Impact Stories

Scott Daughtry (BS ’24, MSBA ’25, MBA ’26), the new director of strategy for the UT men’s basketball team, lights up when speaking about some of his favorite subjects: Vol basketball and analytics.

UT alumnus and retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning joined Chancellor Donde Plowman and other leaders from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on Aug. 26 to honor this year’s recipients of the Peyton Manning Scholarship.

Scholarships made it possible for Sienna Reid to attend UT. Now a recent graduate, she is determined to give other students the same opportunity for education.

More than 70,000 Tennessee Volunteers contributed to a milestone of $428 million in donor support, the largest fundraising total in UT history. Because of you, over 12,000 student scholarships were awarded, research is thriving, and the future is brighter for every Vol.

In the 2024-25 fiscal year, 3,677 employee donors contributed a total of more than $2.1 million to areas across UT.

Alumni and donors who have made an investment in UT have created a ripple effect, investing in the education of students like Jiro Greenberg-Oster (Class of 2026) for a better state and a better world. 

Torchbearer Tyler Myers (Class of 2025) has spent his time at UT exploring the gut-brain connection. Inspired by a clinical trial that changed his life as a child, he’s turned his passion into purpose through research, service, and mentorship.

UT’s String Project, funded initially through the National String Project Consortium and a grant secured through the UT Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Development from the Tennessee Arts Commission, has grown to about 80 children enrolled and is sustained through the generosity of donors Sally and Alan Sefton.

Bridget Freisthler, the Cooper-Herron Professor in Mental Health at the UT College of Social Work, is leading a multistate intervention in fatal overdoses.