Maryville College’s KT Global prepares a fifth-anniversary worldwide extravaganza of service work
March 12, 2025
It’s a lofty goal, but if Maryville College alumnus Kin Takahashi (1895) and his classmates can dig and fire the clay for 300,000 bricks to build Bartlett Hall, then their successors can undoubtedly put in 2025 service hours across five continents during the month of April.
Such an objective, which also includes five regions of the United States and five continents around the globe, is part of the College’s annual KT Global challenge, a worldwide give-back program in which Maryville College alumni take part in community initiatives to “connect through service to do good on the largest possible scale,” according to Jennifer Phillips Triplett ’07, director of Alumni Affairs, which organizes the event alongside the KT Global Taskforce of the Maryville College Alumni Association.
“Our founder urged us to ‘do good on the largest possible scale,’ and what bigger scale can there be than a global one?” Triplett said. “In communities around the world, Scots will take part in projects during the month of April to commemorate the spirit of Kin Takahashi, whose name is synonymous with service in honor of the College.”
A native of Japan, Takahashi made his way to East Tennessee, where his dedication to MC was fanatical. In his desire to bring a YMCA chapter to Maryville, he raised money, organized student workers and helped direct a campus-wide effort that resulted in the pressing of 300,000 bricks from the clay dug out of the ground on which Bartlett Hall now sits. He’s credited with introducing football to East Tennessee and served the inaugural MC squads as both captain, coach and player.
And his name is attached to specific events and efforts designed to give back to both MC and local communities, including KT Global. Originally designed as a single day in April, the annual event grew out of the KT Days tradition, in which Maryville College alumni return to their alma mater to invest “sweat equity” into improvement projects that include painting, power washing, light construction and more.
KT Days — which will again take place on the MC campus June 10-12, 2025 — fosters camaraderie while benefitting Maryville College, but four years ago, members of the MCAA board, having heard from alums who want to give back but are unable to return to East Tennessee, organized a similar effort on a global scale, one that now takes place throughout April.
Sign-ups for numerous KT Global events currently planned by alumni leaders, both in East Tennessee and around the country, are open on the MC website. Alumni are encouraged to sign up with their peers or to find their own service projects to complete with friends and/or family during April. Already, several gardening and beautification projects in Maryville, New York and Blountville, Tennessee, are recruiting volunteers. And, from their own homes, Scots can assist MC Archivist Amy Lundell ’06 in remotely making the College’s historical collections more accessible, or they can heed the call of the MCAA board to help stock the Scots Supplies Closet — an on-campus resource providing students unrestricted access to clothing, hygiene products and various other items at no cost.
“This year marks the fifth KT Global event, and to celebrate it, we have special anniversary T-shirts that will be mailed to participants this month so they can be worn during KT Global 2025 volunteer projects,” Triplett said. “Shirts will be mailed to the address participants provide on the sign-up form, and we urge them to sign up as soon as possible to ensure the shirts will arrive before April, and that we don’t run out of their size!”
Co-chairs for the KT Global Taskforce are Ashleigh Oatts ’07 and Melissa Kiewiet ’14, a leader of the TriState Scots alumni chapter living in the Northeast that will partner with Good Shepherd Services to create a rooftop garden with residents of one of their sites in Manhattan. For those unable to take part in a physical KT Global 2025 event, additional remote opportunities abound this year as well, Kiewiet said, including one to support Hurricane Helene relief efforts in partnership with the Presbytery of East Tennessee: Donors who give $25 or more count as KT Global volunteers, Kiewiet added.
“We realize that some of our Scots are unable to take part in clean-ups or physical improvement projects, but they still would like to serve in other ways,” Oatts said. “Being able to set up projects where they can support in whatever ways they can is important, and it’s a testament to the fact that throughout our history, Scots have always sought ways to give of themselves for the betterment of the communities they live in.”
“After graduation, so many alumni have found their vocation in service, thanks to the influence and their time at Maryville College,” Kiewiet added. “KT Global is another way to honor that influence by creating positive changes in our own home communities while representing Maryville College.”
