KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Tennessee said admissions teams went to Austin-East Magnet High School on Wednesday to present three seniors with admissions offers, which included scholarships that covered tuition for eight semesters and mandatory fees.
They said they gave admission offers and scholarships to Darius Jackson, Zakeyous Houston and Charlie Smith with the offers. The students would be members of UT's Class of 2027.
They said Jackson was admitted to the university exploratory track after participating in UT's Project Excellence and completing an entrepreneurship class.
Houston was also admitted to the university exploratory track and UT said he has interests in business and finance. They said he balances sports with a part-time job as well as honors classes and AP coursework. They said he also serves as an Austin-East student ambassador.
Smith was admitted to the agricultural sciences and natural resources exploratory track. UT said they have been involved in several Austin-East programs such as the robotics club, the Air Force ROTC, the Project GRAD Summer Institute and the NASA Student Spaceflight Experiments program. They also participated in UT's Project Excellence program.
UT also said Austin-East is a "Flagship School." Students from these schools are eligible to receive UT's Flagship Scholarship. They can also still receive the state's HOPE Scholarship. They said there are 38 Flagship high schools across the state, and three of them are located in Knoxville.