Next Monday, UT Interim President Randy Boyd will be traveling through northeast Tennessee on the UT Promise Scholarship Tour. He will be stopping at high schools in Kingsport, Bristol, Gray, Jonesborough and Erwin. Boyd has previously made stops in Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville, Martin and Chattanooga, during which he spoke to 3,000 high school students about the UT Promise.

Announced earlier this year, UT Promise is a new, last-dollar scholarship initiative that aims to provide free tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students at UT system universities (Martin, Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville) whose households make less than $50,000 a year after all financial aid. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must meet the financial requirements and the institution’s academic requirements. Students currently enrolled in college are eligible to apply.

Students interested in this opportunity must apply for the Tennessee Promise by Nov. 1 and the UT Promise by Dec. 15 to be considered. More than 1,100 students have already applied for the scholarship.

The UT Promise program will welcome its first students during the fall 2020 semester, and students who enter the program at UT will be paired with volunteer mentors and will complete eight hours of community service each academic semester. Students who accept the UT Promise are still eligible for other internal and external scholarships.

The program is funded by the University of Tennessee Foundation, which has raised $17.5 million towards the $100 million desired for the UT Promise Endowment.

UT Promise is set to further the state’s Drive to 55 initiative, which aims to have 55% of Tennessee residents equipped with some form of higher, post-high school educational certification by the year 2025.