"The University Honors Program has given me the opportunities to capitalize on most of the resources here at UTC. When I planned my college life, I expected to go to some classes, meet some people, and hang out—nothing extraordinary. My membership in UHON has motivated me to do so much more. I registered to major in Biology Pre-Medicine, but since then have gained an interest in many more areas. I enjoyed my first year at UTC so much that I rarely went home, and even decided to stay in Chattanooga for the summer. During these summer months, I took two full semesters of French and participated in a student assistantship offered by UHON, preparing laboratory experiments in the Department of Chemistry. Now I’m participating in a faculty member’s chemistry research. The UHON Program is a blessing because it provides its students with so many more opportunities that they might otherwise miss."

Tim is a junior from Clarksville, TN majoring in pre-medicine. During the summer following his freshman year, he was awarded a UHON student research assistantship as a rising sophomore, the kind of work that would be reserved for a graduate student at a larger research university. Tim assisted Dr. Gretchen Potts in the chemistry department redesigning the lab experiments for freshman-level introduction to chemistry.

As a sophomore, Tim worked with Dr. Gretchen Potts and Dr. Tom Bodkin, Hamilton County Medical Examiner, on elemental analysis of human cremains in the pursuit of a faster and more affordable method of determining whether materials purported to be human cremains are indeed human or whether they are partially or completely composed of other non-human materials. When he's not in the lab working on serious science, Tim tutors for the Athletics Department, and is a member of the Ultimate Frisbee team and a fine pianist and singer.