Following in their footsteps: Two dozen first-year students carry on a family legacy of Maryville College enrollment
Aug. 23, 2024
It’s surreal in the loveliest of ways for Samantha Mattox, whose first few days on the Maryville College campus have included marveling at the bricks and trees that now surround her, and wondering if they looked the same when her grandfather was a Scot.
Mattox, a graduate of West High School in Knoxville, is one of 22 first-year legacy students who follow in the footsteps of relatives who once called this campus home. The opportunity to attend MC is built on connections made by parents and siblings, uncles and aunts, grandparents and even distant relatives who have long since passed.
For some, like Olivia Bumbalough, Maryville College has been like a second home for her entire life. The daughter of Jessica Foster Bumbalough ’03 and Scott Bumbalough ’03 (as well as the niece of Stephanie Bumbalough Sweet ’05), she chose MC precisely because of its connection to her family.
“I’ve gone to just about every Homecoming growing up; in fact, I have celebrated most of my birthdays on campus,” she said. “Me and the college share a birthday (Oct. 19), which I find so cool since my parents met on the campus and then had their first child on the 186th anniversary of Maryville College’s founding. I am so excited to finally make Maryville College my official second home!”
Others were attracted by the character traits instilled in their loved ones during their time as Scots. A graduate of Knoxville’s Farragut High School, Haley Yager saw in her mom, Tami Rowland-Khashman Yager ’94, so many of the things she wants for herself as an adult. She arrived on the MC campus on Aug. 10; as a member of the Maryville College Equestrian Team, she threw herself into the team’s training week prior to the first day of classes on Aug. 21, she said.
“I love the thought of graduating from the same college as my mother,” she said. “She is such a strong and loving woman, and I look up to her and her accomplishments as well. Growing up in Maryville and being on the campus all throughout my life, doing the things I love like orchestra competitions or taking a drive through the campus while we’re down there to reminisce, has made Maryville College feel like home for quite a while now, and I’m very excited to carry on the (family) legacy of attending Maryville College.”
Other Legacy Scots like Mattox, however, find themselves kept company by the ghosts of the departed, and the lives they imagine their loved ones lived in this place. It was on a drive past the College when she was 14, she said, when her mother happened to mention that her grandfather, the Rev. James Arthur Akin ’55, once called MC home.
“It was a weird, nebulous thing,” she said. “I’d known he’d gone to college, (and) I’d known he’d been in Tennessee, (but) it didn’t connect that he’d lived half an hour away from the house we’d moved to. I forgot that conversation for a while, it was just something mentioned off-hand. I was 14, what did I care about college? College was some scary thing hovering on the horizon, and thinking about my grandpa made my chest ache a little in a way that made me shy away.”
Two years later, she found herself on a tour offered by the MC Admissions staff, drawn to the ornate brickwork of halls like Anderson, and the enthusiasm of the guide who gushed over everything Maryville College has to offer. Fast forward to this new academic year, and the twinge of anxiety she felt then over decisions that may define her future are still there … but so too is a familiar warmth.
“I can tell Maryville is a place I could grow to love,” she said. “When I was last visiting, I had some time to think about my grandfather. I wonder which buildings he spent time in, which classrooms have been renovated since he lived here. I wonder which dorms he stayed in. I wish I could call him and ask him.
“I wish I could ask which trees he wrote poetry under. Where he goofed off outside of classes. Where he studied. I wish I had the stories, the memories, he must have made here. My grandpa died when I was 14, before I cared about what college he went to, before I cared about anything other than writing with him and listening to him read books aloud to me and my sister.”
Other legacies have no need to imagine what MC life might have been like for their alumni relatives. Like Bumbalough, Julie Vines grew up in the shadow of MC, where her father, Jon Baker, serves as associate head soccer coach for the men’s and women’s teams, and her mother, Amy Poag Baker ’98, once served as the president of the Blount County Alumni Association.
“Now Julie can blaze her own path and create her own memories, and we are so proud of her,” Baker said.
Returning to campus to move in their children was a nostalgic reunion with those memories for many Scots. Howard Beckwith ’93, who graduated four years before his sister (Angela Beckwith Bryson ’97), was reminded of just how much MC meant to him as an undergraduate, he said.
“We are all extremely proud of Elaina for all her accomplishments, and beyond thrilled she chose Maryville College for her undergraduate studies,” he said. “We are very excited to watch her strengthen her foundation and chart her own course within the academic-rich environment that means so much to our family. We have no doubt Elaina will create lifelong relationships with her fellow students and professors, just like her Aunt Angela and I did many years ago.”
