Lavarius Thenthirath and 36 other December graduates of Maryville College prepare for their next steps
Jan. 21, 2026
When Lavarius Thenthirath ’25 arrived at Maryville College in the fall of 2021, he did so in the midst of family upheaval — illness, loss and the sudden thrust of responsibilities far heavier than most teenagers ever face.
College was a leap into freedom he wasn’t sure how to navigate, but it was also the place where he learned to structure a life, seek out mentors and lead with purpose. Four years later, as a December graduate with a degree in Counseling Psychology, he left as a scholar, a former co-president who helped rebuild the Black Student Alliance, and a young man who has found beauty even in the hardest seasons.
“Not everything was easy, not everything was good, not everything I’m even proud of — but I do think that everything that I tried to do is worth it,” said Thenthirath during the last full week of the fall semester.
“ I have this phrase that I like to use — one of many, actually: morosabella,” he added. “It’s when you want to call something beautiful, but it’s too sad or twisted or morose to think that the word beautiful is appropriate. For me, even in a lot of the sad memories, even in the ones that were filled with strife, there was still beauty, and a way to move forward through it that I learned here at Maryville College.”
The overwhelming responsibility of sudden freedom
Born in Massachusetts, Thenthirath spent most of his childhood in East Tennessee. Today, his family lives in Oak Ridge, and the close proximity to them is the primary reason he chose Maryville College for his undergraduate degree. That, he added, and the fact that MC has a specific Counseling program of study.
“Having that more specialized curriculum, it told me that they really care about the department, so that alone put it on my list of top colleges,” he said. “At the same time, I needed to stay pretty close to home, because my family was going through a lot at the time.”
Three major changes seemed to happen around the same time, he noted: A nephew, born premature and in need of extra neonatal care; a grandmother, confined to a wheelchair, who also needed assistance; and the death of an uncle who passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving his father grief-stricken over the loss of his brother.
“All these things happened at once, at the same time that I was having to decide my future path,” Thenthirath said. “When it was time for me to decide, I had to make some strong decisions.”
In the fall of 2021, Maryville College returned to in-person instruction and co-curricular experiences after limiting them during the 2020-21 academic year because of the pandemic. While figuring out how to navigate the “new normal” during a time of masks and social distancing, he also had to deal with a newfound sense of independence that felt like walking a tightrope across a vast canyon.
“I would say that high school prepared me for tests, but not for college life,” he said. “The sudden freedom meant I had to figure out how to structure a lot of things I wasn’t even given a lot of clues or pointers on how to do before that. There were all of these expectations on me all of a sudden, but I didn’t know how to do that yet.”
It was a tumultuous year, and in an effort to find his footing, he began to explore student-led clubs and organizations on campus, joining “as many groups as I could, going to as many meetings as I could,” he added.
One in particular, the Black Student Alliance, not only gave him a sense of identity, it also provided him with his first leadership role. The disarray of COVID meant that the club was bereft of officers, and during his first year at MC, he found himself as one of three co-presidents charged with putting the BSA back together.
“They needed fresh faces, so along with (former Scot) Isaiah Treece and Jean’Miracle Raymond ’25, we started building BSA up over the course of the next three years,” Thenthirath said. “Isaiah was a big help, especially during our freshman year, but over the course of my tuenure, we had so many people fill officer roles besides Jean and I — Aja Cofer ’25 and Tyrika Small ’26, for example.
“And a lot of other people stepped up in their own ways, like Aja Rodriguez ’04 (director of Community and Belonging and current BSA faculty advisor), Larry Ervin ’97 (now retired) and Katelynn Adams (former residence director) as our advisors. All of us together, we managed to get people to come to the meetings, we brought in regular members — people we could rely on, like Jamarcus Dunn ’25 and M’Kaylee Holley ’26, who were always stepping up — and we started some new things to honor the club’s legacy and figure out how to advance it, which was at the core of everything we were trying to do.”
Personal growth and the great threshold of what’s next
One of the milestones of which he’s most proud was the resurrection of “X Night,” an evening of spoken word and poetry slams held during February’s Black History Month observances in memory of the late Xavier Sales ’17, who died unexpectedly on May 8 of that year, less than two weeks before he would have graduated. The club invited Terry Sales, Xavier’s mother, who now attends the event every year.
As the health of the BSA improved, so too did its status among campus organizations. In 2023, Thenthirath received the W.E.B. DuBois Award, given annually to a male student who best captures the spirit and character of DuBois, the founder of the NAACP and a respected leader for Black rights in the early 20th century. In 2024, Raymond won the Sojourner Truth Award, given to an outstanding female student who exemplifies the spirit and courage of the former slave who became an outspoken leader in the fight for Black rights in the 19th century. Last April, the BSA was named the Student Organization of the Year for the 2024-25 academic term.
The accolades allowed Thenthirath to step down from his leadership post and focus his final semester on finishing strong at the College that gave him so much, and to which he gave a great deal in return.
“I was able to focus on my own stuff because things with BSA were stable and going well,” he said. “At first it was a scramble, but after some work, it was eventually able to stand on its own.”
Last semester, he sought out volunteer opportunities and took advantage of a lighter schedule to enroll in electives that he hoped would boost his GPA. Through the College’s Nonprofit Leadership Alliance chapter, he completed all requirements for a certificate in nonprofit management except for an internship with a nonprofit, which he’ll obtain after graduation. And of course, he spent much of the fall looking ahead to what the future might bring once he departed from College Hill. His goal is graduate school and a career as a therapist, and for the time being, he’s applying to some of the schools that accepted his undergraduate application.
