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Forty-six area high school students will receive associate degrees from Walters State before officially becoming high school graduates. These students are part of a program called Middle College and were recognized at the first Walters State Middle College Honors Banquet.

“We are excited to recognize each of our Middle College graduates,” said Dr. Matthew Hunter, dean of high school programs at the college. “These students worked extremely hard to complete this degree while still completing high school requirements. Each earned 60 hours of college credit for this degree. Some classes met both high school and college requirements. These students will have their associate degrees conferred at Walters State commencement before walking across the high school graduation stage, which is amazing.

“Some students took additional classes to earn a degree with a specific concentration. Most students earned a general studies degree with plans to transfer. We also had students earning degrees in subject areas like health sciences, agriculture and pre-medicine,” said Hunter, who also serves as director of the Newport Center and the P-16 Program.

The number of Middle College students attending Walters State has grown by 137% over the past two years, from 61 in 2023 to 145 in 2025.

Students are listed by county of residence.

CLAIBORNE COUNTY: Hannah Rowe, Claiborne County High School; and Kolton Goins, McKenna Heck, Jaelynn Jones and Alyssa Smith, all Cumberland Gap High School; and Faith Simpson and Bianca Echeverria, both homeschool students.

COCKE COUNTY: Abigail Davis-Hall, Cocke County High School; River Bessy and Amelia Hefner, both Cosby High School.

GRAINGER COUNTY: Skyler Adams, Hannah Blake, Destanee Davis, Nila Parrott, Carter Williams and Kade Williams, all Grainger High School; and Kylie Ferguson, Washburn High School.

GREENE COUNTY: Sapana Das, Chuckey-Doak High School; Samuel Blunt, Landen Creech, Emma Shelton and Kennedy Williams, all Greeneville High School; Terah Arrowood, Will Arrowood and Jayce Land, all South Greene High School; Baylee Lowe, West Greene High School; and Ella Moody, a homeschool student.

HAMBLEN COUNTY: Cade Richardson of Morristown East.

HAWKINS COUNTY: Jake Elliot, Bilva Patel and Hailey Wooten, all Cherokee High School.

JEFFERSON COUNTY: Mollie McGhee, homeschool student.

SEVIER COUNTY: Nataly Aleman, Sarah Allen, Audrey Beliveau, Kathryn Boggs, Brooke Maples, Chloe Mejias, Krish Patel and Karlee Williams, all Gatlinburg-Pittman High School, Grayson Reid, Northview Academy; and Brianna Love, homeschool student.

UNION COUNTY: Hayden Caldwell, Valentina Moshe, Keely Relford and Kaylee Venable, all Union County High School.