Kohen Kilburn, left, and Oliver Nimon
photo by John Shearer
As recent McCallie School graduate Kohen Kilburn and 2024 Baylor School alumnus Oliver Nimon sat at a table outside Rembrandt’s coffee shop downtown recently, they seemed to have somewhat different interests and backgrounds.
Mr. Kilburn’s parents came from South Korea, and he grew up in the East Brainerd area and attended Westview Elementary and then McCallie for seven years. At the latter, he focused on such diverse extracurricular activities as playing the violin and, yes, Ultimate Frisbee.
Mr. Nimon, meanwhile, was born in Memphis and grew up on the edge of the developed area of Signal Mountain and started at Nolan Elementary. He then went on to Baylor, where he was a contributing defender on the successful soccer team under coach Curtis Blair until a knee injury his senior year.
Despite the differences, including of course the well-known rivalry between their two alma maters, they have both found some similarities. They are both good students and interested in pursuing a mechanical engineering program in college. They are also both in the process of beginning their freshman year at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, even though neither of their families had a previous connection to UT.
And they have one other similarity – the most important one. They are also the only two incoming freshmen from the immediate Chattanooga area who have received full scholarships to UT as part of the prestigious Haslam Leadership Scholars program.
Considered the top merit-based and all-around scholarship for an incoming freshman at the school, it was established in 2008 by the Pilot Company founding family of Jim and Natalie Haslam and son Jimmy and Dee Haslam. Besides covering tuition, room and board, the scholarship also covers a study abroad program and a paid internship.
Just like the constantly growing UT physical campus, it is trying to grow into one of the marquee scholarships nationally in the class of such older ones as the Morehead-Cain at the University of North Carolina and the Jefferson Scholarship at the University of Virginia.
Both young men said they are honored to receive the scholarship and vividly remember getting calls from Jim and Natalie Haslam – perhaps the best-known UT benefactors – a few months back congratulating them.
“They were like, ‘You got it,’ ” said Mr. Nimon in remembering who was on the line when his mother hurriedly handed him his ringing phone after they had just gotten back from attending First Presbyterian Church following the finalists’ weekend.
Mr. Kilburn jokingly realized the Haslams had done their homework on the recipients with what Mr. Haslam asked him. “He asked if I was going to play Ultimate Frisbee at UT, too,” he recalled with a chuckle. “They were very involved.”
The two students were to have moved into the newer Dogwood Hall – where the freshmen Haslam Scholars are being housed -- earlier this week. Mr. Nimon had also planned to go through fraternity rush just to see if he wants to pledge, saying it is an additional way to meet people.
They should also have plenty of opportunities to meet the 13 other Haslam Scholarship recipients in the UT freshmen class as well.
They jokingly added that the dorm is on the west end of the main campus down near the swimming facilities, so long walks back in the direction of the Hill part of campus and the engineering buildings might be involved.
As to their also-long journey from Chattanooga to Knoxville, they both admitted to the slightly circuitous route to being Haslam Scholars at UT.
Mr. Kilburn -- whose father, Lucas “Luke,” is business and finance VP and head accountant at Chattanooga State and whose mother, Jun, also works there after previously working at the Catoosa County Library – said his father actually went to Michigan State.
But he was simply applying to the general Honors Program at UT when he stumbled upon the application for the Haslam Scholarship as well. “I realized it was a very valuable opportunity,” he said.
Mr. Nimon – whose father, Wesley, is a 1989 Baylor graduate who works for the Veterans Administration and whose mother, Melissa, is the executive director of McCoy Farm and Gardens – was also interested in studying mechanical engineering. The meticulous work was a contrast to his more carefree enjoyment of being simply aggressive in soccer, which he also hopes to play on the club level at UT.
He was looking at colleges under the guidance of Baylor college counselor Ann Katherine Taylor and initially thought a program at N.C. State might be ideal, knowing he would have to go to a larger college for engineering anyway. That ended up not working out, but the UT Haslam Scholarship did, and he had already decided he would take it if offered. And it was not just due to the prestige of receiving it.
“It is a closely knit group that makes me feel like family, and there is a big emphasis on leadership,” Mr. Nimon said of what he likes about the program.
As they both remembered the sheer joy at getting the calls from the Haslams that they had been selected for the highly selective scholarship after an intensive final weekend of interviews, they were both also full of glowing moments from having attended their high schools.
Mr. Kilburn, who said he by chance met some older Haslam Scholars who came into the Acropolis while he was working there this summer, said he appreciates coaches Brian Sansbury and Jake Altemus at McCallie and orchestra director Nichole Pitts. He was also on the Student Council and the National Honor Society and enjoyed the outdoors at McCallie.
Mr. Nimon, who was also an avid chess player at Baylor and enjoyed blacksmithing, woodturning and mountain biking in his spare time, appreciates a self-led engineering elective he took under Dr. Mary Loveless in school.
He got to pick a project, and he focused on one that involved virtual reality and importing 3-D models. While he did not have the time to carry the project on to completion, he was able to wrap up in his mind that engineering was a subject he wanted to pursue.
As a result, both are admittedly excited about being at UT, where classes start on Aug. 19, and getting to pursue mechanical engineering as Haslam Scholars. They will get to experience the multi-meaning concept of support in and out of the classroom.
“I’ll get more and more excited and appreciative as school gets closer,” said Mr. Kilburn, who is looking forward to the wide diversity at UT. “I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of new faces.”
Added Mr. Nimon, who was also a National Merit Commended Scholar and knows to anticipate the slight nerves that nearly every new college freshman experiences, “It’s going to be a big change.”
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net