Student Profile: Choice Champions Scholarship grand prize winner E’Janay Reynolds has a personal reason for wanting to help others

E’Janay Reynolds receiving her scholarship award (Photo by Tennesseans for Student Success

When E’Janay Reynolds was eight years old, she, her mother, and two younger sisters found themselves living in the Chattanooga Homeless Shelter for roughly seven months.Though her mother was eventually able to get federal Section 8 assistance to move the family into housing, this drastic change gave Reynolds a push to focus on school.

“Academically, it just gave me a push to be better and do better. Because, if I didn’t do it, who else would have (done) it?” said Reynolds. “I just had to push to ‘okay, go in school, be the best you can be because you’re going to need that to get somewhere in life’.”

Reynolds is about to take the next step to achieve that goal. In the fall she’ll be the first in her family to go to college when she enrolls at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to pursue a degree in Kinesiology.

The Chattanooga senior has been interested in pursuing a career in health sciences ever since she was a child. Whether as a doctor, a therapist, or a nurse, she knew she wanted to help people and that drive only solidified during her high school years at Tyner Academy.

Reynolds enrolled in the high performing magnet school after attending the Future Ready Kickoff event hosted by Hamilton County Schools (HCS) for its Future Ready Institutes (FRI). FRIs are small learning communities within schools that offer programs of study in a variety of career clusters, including health science.

During her senior year, Reynolds got the opportunity to do work-based learning at one of the area’s long-term care facilities. She plans to pursue either nursing or occupational therapy at UT.

“Some days we were matched with the nurses, some days with the PTs (physical therapists) and the OTs (occupational therapists), and it kind of like solidified that’s what I wanted to do. Being with the PT and OT and, ‘this is what I like, this is what I don’t like,” said Reynolds. “(It was) like, ‘okay, I want to be in this field for real,’ because again that feeling with the patience and learning what they do on the daily, it was what I wanted to do for real and it solidified it for me.”

Reynolds has also made time for an active school life that’s included dance, varsity cheerleading, participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters, and teaching third-graders as a member of the Tyner Science Troupe. She maintained a 4.0 GPA and will be graduating as her class valedictorian.

Reynolds says her experiences, while tough, have instilled a strong sense of gratitude in her. She’s always been someone who’s wanted to help others in part because of the assistance her family received and wants to give back because of it. She also hopes to serve as a role model to her younger sisters, including one that’s graduating next year.

“Everybody knows senioritis is real. It’s definitely real. Times you wake up, you’re like “I’m not going to school,’ you get to school, you don’t want to do nothing. But my family and her (Reynolds’ mentor), they just gave me that push to finish strong. Without them, I would have been somewhere, not doing what I’m doing now,” said Reynolds.

That determination played a big role in earning Reynolds the honor of being named the Choice Champion Scholarship Grand Prize winner for 2024. The nonprofit Tennesseans for Student Success created the scholarship to celebrate six students each year who attend a school of choice that are seeking higher education opportunities. The Tennessee Firefly is a project of and supported by Tennesseans for Student Success.

Reynolds says she’s both scared to move away from her friends and life, but excited to start college and get the ball rolling on her lifelong goal of helping others.

“I always listen to “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus literally before every test. I literally listen to that song and the part that always gets me the most is: “There's always gonna be another mountain, you always gonna wanna make it move. always gonna be an uphill battle, but sometimes you gonna have to lose.” And I just listen to that song ‘cause she’s being for real. Sometimes it ain’t going to go your way, and sometimes you might fail, but you’re going to have to try again another day,” said Reynolds. “Thank you to everybody that has helped to get me to where I am today.”