Elite Academic Honors

ETSU Truman Scholars Trent White and Leah Loveday

When junior Leah Loveday walked into the Roan Scholars conference room, she expected to prep for a donor meeting. Instead, she was met with confetti, balloons, and a crowd of smiling faces.

The surprise? She had just become a Truman Scholar, one of the nation’s most competitive and prestigious academic honors.

It’s a powerful story. But at ETSU, it’s no longer a rare one.

From Fulbright and Gilman Scholars to Rhodes finalists and back-to-back Truman winners, ETSU students and faculty are competing — and winning — at the highest levels. And they’re doing so with the support of a close-knit academic community committed to student success.

“This is an outstanding and well-deserved honor for Leah,” said ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland. “It is incredibly unusual for a regional public university to compete at this level — and here we are with back-to-back Truman winners. That says something about who we are.”

Loveday, a community health major from Sevierville, follows in the footsteps of recent graduate Trent White, who received the award last year. Her work addressing teen pregnancy and STIs in Tennessee has drawn national attention, including publication in a top health journal and success in the university’s ETSU Elevates pitch competition.

ETSU’s momentum goes far beyond the Truman. This year alone, nine students received the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a university record. All are Pell-Grant-eligible, and most are first-generation college students. Their global experiences stretch from Japan to Peru.

And faculty are making waves, too.

This year, Stokes Piercy and Dr. Theresa McGarry both earned Fulbright U.S. Scholar awards — among the most respected academic honors in the world. Piercy will head to Hungary to produce a film connecting Hungarian and Appalachian histories. McGarry will travel to Sri Lanka to study a lesser-known dialect, building cultural bridges and advancing linguistic scholarship.

“ETSU has just concluded one of the most successful academic years in the history 
of regional public universities,” said Dr. Carson Medley, Director of the Office of Prestigious Awards.

“This achievement did not happen overnight. This long arc of transformation honors the foundation laid by past leadership in the bold, visionary 2013 strategic plan. The accomplishments we celebrate today are the result of decisions made a decade ago, long before I got here, and manifested through sustained investment, strategic alignment, and institutional determination. Just imagine what we will have accomplished by 2036.” 

Medley, along with a team of staff and faculty, has helped transform ETSU into a place where elite awards are within reach and a place where the drive for excellence is matched by community support.

“We’re redefining what is possible,” Medley said. “And it’s only the beginning. Forever ETSU means not just honoring the past, but building a future where success is shared — and students, faculty, and staff all rise together.” 

By O.J. Early   |   Photo by Charlie Warden