“I really want to talk to some of the faculty members in Psychology about their experiences in the graduate parts of their careers,” he said. “It’s all really, really exciting.”
Those faculty members, he added, have gone above and beyond to not only provide him with the core education he needed for his field of study, but for the soft skills necessary to be successful within it.
“I wasn’t the easiest student, but all of them helped to teach me something,” he said. “Dr. (Chad) Schrock knows when to be a hardliner; Dr. (Crystal) Colter was so very understanding and helped ground me with that same sense of understanding when it was so hard to develop on my own. She helped to sensitize me.
“And Dr. (Aqualus) Gordon! As one of the professors who has actual experience in counseling, I would run up to him with my notebook and ask him all sorts of questions about the business, about the dynamics. He taught me that everything is grist for the mill — that anything you can process, you can use or spend or put toward the progress.”
For faculty members in the Division of Behavioral Sciences, Thenthirath was a case study in many ways of determination and persistence. Whatever stumbling blocks tumbled into his path, he managed to avoid them through the work he was willing to do and the extra measures he had to take.
“Lavarius’ journey at Maryville College is an example of how persistence, reflection and hope can turn even the hardest seasons into meaningful growth,” Colter said.
“Lavarius is one of the most insightful students I’ve taught in psychology and counseling courses,” Gordon added. “He’s a bit of an empathic, free spirit who understands people and is motivated to help them.”
A moment of quiet contemplation before departure
To outside observers, that growth is evident in the profound change Thenthirath has undergone since arriving at Maryville College, unsure whether he would wake up on time for class or how to take the next steps toward the completion of a degree. It’s been “a long time coming,” he added, and as the final days of his final semester dwindle, he’s filled with both fear and excitement … in many ways, a serendipitous parallel to similar feelings he experienced upon his arrival.
“I remember my freshman year, it was the biggest change that I had managed to have on my own, in my entire life,” he said. “How to wake up in the morning on my own, how to become the person I want to be, how to bounce back when I fall short and do it over and over again — all of those things, I had to figure out.”
As he prepared for departure — because there’s no December Commencement service, December graduates have the option of taking part in the May ceremony either before or after they finish all classes, and Thenthirath walked last May — he paused, reflecting on the message he wants to hand down to those who might, like him, arrive without any true sense of how to navigate this path. In the end, he comes up with three.
“Every opportunity that you have for legitimate money, go for it! Obviously, the downside of college is paying for it, but whether it’s scholarships or working on campus or whatever, it’s worth it to try,” he said. “Two, choose good groups to join and make them better. It’s the responsibility of the groups to maintain the atmosphere on campus, and we all have a role to play. You can only be responsible for your own actions, but you can facilitate and encourage and help shape the atmosphere of the groups you join.
“And finally, figure out how to live on your own, so you don’t have to live by yourself. Everything that happens will change you, and that’s not a bad thing. Change is what college is all about, and if you look at it like that, then, as I like to say, I’m not the same person I was who started this sentence.”
Thenthirath was one of 37 Scots who graduated last month. Other December graduates of Maryville College, as well as their degrees, include:
Bachelor of Arts
Emma Abbruzzetti (Developmental Psychology, Child Trauma and Reslience track), Haley Adams (Psychology), John Andrews (Counseling), Lindsey Brasfield (Psychology), Madison Breazeale (Psychology and Art, individualized degree), Chloe Breid (Writing/Commuication), Olivia Cathers (Marketing), Meghan Emery (Biochemistry), Alyxis Harper (Counseling), Grant Henderson (Health and Wellness Promotion), Matthew Hurst (Computer Science), Kristoffer Jakobsen (International Studies), Reed Kemp (Management), Ben Kenny (Marketing), Bonnie Lauderback (Health and Wellness Promotion), Evan McCampbell (Music), Reid Morgan (Environmental Studies), Olivia Norris (Health and Wellness Promotion), Savannah Orr (Criminal Justice), Sarah Phelps (Health and Wellness Promotion), Tristan Rodriguez (Computer Science), Alyssa Smith (Criminal Justice), Mac Spears (Criminal Justice), Patrick Spears (Psychology), Kyle Sprous (Finance/Accounting), Jamari Steward (Health and Wellness Promotion), Jordan Sutton (Management), Samantha Swann (English), Griffin Swinea (History), Chardon Wood (Health and Wellness Promotion) and Alexis Youmans (Biology).
Bachelor of Science
Jacob Berven (Biology), Jacob Johnston (Exercise Science), Cailin Mastropasqua (Exercise Science) and Tyrika Small (Neuroscience).
In addition, several of those Scots graduated with academic distinctions: cum laude, for a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.5 to 3.74; magna cum laude for a GPA of 3.75 to 3.94; and summa cum laude for a GPA of 3.95 to 4.0. Those students include:
Cum laude: John Andrews, Jacob Berven, Olivia Cathers, Alyxis Harper, Cailin Mastropasqua and Jordan Sutton.
Magna Cum Laude: Matthew Hurst, Olivia Norris and Alyssa Smith.
Summa Cum Laude: Emma Abbruzzetti, Lindsey Brasfield and Samantha Swann.
