The University of Tennessee, Knoxville is committed to providing Tennesseans with a high-quality affordable education at Tennessee’s flagship land-grant university. Our Tri-Star Scholarship program helps Tennessee residents access the Volunteer experience through three scholarships.
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The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Tri-Star Scholarship Program has received another boost, this time from Class of 1973 alumni Phil and Brenda Wenk. In October they established the Phil and Brenda Wenk UT Knoxville Alumni Chapter Tri-Star Scholarship Endowment in an effort to help qualified students who can benefit from financial aid and also to serve as a catalyst for giving.
“Small gifts combine into larger ones, and so our motto is: ‘Give any way you can,’” Brenda Wenk said recently. “We established this endowment because UT provided the education that enabled us to reach a point in our lives where we can give back.”
The Wenks’ gift comes at a time when the Tri-Star Scholarship Program is expanding to serve more students. It is creating new opportunities to support the next generation of Volunteers. The university recently expanded its Flagship Scholarship program, which is part of the Tri-Star. Students at 38 Tennessee high schools are now eligible to have their tuition and mandatory fees at UT covered (when combined with the state’s HOPE Scholarship) for up to eight semesters.
Central High School in Knoxville is one of the newly added Flagship High Schools. Principal Andrew Brown described the scholarship as a significant step forward for families of all incomes.
“This opens up opportunities for those hardworking families that are struggling to get by and make ends meet, and it’s truly amazing,” Brown said. “It’s an amazing opportunity and just a great way to remove barriers for our families.”
One Tri-Star Scholarship Program recipient, Hayden Thorton, became part of the program when he was awarded the Memphis Alumni Chapter Scholarship. A freshman nursing major, Thorton said that despite the online learning that defined 2020, he felt instantly part of a community thanks to the local chapter alumnus who lived near him in Memphis.
We established this endowment because UT provided the education that enabled us to reach a point in our lives where we can give back.
– Brenda Wenk (’73)
“I felt completely surrounded and supported,” Thorton said. “When I was initially uncertain of whether or not we’d be on campus, one of the chapter representatives who lives nearby brought me a welcome gift with a bunch of UT apparel that made me feel so loved.”
Thorton, whose career goal is to ultimately become a nurse practitioner, likely in family medicine, added that he would recommend other graduating high school students turn to a local alumni chapter when applying to UT.
“This is one of the best ways to get plugged in to the people that will benefit you down the road,” Thorton said. “You also get to meet other students from your area that received the scholarship as well as students from different parts of Tennessee, and it just extends your connections on campus.”
This sense of camaraderie and inclusiveness is exactly what Phil and Brenda Wenk sought to foster with their gift. They pointed out that the need for financial aid goes well beyond tuition for many students, as does the need for a sense of belonging.
“UT Knoxville is where the adult phase of our life together began,” Wenk said. “Phil and I met there and were married during our junior year. After he completed dental school, everything in our lives revolved around UT football. Our two children were raised to be Vol fans. Our daughter, Andrea, was a Whittle scholar at UT, and our son Alan attended and would have likely graduated had cancer not interrupted his college years. Now we’re doing everything possible to influence our three grandchildren to want to be University of Tennessee Volunteers. And we proudly wear orange!”
Wenk’s husband, a dentist-turned-corporate executive with Delta Dental, is the current chair of the University of Tennessee Foundation Board. He graduated from UT in 1973 and the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry in Memphis in 1977. Wenk graduated from UT in 1973 with a degree in education.
