At Scale Newsletter: Summer 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of the At Scale Newsletter, where we highlight the impactful programs and initiatives falling into one of our three priorities — all designed to drive our mission to Build Tennessee’s Future Workforce.
Click to read each section!
Summer Institute Expansion
Students First, Always is a driving value here at tnAchieves. It is the lens that we look through before doing anything as an organization. During the summer months, this lens has us focused on programming to make sure high school graduates actually enroll and land on campus in the fall, prepared for college. This summer, tnAchieves expanded the Summer Institute program to four community colleges around the state for the first time.
Program Highlights
78 students participated.
97% of students earned college credit by participating.
83% of students passed all classes and earned 9 college credit hours. These students also eliminated the need for learning support when they began this fall.
Summer Institute places students in credit-bearing and learning support courses. Successful students finish the program with college credits and eliminate the need for learning support. Before this year, Summer Institute was a yearly program solely at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis. This year, it expanded to three other community colleges. Columbia State, Jackson State and Motlow State were all gracious enough to host Summer Institute on one of their campuses.
Throughout the program, students participate in all corequisite courses along with three college-level courses. Summer Institute provides students with the opportunity to experience college before they begin classes in the fall. Students work with college professors and take college courses in a small and supported setting.
We hope to host Summer Institute at even more institutions in the coming years!
TN Promise Application Now Open
As of August 1st, the TN Promise Application is now open for the Class of 2026! Last year, we had our largest class of applicants ever with more than 67,000. We want to meet or beat that number this year.
The deadline to apply for TN Promise is November 3rd. To apply click here.
Growing Team tnAchieves
This summer, we took bold steps to deepen our impact across Tennessee by growing Team tnAchieves—a collective of statewide partners committed to Stand with Students and support our mission to Build Tennessee’s Future Workforce. Led by tnAchieves Vice President of Workforce Tyler Ford, the tnAchieves team met with more than 60 business, nonprofit and education partners from each grand division.
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Alliance Bernstein
Amazon
Arconic
Asurion
Austin Peay
Axle Logistics
Ballad Health
Bank of America
Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation
Chattanooga 2.0
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly
ChoiceDATA
Clayton Homes
Collierville Chamber of Commerce
DENSO
Dollywood
Eastman
ETSU
FedEx
First Horizon
Ford
HCA Healthcare
Haslam Family Foundation
Haslam3 Foundation
Highlands Economic Partnership
Hilton
Jackson Madison County Chamber
JTEKT
Kingsport Chamber
Knox County
Lawson Family Foundation
Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce
Maury Chamber
Maury Regional
Nissan
Oak Ridge National Lab
Opella
Pfizer
Roane Alliance
Rutherford County Chamber
SCORE
Scarlett Foundation
Siemens
Spring Hill Chamber
St. Jude
Stowers Machinery
TN - Board of Regents
TN - Department of Health
TN - Dept. of Commerce and Insurance
TN - Dept. of Human Resources
TN - Dept. of Human Services
TN - Dept. of Labor
TN - Dept. of Tourist Development
TN - THEC/TSAC
TVA
Truist
UT Medical Center
United Way of Greater Knoxville
United Way of Nashville
Unum
West Tennessee Healthcare
Williamson, Inc.
Designed to better understand Tennessee’s workforce needs and share ways to plug into tnAchieves work, we are grateful to the partners who took the time to engage. Joining Team tnAchieves means partners are committing to supporting students through volunteer mentoring, expanding workforce perspectives with job shadowing experiences and supporting tnAchieves programs through financial contributions.
Workforce Mentoring
One of the most exciting outcomes of this summer’s outreach is the launch of Workforce Mentoring—a new and impactful way to volunteer with tnAchieves. Workforce Mentors will guide second-year college students as they transition from college to career, offering real-world advice, encouragement and a connection to the professional world. It is a chance to not only support a student’s journey but also invest in the future of Tennessee’s workforce.
Whether you're a business leader, educator, nonprofit advocate or community member, there’s a place for you on Team tnAchieves. Together, we can ensure every student has the support they need to earn a credential of value and pursue a meaningful career. To learn more about partnering with tnAchieves, email Tyler Ford, Vice President of Workforce!
Job Shadow Days
Building Tennessee’s Future Workforce means ensuring that tnAchieves students have opportunities for career exposure. This year, tnAchieves has partnered with 21 different organizations to host job shadow days across the state. The goal is to give a student career exposure at a business in their own community in a hands-on way. Students are able to explore career interests, gain valuable experience and network with professionals. On top of that, students can also count any job shadowing experience toward their community service hours requirement. While job shadow days greatly benefit our students, it also exposes businesses to the students who may one day become their employees. These connections work both ways. It’s a win-win-win in our book!
TN Promise Student Hosts Job Shadow Experience at Toyota
To give you an idea of why job shadowing is so important to us, check this out! Skylar (front and center) is a former TN Promise student from Jackson State Community College. Skylar then transferred to UT Martin and majored in mechanical engineering before joining Toyota! Skylar was able to meet current TN Promise students while they were on their tour during their job shadow day!
This particular Toyota plant produces transmissions and engine blocks for every Toyota sold in North America. Scroll through the pictures, and you can see that students even got some hands-on practice! They were able to practice some welding skills on a practice model. Thank you, Toyota!
We deeply appreciate all 21 businesses who were willing to host a job shadow day this summer. More than 550 students participated. These students got an up close look at what a future career could look like at:
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21st Mortgage
Austin Peay State University
Axle Logistics
Chattanooga State
City of Chattanooga
Clayton Homes
Cumberland University
Deloitte
Dollywood
ETSU College of Nursing
First Horizon Bank
HCA
Hilton
Maury Regional Medical Center
Nissan
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Pfizer
Siemens
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
State of TN
TCAT Northwest
The University of Tennessee at Martin
Toyota of Tennessee
Turner Construction
UT Medical Center
West Tennessee Healthcare
As you can see in that list, there are some major household names and brands as well as a variety of industries represented. Thank you to each business who has partnered with tnAchieves to Build Tennessee’s Future Workforce! If your business is interested in hosting a job shadowing day in the future, please click here.
