by Kristen Gallant.
Going to college can seem unattainable to those who live in marginalized and underrepresented communities, but the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations is working with high schools across the state to make sure every high school senior knows they are welcome at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and can see themselves one day pursuing a higher education degree.
The Tombras School has created community-based initiatives called Tombras Touchpoints that help serve students and young professionals as they explore, study, and begin advertising and public relations careers.
Through its Exploration Initiatives, the Tombras Schools has partnered with flagship high schools and offers a variety of pre-collegiate engagement opportunities designed to help students explore the university and imagine themselves in different career fields.
In the 2023- 2024 academic year, the Tombras School hosted hundreds of middle and high school students for tours of the College of Communication and Information. One of those high schools was The Howard School in Chattanooga.
The Howard School is a Title I school with 62 percent of the population being Latino and 37 percent of the population being African American.
“We’ve had a lot of our kids coming from Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala. Our Latino and African American students are in tremendous poverty here. But with that being said, we’ve achieved around a 90-percent graduation rate. Howard is a Level 5 school for academic growth in the state of Tennessee,” Charles Mitchell, vice principal of Howard High School stated.
Mitchell says visiting a college campus is not an opportunity many of his students can achieve on their own, which is why Howard School created a program called Leadership Exchange.
The Leadership Exchange program enables students to learn about academic best practices and post-college career opportunities. Hamilton County School District has given Howard School the support to make the Leadership Exchange college visits possible with Innovative School Model (ISM) grant funding for transportation.
“I always say in life, you can’t be what you can’t see,” Mitchell explained. “We’ve had tremendous success, overcoming a lot of barriers.”
Through Leadership Exchange, dozens of Howard High School seniors visited several colleges in Tennessee, including UT.
Mitchell connected with CCI Interim Director of Access and Engagement and Tombras Program Manager Dionne George to give students a full tour of the college and university.
“The good thing about having the partnership with UT is that our kids are getting out of our community and seeing that college life is possible,” Mitchell said.
While on campus, Howard students listened to current UT students from all walks of life talk about their experiences on and off campus. Howard students had a first-hand look at the new CCI media center, ate lunch in the Rocky Top Dining Hall, and did an official campus tour.
“Whether students choose to pursue a career in advertising and public relations or another field at the university, we want to allow students to see themselves in a college environment and show them that college is obtainable no matter their background,” George explained. “That is the goal of our Tombras Touchpoints programs.”
Gabriel Garcia is a graduating senior at Howard School and former vice president of Leadership Exchange. He said the trip to UT was life-changing.
“It was so beautiful and it was just an awesome campus,” Garcia said. “I’ve never seen anything like it and it was the first time that I thought, ‘Hey, this might actually be a college that I’m willing to go to.’ So it was quite a turning point for me.”
While in high school, Garcia was in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), wrestling, and took multiple AP courses. He joined the Leadership Exchange due to Mitchell’s persuasive encouragement.
“I started going to the meetings and on some of the trips, and I ended up really enjoying it. I made sure to keep on coming back for the next couple of years. Eventually, I was nominated to run for vice president. So I did and I ended up getting chosen,” he said.
Despite all of Garcia’s accomplishments, he was skeptical about attending a four-year university after graduation due to financial barriers. He applied for multiple scholarships, including a Flagship Scholarship, but was not counting on the financial aid. He also applied to UT and several area higher education institutions.
Garcia said, “I didn’t even think I would get accepted into UT when I first applied, let alone afford it.”
He was in complete shock when his name was called at his senior award ceremony at Howard when he received a Flagship Scholarship, which when combined with the HOPE Scholarship, covers tuition and mandatory fees for up to eight semesters.
“It was my parents that I heard scream across the auditorium. Then my friend turned to me because I didn’t even fully realize my name had been called and said ‘Hey, you just got a scholarship.’,” he explained.
Garcia added he would have never applied to UT or the scholarships without the opportunity to tour the campus and learn about its programs.
“It’s truly a blessing to be a part of Leadership Exchange. It gave me so many opportunities and chances to meet new people and make new connections. Getting the scholarship was just huge to me because we’re not very financially stable, I guess. So, my parents weren’t going to be able to provide much financial aid to me. It was all just going to have to be on my merit alone. So it’s unbelievable to me that I was able to get a scholarship to pay for everything. It’s still surreal to me. I can’t even fully believe that it’s happening,” Garcia explained.
Garcia will be joining the UT family to study business in the fall.
Eniyela Niyonkuru is another student who was awarded a Flagship Scholarship.
Niyonkuru is originally from Uganda, Africa, and moved to the United States with her family in 2018. Along with being a part of Leadership Exchange, Niyonkuru has played soccer and ran track throughout high school. However, she decided not to run track her senior year so she could focus on her grades—which she said paid off.
While visiting UT’s campus, Niyonkuru said it immediately felt like home.
“My first time on campus, I was surprised by how big and how beautiful it was.
I’m someone who likes to travel and loves adventures. So when I went there, I instantly felt like I knew I had to come here,” Niyonkuru said.
After the trip, Niyonkuru immediately applied to UT and was accepted. Niyonkuru will be studying political science with aspirations of becoming a lawyer.
“My goal is to work with kids who don’t have a home or anywhere else to go and help them find a family that loves them, that cares about them, and a family that would treat them like their own,” she said.
Niyonkuru is a first-generation college student and says that, thanks to the Tombras School’s Exploration Initiatives, she could see herself on UT’s campus and that their trip encouraged her to apply.
Garcia and Niyonkuru are just two of ten students who were part of the Tombras School visit and received a Flagship Scholarship to attend UT in the fall. Altogether, Mitchell said, Howard seniors received around $2.5 million in scholarships just this past school year.
“Just for our kids to see themselves on campus and see what was offered, I felt like that helped seal the deal. Then to talk about these scholarships and how those came to be, that’s huge for anyone,” Mitchell said. “In Hamilton County, we believe all our students can experience a future without limits. A connected student is a successful student. Gabe and Eniyela are both perfect examples of a graduate achieving the American dream.”
Ten Howard School Graduates Obtain Full Scholarships to UT After Tombras School Visit written by Kristen Gallant and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.
