Scotty Brown
photo by John Shearer
When Scotty Brown enrolled at McCallie School in the sixth grade in the fall of 2016, he was the only one in his class from Signal Mountain Christian School.
And when he enrolls at the University of Tennessee later this summer, he will also have a singular distinction. As was publicly announced in June, he will be the only freshman from the Chattanooga area to receive a prestigious Haslam Scholarship.
It has been considered the top merit-based scholarship at UT since it was begun as a gift from the Haslam family in 2008 to draw outstanding students, just as such older and familiar programs as the Jefferson Scholarship at Virginia and the Morehead-Cain at North Carolina do.
So, one can understand his excitement when he learned back in March that he had received a Haslam Scholarship. It came when he received a call from Pilot oil and convenience store founder Jim Haslam Sr. and his wife, Natalie.
“It was one of those moments you will never forget,” he excitedly recalled. “I knew what time they might be calling, and I was sitting on the back porch with my mom (Cherie Brown). Moments were going by, and I started stressing. But then the phone rang with an 865 number and at that moment I knew what that was.”
He had just been at UT for the selection weekend, the final step, and by that time had long decided he would accept the full-ride scholarship if offered.
While he has had family connections to UT and had liked the school when visiting Knoxville, it was not necessarily on his radar when he was beginning the college search process. But after hearing about the Haslam Scholars program, he became more interested.
“I applied for that and was called in for an interview and then called in for selection weekend,” he said. “What really clinched that it was the place I wanted to be was selection weekend. The people (fellow applicants) were motivated and driven and had done some amazing things.”
He had also applied to George Washington University, due to his interest in studying subjects like economics and political science near the nation’s capital, and to the University of Virginia, the alma mater of his father, who also grew up being called Scotty.
While his Brown family side has had multiple generations attend McCallie, the situation has been a little different with colleges, he joked. His paternal grandfather, longtime Chattanooga attorney Scott Brown, went to UNC. His mother grew up in Knoxville and attended UT and is an avid Vol supporter, while her father and Scotty’s maternal grandfather, Dr. Wayne Davis, was the former engineering college dean at UT and served as interim chancellor there in 2018-19.
Scotty Brown said he does not believe Mr. Haslam Sr. is aware he is the grandson of Dr. Davis and looks forward to mentioning that to him as his time at UT moves along.
Among the special offerings he will get to enjoy in the program is a special leadership development seminar class with the other scholars, a two-week study abroad program in the summer of 2024, and a future summer internship with a Tennessee-based company. Other parts of the program will include a speaker series and a research capstone project.
Scotty feels he is ready for the program due to his McCallie education. In fact, he sounded like he is already doing some public relations internship work with McCallie on a volunteer basis in his praises for his education and teachers.
“I had a great time. I absolutely loved it,” he said of the independent boys’ preparatory school at the foot of Missionary Ridge. “It’s an amazing place.”
Among the long list of teachers that he mentioned with praises was his AP history and current events instructor Duke Richey. “He’s a great guy and knows so much. You don’t walk out of his class without having an interesting conversation,” he said.
And while he is personally more interested in the social sciences, he also enjoyed his chemistry and physics teacher, Ross Shumate, saying he teaches students to think about things and to think outside the box to solve problems. He also enjoyed several other instructors, adding with a laugh, “There are too many to mention.”
While admittedly not overly into sports, the National Merit Commended Scholar still found plenty of extracurricular activities to be involved in at McCallie, too, including being the yearbook photography editor. He also co-founded the non-profit Cultural Value Leadership Institute. He has also enjoyed the school’s public speaking program, which he became involved with beginning in the sixth grade, after teacher Chris Greenwood told him he might have the aptitude for it.
He said he has enjoyed the mentorship under McCallie public speaking coach Dr. Veronica Herrera, a native of Venezuela. This past year, he served as a coach for the middle school team. While admitting he still gets a little nervous speaking, as most people do, he likes the art of public speaking and lessons that can be learned. However, he feels he is probably a better coach than speaker.
Scotty does not appear to be nervous or anxious about his upcoming time at UT or his planned courses of study, though. In part through inspiration by another McCallie faculty member, AP economics teacher and soccer coach Chris Cushenbery, he hopes to study economics and political science in college.
“I don’t have a specific career, but economics and political science will be in my interest range,” he said, adding that he is looking at a career in business, law, or politics.
He got to enjoy a two-week job shadowing internship at the start of his last semester working with city of Chattanooga chief operating officer Ryan Ewalt as part of the McCallie program for seniors. “I got to go to the senior staff meetings (with Mayor Tim Kelly), and they were really hard-working people trying to make things better for the city.”
He does not have an interest in running for political office at present but might like to work in politics in some way. He is also an admitted advocate for people working together to solve problems instead of creating negative political conflicts that have become commonplace. He points to a UT Howard Baker Center-coordinated podcast by former governors Bill Haslam and Phil Bredesen looking at issues in a civil way as a good example of positive politics.
But he is admittedly quite partisan when expressing his enthusiasm over getting ready to head up to Big Orange Country as a Haslam Scholar and getting to stay in Dogwood Hall’s Living and Learning Community with other University Honors students.
“The closer I get, the more excited I become,” he said. “I am looking forward to all UT has.”
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