Undergraduate Student to Give Back to CEHHS Through Summer 2023 Washington, D.C. Internship

May 11, 2023 by Alyssa Seisser

Undergraduate Student to Give Back to CEHHS Through Summer 2023 Washington, D.C. Internship

By Macy Roberts, CEHHS Student Reporter, Class of 2024

Despite being a Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology major in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Arts and Sciences, Benjamin Bridges has ties to the University’s College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences and plans to give back to the college through his internship in Washington, D.C., this summer.

Bridges is connected to CEHHS through his work as a STEM Coordinator at VolsTeach for Appalachia since 2019.

Benjamin Bridges (back row, right) with Vols Teach intern cohort

Bridges has wanted to pursue a career in the medical field since he was a student at Bearden High School, where he took many related courses.

“One of these courses was Cardiovascular Services, and this was where I really fell in love with learning all about the organ in charge of supplying your body with blood, oxygen and nutrients,” Bridges said. “It was also at this time that I first discovered my passion for advocating for others. I have since realized that each of my jobs or roles at the University revolve around advocacy in some form.”

Benjamin Bridges

Bridges received his Emergency Medical Responder license in 2018. Two years later, he received an Associate of Arts Degree from Pellissippi State Community College.

Since being a student at UT, Bridges has served on the Office of the Dean of Students’ Rocky Top Roundtable and is an undergraduate student researcher in the BCMB department, where he studies Rett Syndrome, a rare autism spectrum disorder that affects only females.

During the fall 2022 semester, Bridges came across the university’s Congressional Internship Program on Handshake.

“Since I am not a political science or history major, I was initially very reluctant on applying, but I felt like I would be missing out on a great opportunity and was told that applying will never hurt my chances at anything,” Bridges said. “I believe that proper advocacy manifests and presents itself in many different shapes and forms, so having the chance to travel to the nation’s Capitol and support part of the State of Tennessee’s delegation would be a very new, challenging and exciting way for me to apply these skills and experiences to advocate for an entirely different population of people.”

So, despite his initial doubts, Bridges applied for the internship and ended up being offered a position in Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s office in the summer of 2023. In this position, Bridges will be performing data analysis and visualization of various voter and constituent metrics of all 95 counties in Tennessee. Additionally, he will serve as a Capitol tour guide.

“This internship is a way for me to give back to the CEHHS since I will use many of the communication skills and experiences that I have learned from working in VolsTeach for Appalachia while in Washington, D.C. this summer,” Bridges said.

Bridges expressed thanks to his career coaches in the Center for Career Development and Academic Exploration for supporting his interest in the internship. These individuals include Diondre Brown, Jesse Fisher and Mary Beth Woodward.

As a fifth-year undergraduate student, Bridges felt like he was potentially running behind and a less competitive applicant, but his mentors encouraged him and proved to Bridges that this wasn’t the case.

“This journey has been neither quick nor easy but rather exceptionally meaningful and I attribute much of the professional growth I have made this year to these people,” Bridges said. “I urge everyone to visit the CCDAE as early into their college career as possible and to use them as a resource to not only figure out where you want to go, but figure out the best way for you to get there.”

CEHHS Alumnus Works to Unify Los Angeles in a Special Way

April 5, 2023 by Alyssa Seisser

CEHHS Alumnus Works to Unify Los Angeles in a Special Way

By Vanessa Slay, CEHHS Student News Reporter, Class of 2023

Thousands of students graduate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, each year, and of these thousands of students, many become prestigious alumni that continue to represent the university with pride. One such alumnus is Tony Brown, a graduate of the Class of 2000 from the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences’ (CEHHS) Sports Management graduate program.

“Sports has the ability to unite people,” he claims. Sports bring people together regardless of what is happening around them. Thoughts such as these intrigued Brown; how could he be a more significant part of that ideal? After finishing his undergraduate program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, he began to work for Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) in 1993. After a few years, Brown then moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he attended UT.

Tony Brown

Originally from California, Brown accepted an opportunity to come to Knoxville to teach at Webb School of Knoxville and attend UT. “Los Angeles to Knoxville, here we go,” says Brown on the memory. At Webb, Brown also coached several of their high school teams while pursuing his master’s degree.

While the transition from Los Angeles to Knoxville was a bit of a culture shock, Brown found a place that felt like home at UT. Very literally, Brown lived just a block north of Cumberland Ave, as close as he could be to the university campus. “My faculty was phenomenal; for such a big school, they created a warm and familial setting for me to learn. When I had questions, they always made the time. On and off campus.”

Brown recalls the opportunities he was given through his program while at the university. One he recalls vividly is co-leading the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) basketball tournament at Thompson-Boiling Arena. Utilizing the knowledge he learned in the program, he and his co-lead were able to pitch and secure sponsors for the event and run many of the behind-the-scenes operations of the important event.

“There’s always some growth,” he says of UT. Observing the university as an alum, he realizes that that mentality is ingrained in him from his years at the university. After finishing his Master’s degree, he had a successful career in the sports business before returning to HOLA in 2003 and has leaded as their Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Executive Director (ED) since 2006.

HOLA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “help young people overcome barriers through exceptional, free, integrated programs and personalized guidance in a trusted, nurturing environment.”

HOLA also provides various options and opportunities for young people to explore their hobbies and interests, from visual arts, music, traditional academics, and so much more, to give people a chance to succeed.

HOLA also addresses the educational inequity that exists in many parts of California by placing classes like traditional arts into school and providing them courses after school hours to bridge the gap at any of their four centers in Los Angeles or in South Central Los Angeles in conjunction with Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC).

“There’s not enough time in the school day for young people to discover what they love,” he says. “My hope is to integrate the program, make the school day longer but less of a traditional school day, and allow them to develop their hobbies and grow up to be their best selves.”

In the last twenty years that Brown has been a part of HOLA, he has been an invaluable asset to the organization leading the expansion of their campuses, working with Los Angeles Recreation and Parks to manage a park in South Central; he is also hands-on with several schools as part of the Black Student Achievement Plan providing free arts programs for schools that are predominate black schools and communities.

Brown recalls a dream he had as a child: to one day be involved in bringing people together for the Olympics; however, now he believes that this is his Olympic stadium. He is uniting people to address the inequity in education and the barriers that still hinder students’ success.

“My goal now, at this point in my career, is to create the first unifying force in Los Angeles for out-of-school time providers and then lift that up so that other areas across the country can follow suit and do the same unification.”

Although he may not be able to attend many board meetings, Brown still keeps his bond with UT strong by continuing to serve on the Dean’s Board of Advisors for CEHHS. Brown has also been named a Distinguished Alumni by UT and asked to deliver the commencement speech for CEHHS in previous years. “UT will always always be front and center of my heart.” He mentions that as an alum, he always feels welcome back to UT, hearing the university band playing at games; the game day experience is extraordinary.

“I still find them valuable,” Brown says of his experience at the university. “It’s not just theoretical at UT; I found that at CEHHS, I had a balance of theoretical and practical. A perfect blend.”

Brown believes that his time at the university and in CEHHS has genuinely continued to shape his decisions and his pathways from educator to sports management and business to leader of a multi-million dollar non-profit organization.

“I’ve raised millions of dollars over my career for young people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to those types of funds, and thousands of thousands of young people have benefited from investment in quality resources, and I was taught the skills to do so and given the opportunity to grow in my leadership through the UT’s CEHHS.”

If you want to give or volunteer with Heart of Los Angeles, please reach out through their website, heartofla.org.