GIVING

Scholarships

CREATING AN UNPARALLELED STUDENT EXPERIENCE

A UT education changes the course of a person’s life. When you support scholarships, you remove barriers to Rocky Top and transform the future for Vols and their families.

Kate Standford performs pool therapy on a dog inside the Tickle Small Animal Hospital

University Will

Be in compliance with all IRS regulations and university policies to support our mission.
Encourage donor/recipient interactions but not require.
Be transparent in reporting on accounts.

Donors Will

Be encouraged to interact with recipients when possible but not required.
Support UT’s mission and priorities through their giving.
Understand that the relationship is with UT, not the recipient.
Receive meaningful updates from the university on their investment and impact.

Recipients Will

Have potential opportunities to build relationships with scholarship donors.
Be encouraged to share gratitude and personal updates through organized procedures.
Voluntarily partner with UT to share their story.

Our Scholarship Philosophy

Students are our partners in scholarship stewardship. UT regularly invites and encourages scholarship recipients to share their story and what the support means to them in a variety of engaging ways. Many scholarship recipients are eager to participate, but we do not require their participation.

Scholarship donors will be notified of the scholarship’s recipients on an annual basis. All scholarship recipients are invited and encouraged to share their gratitude with their scholarship donors. For those students who choose to participate, we will send a packet of responses for a scholarship donor’s account annually to the donor.

For those who establish an endowment, donors will also receive an annual financial report on their accounts..

Ways to Support Students

Questions about giving?
Tom Looney
tlooney@utfi.org
865-974-8622

Questions about your estate?
Ashley Eshleman
aeshleman@utfi.org
865-974-5720

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

Nina Puckett, the inaugural recipient of the Charlie and Mattie Elrod Internship, hopes to return full-time to UT Extension after graduating in 2026. Pictured, from left, Marilyn Elrod, Puckett, and Bobbie Elrod.

Small Farms and Big Dreams

The Charlie and Mattie Elrod Internship Endowment supports small farms in Tennessee.

Lindsey Babbitt interned at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center and worked alongside faculty such as Heather Kelly, Extension plant pathologist.

Professional Pathways

Programs and departments within Herbert and other areas of the institute offer internships, and some students receive course credit.

Construction science and management senior Nicholas Dunn stands in front of Pons Aemilius, the oldest stone bridge in Rome built in the second century BC

Built to Last

Herbert construction science and management students go to Italy to study what still stands—and why it matters for what they’ll build next.

Invest in the lives of future Volunteers.

Gifts to the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture are made through and payable to the University of Tennessee Foundation, Inc. (UTFI), an independent not-for-profit 501(c)3 that manages all alumni, development, and philanthropic endeavors of the University of Tennessee and its related campuses and institutes.

MAKE A GIFT