Hillary Tune
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Communication Studies Major Meredith Schmerda Selected for Jupiter Entertainment’s First Launch Program
Senior Meredith Schmerda likes keeping her career choices open—so long as she gets to use her hyper-creative mind—and that was a significant contributor as to why she chose communication studies as her major. “As a little freshman, I wanted to do something very broad because I didn’t know what I wanted to do and that…
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Jonathan Knight Supports WUOT to Keep Invaluable News & Music Available
Jonathan Knight is a Knoxville native, and his interest in classical music was first sparked by hearing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in the movie Shine. He was then introduced to another Rachmaninoff piece, Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, and he was hooked. “And so, once I heard that, it was like, ‘Oh, this is what it could be!’,” he…
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Jon Dempersmier Recounts the Impact of WUOT on His Life
Jon Dempersmier knew about public radio long before moving to East Tennessee—there were a couple of syndicated shows such as Car Talk that had occasionally grabbed his attention—but it wasn’t until one day when he was driving his toddler son to daycare that he got hooked on WUOT 91.9 FM. “One morning I was just flipping through…
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Young Alum Gina Abitante Growing Career at NYC Agency
Gina Abitante spoke to a group of students from the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations during their January 2025 visit to New York City. In Gina Abitante’s (‘23) line of work, one social media influencer posting a video praising a shampoo can put her workday into overdrive. As an account executive at Marina…
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Information Integrity Institute Postdoc Matthew Craig Attends Social Science Foo Camp at Meta
Matthew Craig, postdoctoral research associate at the Information Integrity Institute, was one of 150 select people invited to the 2025 Social Science Foo Camp at Meta headquarters in Palo Alto, California in early February. The event, often referred to as an “unconference” due to its unstructured schedule, allows attendees to determine topics on the spot…
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Communication Studies Senior Donté Mullins Aims for Great Heights in the Sports Industry
“When it comes to the sports industry, so many people want to work in it. I just want to make sure that when my resume comes across the table, it’ll be something you haven’t seen before,” said Donté Mullins, a senior and communication studies major at the College of Communication and Information. Mullins has an…
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Vol 40 Under 40 Amy Donahue Flexes Communication Skills Across Industries
Even though Amy Donahue (’09, ’11) grew up less than an hour away from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, moving to the larger city and bustling campus was very different from her small, rural hometown of Jellico, Tennessee. But the two-time College of Communication and Information alumnus acclimated to city life on a large campus,…
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Vol 40 Under 40 Courtney Holder Leads in Higher Ed
The experiences Courtney Holder (‘10, ‘12) had as an undergraduate majoring in communication studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, made such an impact she chose a career focused on giving higher education students the same type of formative experiential opportunities she had. Holder currently serves as the assistant director of Stamp Student Union, director…
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Tennessee Speech and Debate Society a Chapter in Alumni’s Love Story
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alumni Lillia Poveda King (’21) and Codey King (’21) met in eighth grade and later became high school sweethearts in their hometown of Seymour, Tennessee. Today, the now-married couple live in Washington, DC, as research analysts pursuing the career goals that first started to bloom in each of them around the same…
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Junior Sana Boghani is Blazing a Path to a Career in Public Health Communications
When junior Sana Boghani first came to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, she immediately began investigating opportunities on and off campus that could benefit her long-term goals and interests. She declared her major in communication studies as an incoming freshman, but the academic and extracurricular endeavors she’s undertaken since becoming a Vol have helped develop …