For those Scots, the imagined connections Mattox has to campus are the result of real-world experiences they enjoyed here. Baker once roomed with Katie Brehmer Lay ’99, and a couple of weeks ago, Lay and her husband, Jason Lay ’97, moved their own child, Josh Lay, into the residence halls with other members of the Fighting Scots football team, which Jason played for as well. There are a large number of Scots who graduated in the late 90s/early 00s whose children are now attending MC, including Derrick ’03 and Tiffany Easton Stowell ’02. Their son, Josiah, comes to Maryville College having already worked with Dr. Drew Crain, professor of biology.
“Josiah first made his own personal connection with Maryville College in 2020 while looking for an Eagle Scout project,” Tiffany said. “He had tried other options but was getting a lot of no’s, and he was getting discouraged. It was at this point that we encouraged him to reach out to Dr. Crain.
“Dr. Crain met with Josiah and encouraged him the whole way. We weren’t surprised that after his project was completed, it confirmed his choice to pursue a degree in Environmental Science. After hearing that MC was starting an Environmental Science major, MC became a top contender. We hope MC provides him with the great memories and friendships it provided us.”
Friendships like those with J.D. ’02 and Allyson Pierce Dunbar ’02, who graduated a year ahead of the Stowells but spent Friday morning, Aug. 11, moving their daughter, Rachel, into the same residence hall (Davis) where Josiah resides.
“J.D. and I both graduated in 2002, and are so excited that Rachel decided to call Maryville College her home as well,” Allyson said. “Our hope is that she gets a high-quality education and makes lifelong friends and memories during her time at MC.”
As New Student Orientation continues through the Covenant Stone Ceremony on Tuesday, Aug. 20, those memories are already being made. And for some, like Mattox, the opportunity to make them is as fine a tribute to a departed as the education they’ll also receive.
“My grandpa died years before I could tell him I was following in his footsteps, but now I’m going to Maryville,” she said. “I’m going to write poetry under the trees. I’m going to make friends and goof off with them between classes. I’m going to find somewhere to study, I’m going to sleep in a dorm room, I’m going to eat in the dining hall — I’m going to spend four years here, and every memory I make will let me understand his life just a little bit more, as I walk where he walked half a century ago.”
The Legacy Scots of the Class of 2028
The complete list of the Legacy Scots who are set to graduate in 2028, and their relatives, include:
- Haley Yager — Tami Rowland-Khashman Yager ’94 (mother)
- Elaina Beckwith — Howard Beckwith ’93 (father) and Angela Beckwith Bryson ’97 (aunt)
- Olivia Bumbalough — Scott ’03 (father) and Jessica Foster Bumbalough ’03 (mother), Stephanie Bumbalough Sweet ’05 (aunt)
- Ada Danielson — Julie Walker Danielson ’04 (mother)
- Rachel Dunbar — James ’02 (father) and Allyson Pierce Dunbar ’98 (mother)
- Cypress Eisenmann — Lenore Hatchell Gooden ’00 (mother)
- Macy Hunt — Jenna Hunt-Fernandez ’18 (sister)
- J.J. Khym — Christen McCammon Khym ’96 (aunt), Lodge McCammon ’99 (uncle), Warren ’36 and Inez Galloway Jones (great-grandparents)
- Jacob and Andrew Knight — Joseph Knight ’94 (father)
- Savannah Latham — O.B. Harris ’76 (great-grandfather)
- Josh Lay — Jason ’97 (father) and Katie Brehmer Lay ’99 (mother), Kris ’01 and Kristin Bumpers Sigmund ’03 (uncle and aunt)
- Samantha Mattox — Rev. Dr. James Arthur Akin ‘55 (grandfather)
- Jasmine Muecke — Joseph Augustus Muecke (great-great-grandfather, served on the MC Board of Directors from 1890 to 1917); Adelaide Muecke (19)10 (great-great-aunt)
- Michelle Osorio — Alejandra Osorio ’23 (sister)
- Lauren Schrock — Kathy Schrock ’13 (mother)
- John Siepert — Sam Siepert ’21 (brother)
- Alona Stallans —Cordia Watson ’10 (aunt)
- Josiah Stowell — Derrick ’03 (father) and Tiffany Easton Stowell ’02 (mother)
- Julie Vines — Amy Poag Baker ’98 (mother)
- Gracie Williams — Randy McGill ’74 (grandfather, deceased) and Cole Piper ’68 (uncle, deceased)
- Victoria Wright — Gordon Wright ’94 (father) and Izzy Wright ’25 (sister)
