ETSU at Sevierville takes community involvement to the next level

The students and faculty of ETSU at Sevierville work to give back to the community that has welcomed them with open arms.

The first two values that the ETSU website outlines as part of the university’s mission statement are the following: “People come first, are treated with dignity and respect, and are encouraged to achieve their full potential; relationships are built on honesty, integrity, and trust.”

ETSU’s campus at Sevierville strives to put actions behind these words. Brandi Huskey is the director of the Sevierville campus, and she shared some of the impactful ways that they are working to serve Sevier County.

“It’s important for us to not just be seen as an educational institution but to be a partner in our area, and to just bring positivity,” she said.

Each semester, ETSU at Sevierville works with local charities and organizations to encourage students to engage in community service as a way to give back to the community. Some of these community service projects include working with the Sevierville Animal Care Center, Sevier County Food Ministries and the local Boys and Girls Club.

ETSU at Sevierville also opens their campus to some organizations and ministries that do not have spaces of their own. The campus lends the organizations a room to meet in and operate out of when needed. Some of these organizations include Leadership Sevier, which helps to give people strong foundations from which they can become leaders in their community, and the Isaiah 117 House, which works to give children a comfortable and safe place to stay while they wait for placement in the foster care system.

The National Weather Service and ETSU at Sevierville work together to bring Weather Spotters classes to the community in order to help raise awareness of the warning signs of natural disasters. The campus also works closely with the Mountain Tough Recovery Team to serve the residents of Gatlinburg and Seymore who are currently suffering loss due to the wildfires plaguing the area.

Huskey expressed how important it is to her that ETSU not be an institution that just sits back and does nothing to help the Sevier County community, especially during times of difficulty.

“We want to be here, and we want folks to welcome us to stay,” she said.

ETSU at Sevierville also works to serve the children of the community through initiatives like the Summer Reading Kick Off and National Night Out. For the Summer Reading Kock Off, the campus partners with local libraries and museums to encourage children to read while school is out over the summer. National Night Out is an initiative to partner with local law enforcement and emergency services to serve the community and allow kids to see these services in a positive and fun light.

One thing that makes ETSU at Sevierville especially unique is that they partner with the local community college Walters State to ensure that students get the best education possible. According to Huskey, students will often attend Walters State for their first two years of college and then transfer to ETSU to complete the final portions of their degree programs. This allows many students to remain close to home while gaining a quality education from institutions that are invested in their community.

ETSU at Sevierville offers junior and senior level courses in degree programs ranging from Business Management to Psychology, Social Work, and Early Education. For more information, visit the ETSU website at https://www.etsu.edu/provost/seviercenter/ or contact Huskey directly at huskeybk@etsu.edu.