The Tri-Star Scholarship Program helps Tennessee residents have access to the state’s flagship land-grant university, ensuring UT truly reflects the population of the state and is educating as many Tennesseans as possible. While nearly 90 percent of Tennesseans who apply to UT are offered a pathway to admittance, family finances can be a barrier to attendance. The Tri-Star Scholarship Program seeks to make sure UT is affordable for everyone.
Nick D’Alessandro, an advertising major from UT’s Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, received support through the UT Promise Scholarship, a part of Tri-Star Scholarship Program.
As part of the scholarship, D’Alessandro was paired with a mentor, Hunter McClure (’19), who also majored in advertising. Now a digital marketing specialist with the Pilot Company, McClure met D’Alessandro regularly through the UT Promise online portal, which is set up for videoconferencing. The portal also creates a checklist of goals and gives the student and mentor a structure to follow as the semester progresses.
For D’Alessandro, who transferred to UT after completing his associate’s degree at Pellissippi State Community College, having a friend who completed UT’s advertising program not long ago was a welcome help.
“Hunter has been really good about giving me advice for classes,” D’Alessandro said. “I’m an anxious person—even if I am prepared, I don’t always feel prepared—and Hunter helps alleviate points of clarity for classes and how to best prepare yourself for success.”
McClure, who chose to become a mentor as a way of giving back, has enjoyed the experience of being involved and getting to know a fellow Volunteer along the way.
“We learned through the grapevine that my mother-in-law knows Nick’s mom,” McClure said. “There are connections we have just in the way he’s involved in the community, and we got to know more about one another.”
The Tri-Star Scholarship Program consists of three individual scholarships: UT Promise, Tennessee Pledge, and Flagship Scholarships. Each has different criteria, but all cover tuition and fees completely as a way of increasing access to the university for all Tennesseans.
UT was a key that gave me access to greater plans and opportunities.
– Humberto Velazquez
