The Extraordinary Campus Leadership and Service awards recognize graduating students who are extraordinary campus leaders for their significant service to others.
Caroline Arias
Caroline Arias, who is graduating with both a BS in neuroscience and a BA in psychology, has always cared about people and felt a responsibility to give back. “I am still learning how to do that more intentionally,” she says. “I believe my purpose is to do the most good that I can, for all the people that I can, in all the ways that I can.” Arias is a Leadership Knoxville Scholar who recently served as an intern with the Jones Center for Leadership and Service. Her campus involvement includes membership in numerous honor societies as well as Delta Gamma sorority. In 2018 she was named the Panhellenic Council Emerging Leader of the Year.
What is your favorite memory on Rocky Top?
My favorite memory on Rocky Top is more about all of the little moments where I realized it had become my home. The time I was no longer looking up campus building codes and could recommend my favorite local coffee shops downtown. The time I took the Orange Line on the trolley to vote at the City-County Building. The times we laughed about the things that make Rocky Top a special place to be, or the times PCB staff gave me the gift of a perfect omelet. The times I saw my greatest role models graduate and the times I found true friendships in people who had once been strangers. These are some of the memories that made me realize how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.
Sterling Field
Sterling Field is a PhD candidate in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology. A member of the Chancellor’s Commission for LGBT People, he chaired the Knoxville Area Tennessee Equality Project and served on the board of the statewide organization, working with numerous advocacy events and activities. He served as president of OUTgrads and co-leader of the OUTstanding conference, and has been active in the American Society of Plant Biologists.
What does being a Volunteer mean to you?
Being a Volunteer means leaving things better than I found them, to help folks improve themselves and grow into who they strive to be, and to help make a community where everyone is able to contribute and be celebrated.
Owen Flomberg
Owen Flomberg is a senior in the Chancellor’s Honors Program studying political economy and development through the College Scholars Program. He worked as a Student Government Association senator to promote greater institutional support for food-insecure students and founded the Student Basic Needs Coalition, an umbrella group supporting student access to basic needs. SBNC has successfully advocated for several new policies on campus and has written sponsored legislation for the Tennessee General Assembly. Flomberg is a Leadership Knoxville Scholar, has held leadership positions on the Campus Events Board, founded the Professional Greek Council and the Organization Resource Group, and helped establish Kappa Alpha Pi pre-law and government fraternity.
What is your favorite memory on Rocky Top?
Spending so so so much time in the Center for Student Engagement joking around with my friends!
Isaac Holt
Isaac Holt, from Charleston, South Carolina, is a senior majoring in supply chain management. He has served as the Student Government Association student body vice president, overseeing the Undergraduate Student Senate and First-Year Council. He has also served as president of Brothers United for Excellence, a team leader for Ignite Leadership Summit, a student recruiter for Minority Enhancement for UT, and a member of the Student Alumni Associates executive team.
What does being a Volunteer mean to you?
Being a Volunteer embodies a person’s willingness to dedicate their time, talent, and resources to serve others and serve the world. It portrays the epitome of what it means to be a responsible and contributing citizen in our society because we each have the responsibility to give back and support others. We must each be committed to enhancing our world and our communities together by lending a helping hand when needed and using our voices to speak up for those who may be oppressed or overlooked.
Caitlin Lloyd
Memphis native Caitlin Lloyd is a senior majoring in film production studies with an emphasis in diversity and inclusion through the College Scholars Program. Throughout her time at UT, she has focused on health and wellness as well as diversity and inclusion initiatives. Her work in the Jones Center for Leadership and Service has included serving as VOLbreaks Big Events student coordinator and as a student leader and participant on numerous VOLbreaks trips. She has held leadership positions with the VOLS 2 VOLS Peer Health Educators and with Diversity Educators, and served as a member of the Student Government Association’s Health and Wellness Committee and the Chancellor’s Commission for Women.
What is your favorite memory on Rocky Top?
There are honestly too many to choose from, but if I had to sum it up, it would be the people I have met and have had the privilege to learn from and grow with. Whether it be late nights working in the Howard Baker Center with my best friends or attending the Clifton F. Jones Leadership Conference with hundreds of strangers, every interaction I have had on this campus has helped me become the woman that I am today, and I would not change that for the world.
Uriah Richey
Uriah Richey is a senior majoring in Africana studies and sociology. Her involvement on campus has included serving as a 1794 Scholar, squad leader for the Pride of the Southland Color Guard, an officer for the campus chapters of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the NAACP, and a precollege mentor in the Project GRAD Summer Institute. She has also volunteered at her alma mater, Knoxville’s Fulton High School. An aspiring civil rights attorney, she plans to attend Howard University School of Law to prepare for a career fighting for the rights of underrepresented minorities and women.
What does being a Volunteer mean to you?
Vol means all, and being a Vol means the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. I have met so many amazing people here at UT (shout-out to Alice) who continuously inspire me to be kind to myself and those around me! That’s what Vols do.
Jake Tidwell
Jake Tidwell is a senior studying public administration with plans to attend Florida State University to obtain a master’s in higher education. He has been active in the Jones Center for Leadership and Service, having gone through the Emerging Leaders and Leadership Knoxville Scholars programs while serving as an Ignite team Leader, VOLbreaks leader, and VOLbreaks student director. He was a member of the dean of students advisory board, the Rocky Top Roundtable. He has also served as an opinion-editorial columnist for the Daily Beacon and held a variety of leadership roles within the Student Government Association.
What is your favorite memory on Rocky Top?
I don’t think I can pick just one. I find a lot of value in the small moments and the relationships I’ve been able to create and sustain during my time here. I have loved my time working with first-year students during and beyond Ignite. It inspires me to work with students on VOLbreaks and see their passion for social justice borne out in the work that we do. I’ve loved the small, random moments of intense conversation and sowing the seeds of change on campus and in the community. While my time on Rocky Top hasn’t always been easy, it’s these small moments and connections that make Rocky Top feel like home.