UT Volunteer 40 Under 40 Builds Alumni-Student Connections

This year’s Volunteer 40 Under 40 class was full of University of Tennessee, Knoxville, graduates who have forged unique paths, becoming leaders and changemakers in their industries and communities.  

For this year’s 40 Under 40 events, which took place the last weekend of February, recipients had a chance to pass down knowledge of how they left UT and found success to current students.  

Each 40 Under 40 recipient was paired with a Student Alumni Associate who ushered award winners throughout the weekend’s events, each of them learning from one another and bonding over their love for Rocky Top. 

Unexpected Connections 

Lisa Patel is a fourth-year student studying biomedical engineering. She’s also a Haslam Leadership Scholar and previously served as a student representative on the Board of Trustees. 

As a Student Alumni Associate, Patel had the chance to learn from multiple 40 Under 40 award winners, including Denise Gosnell, an artificial intelligence expert who is CEO of Data Driven Intuition and holds a PhD in computer science. 

Seeing the diversity of careers from the alumni Patel was paired with showed her that anything is possible. 

“It reminded me that there are a lot of different paths to get to where you want to be,” says Patel. “Getting to connect with these UT alumni showed me that we all had the same starting point.” 

In an unplanned turn of events, Patel and Gosnell realized they had more connections than just being paired up for the weekend. Patel mentioned that she had participated in the Tickle College of Engineering’s Engineering in London program only to learn that Gosnell had financially supported the scholarship that enabled Patel to go on the trip. 

“I was so grateful when she told me that,” says Patel. “That was one of the most transformative experiences of my life, and that was because of her.” 

Patel had also recently started the new club AI Vols on campus. As a leader in the AI industry, Gosnell is now planning to come speak to the club. 

“The world got very small, very fast,” says Gosnell. “That’s the thing about coming back to UT. You think you’re returning as an alumna. You end up remembering why you became who you are.” 

Finding Industry Mentors 

Ashley Segovia is a fourth-year student studying recreational therapy. She is also a peer career coach for UT Promise on Rocky Top and was an athletic trainer for the football team for nearly three years of her college career. 

Segovia was paired with several alumni whose careers span health care and athletics. Between the medical backgrounds and the athletic connections of these award winners, Segovia was able to see several possibilities for her career ahead. 

“It was amazing to see the vast diversity of the fields that they’re all in and the different things that they’ve contributed to,” says Segovia. “Knowing that everyone came from the same place shows that success like this is possible for someone like me.” 

As she prepares for graduation, Segovia plans on attending graduate school to become a physician assistant. She was paired with Kylie Amos, a physician assistant at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. 

“Kylie was one of the most meaningful connections I made because she is a physician assistant, and that’s what I want to do,” says Segovia. “It was inspiring to see the level of success she’s had with it.” 

For Amos, connecting with Segovia was a special experience that added to the entire weekend. 

“The experience gave me the opportunity to see the excitement of being a Vol again through a current student’s perspective, while also sharing my own stories and memories from my time there,” says Amos. “Connecting with Ashley brought me so much joy and made the experience so much more meaningful.”