Caleb Hopper
Recent Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences graduate and rising University of Tennessee freshman Caleb Hopper had always wanted to be a Vol.
“I was going to go to Tennessee all my life. I have been a fan all my life. My parents (Stephanie and Brian Hopper) went there,” he said, adding that brother Joey also just graduated and another brother, Luke, still attends.
But the way Caleb ended up at UT as a prestigious Haslam Scholar came as a little bit of a surprise. He said that after he had applied to school there, he received word that he had been nominated as a semifinalist for what is the school’s most renowned scholarship program.
“When I got an email mentioning I was a semifinalist, I said, ‘What?’” the young Mr. Hopper jokingly recalled during a recent interview at Rembrandt’s before heading off to his freshman year. “I wasn’t expecting anything like that.”
So, in January and at a time when many high school students applying to college can rest after doing all the application work and while waiting to hear where they will be attending, he had to go back to work. He had to record a five-minute video talking about his leadership history and send that to the school.
UT must have liked it, as he was asked to take part in a Zoom interview and then was called to campus for an overnight weekend visit a few weeks later along with 29 other finalists for some more interviews and meetings.
He had gone back home to Chattanooga and was eating lunch with his family in their kitchen after church that Sunday when his phone began ringing. Realizing it had an 865 area code from Knoxville, his heart no doubt started beating faster as he went to another part of the house to answer it.
It turned out that the person on the phone was the well-known Jim Haslam Sr., the founder of Pilot Oil and whose extended family has endowed the scholarship program since 2008.
“He asked how I was doing, and I said I was kind of nervous,” Mr. Hopper recalled with a laugh. “And he said, ‘Hopefully you know why I am calling and hopefully it will help your nerves.”
He learned the great news that he had been named a Haslam Scholar. After getting off the phone with Mr. Haslam, he went up and told his family the exciting news, and it was a genuine celebration moment.
This standout center back soccer player for CSAS had just secured a different kind of goal, and he was quite excited about it.
Mr. Hopper has also learned that he was selected additionally as a Peyton Manning Scholar, another high honor given to some incoming freshmen who are part of the Haslam Scholars Program. As part of that, he said he will also get a chance to meet Mr. Manning, the former UT and NFL star quarterback, in person in the near future.
Mr. Hopper – whose father was from Bristol and whose mother was raised in Alcoa – said he grew up not only loving UT but also learning the value of leadership. That came in part from being in a large family. “I was the fourth child of six, and I spent a good amount of time speaking up for myself and saying what I needed to say,” he said of that trait that is an important pre-requisite to receiving the scholarship.
He went to Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA) through the eighth grade at the old Elbert Long School building now being torn down. In the ninth grade, he transferred to CSAS in the historic Third Street building where his paternal grandmother had also attended when it was Chattanooga High.
While playing soccer, he was also drawn to being a leader in ways other than trying to lead his team to the ball athletically. “When a coach would say something, I’d reflect that and help my teammates,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was leadership at first. I just thought it was me trying to do the right thing.”
He said he learned that leadership isn’t just barking orders, but it is also helping a group thrive and guiding it to where it needs to go.
He served as team captain his senior year and said coaches Ryan Jacobs and assistant Nich Siler have been very supportive and influential toward him. He said that coach Jacobs even came over one day in practice after learning he had been selected as a Haslam Scholar and excitedly picked him up.
Mr. Hopper also has shown plenty of leadership off the soccer field. He was the Student Government Association president at CSAS and enjoyed getting to do some mentoring of elementary school basketball players through the Upward program.
“We had about 12 practices and eight games, and those kids had a blast,” he said. “From a coach’s perspective, it was a completely different feel. Watching the effect I had on the kids was so meaningful.
“It’s how can I help these kids do their best and have the most fun,” he continued. “That should be the goal. I have a duty to be a good mentor to the kids and help them have fun, learn basketball and get to know God.”
Mr. Hopper said his Christian faith is important to him, and he and his family attend North River Methodist Church, a new congregation currently meeting in the Hixson Seventh-day Adventist Church building on Hixson Pike.
While he greatly enjoyed high school, he said he is looking forward to college at UT. He actually already got a taste of college in a way that helped him plan his college career when he attended a Governor’s School science program at UT in the summer of 2024.
It made him want to major in industrial and systems engineering after previously thinking about both business and engineering as career paths.
“After the first day I called my parents and said that is what I am going to major in,” he said. “It is a bridge between business and engineering.”
He said he likes that he will get to focus on making things better and more quickly in a society that he says is going faster every day. He also likes that it offers leadership opportunities as well, with the possibility of one day becoming an executive.
While that academic discipline was new for him, the summer program cemented further his familiarity and love for UT and gave him a taste of college life. He even was able to attend a UT baseball playoff game against Evansville on the Vols’ way to a national championship.
He said that while his mother wanted him to apply to a couple of other colleges, he knew he wanted to go only to UT, saying he loves the football team and the campus environment. And he was looking forward during the interview to the coming days of welcome events and getting to move into Dogwood Hall with the other incoming freshmen Haslam Scholars.
“They will have us feel that Big Orange energy,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. I am going to a ton of games and meet new people. It will be a lot of fun.”
And while he will excitedly be offering cheers for his new school and environment, he is admittedly humbled about the honor of being a Haslam Scholar, and the only one from the Chattanooga area in this year’s class of 14 recipients.
“I definitely consider it an honor,” he said. “It was God’s work that put me in position to be a Haslam Scholar. He made it possible.”
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net
Caleb Hopper