their newsletters this fall, the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) discussed the work they did.
Mocs Recovery: Reducing harm in the student body
The mission of the UTC Center for Wellbeing is to support the personal and academic growth of our students by cultivating a well and safe campus community. The center encourages life-long wellbeing by promoting healthy coping skills, a culture of care, risk reduction and wellness.
‘I learned so much,’ UTC professor says as his tai chi program for veterans ends
Dr. Zibin Guo began the Wheelchair/Adaptive Tai Chi program in 2016 to train health care workers to teach the smooth, fluid movements of the martial art to veterans with disabilities. The program showed the veterans that, although they might feel powerless and weak, that was never the case, whether they were wheelchair-bound or suffered from PTSD, anxiety or other conditions that veterans sometimes experience.