Teneria Orange

Testing the Limits: RecSports’ Spring Bikepacking Trip Expands Personal and Leadership Skills

As a culmination of all they had learned since coming together in October 2025, this year’s class of Student Outdoor Leadership Experience (SOLE) participants set out to tackle a weeklong bikepacking trip on a route designed by themselves. Facilitated and supervised by RecSports staff, the SOLE students had spent weeks planning all aspects of the…
100th Annual Torch Night: Continuing One of UT’s Oldest Traditions

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Torch Night: A Farewell to Thee. Torch Night is one of UT’s oldest and most meaningful traditions, with the first ever Torch Night being held in 1926, and now remains a signature program of the Division of Student Life. This celebration marks a meaningful farewell to graduates, honoring them…
Listen. Learn. Lead. Week on Rocky Top

UT has just concluded its fifth semiannual Listen. Learn. Lead. Week on March 19. With collaboration from several departments and divisions, the university planned and hosted a multitude of events that served to enhance the ability of students, faculty, and staff to hear differing perspectives, learn from others, and lead courageously. Offering a variety of…
Students Share Their Stoke for the Great Outdoors

“He ended up being okay, but we had to make a decision to evacuate first thing in the morning.” That’s the situation that Jack Wood, a junior majoring in biosystems engineering, found himself in during the Student Outdoor Leadership Experience (SOLE) program. As the most intense of several program opportunities available through the RecSports Outdoor…
Creating Belonging from the Very Beginning

Every fall, thousands of Volunteers take their first steps into a new chapter of life. Families say goodbye, students step into independence, and our campus becomes a true home. And through this time, a small army of students, faculty, and staff serve as volunteers with University Housing to ensure every new campus resident encounters a…
Pop-Up Barbershop

Each month during the fall semester, the Center for Basic Needs hosted a Pop-Up Barbershop in the centrally-located Student Union, offering free haircuts for men, blunt cuts for women, and complementary haircut cards for more extensive cuts. Through a partnership with Knoxville’s Master Academy of Barbering, 231 students received free haircuts and barber students received…
UT’s Leadership Studies Minor: Creating Community-Engaged Learning Pathways for All Vols

At the University of Tennessee, leadership is more than a title or position, it’s a practice available to anyone at anytime. A reimagined interdisciplinary Leadership Studies Minor, delivered through a partnership between the Jones Center for Leadership and Service (JCLS) and the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (CEHHS), is helping students connect what…
Transfer Students Light the Way

At the start of the 2025 fall semester, UT was home to 1,778 transfer students. While these students arrive from an array of institutions at varying classifications, they all have one trait in common: a desire to be a Tennessee Volunteer. And thanks to a new initiative through the Student Government Association, future transfer students…
Creating Champions On and Off the Field: UT’s Sport Clubs Shine on the National Stage

Many UT fans and friends are familiar with the athletic success enjoyed across the university, but a lesser-known aspect of UT’s championship culture lives in the department of RecSports through the sport clubs program. The program is producing incredible results, combining national athletic success with intentional mentorship offered by department staff and personal growth available…
Running Home Sweet Home: Panhellenic Recruitment Counselors Support Students in Finding Community

Written By: Megan Zimmerman, Intern, Student Life Communications The start of each academic year brings vast changes and challenges for incoming students. As Volunteers adjust to their new home before classes start, many first-year and returning students choose to participate in sorority and fraternity recruitment, looking to find community on the ever-growing UT campus. And for…