The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will welcome 16 first-year students – including Gallatin’s Aubrynne Bean, as the 2026 class of Haslam Leadership Scholars. Established in 2008 with a gift from Jimmy and Dee Haslam and Jim and Natalie Haslam, the scholarship program honors the Haslam family’s legacy of developing community-minded and intellectually gifted young leaders. The program’s mission is to attract, cultivate and retain future Tennessee leaders.
Bean plans to major in public affairs and economics. During high school, she earned an associate’s degree in political science, served as president of the National Honor Society and played four years on her school’s soccer team, winning the state championship twice.
She also attended the American Legion Auxiliary’s Volunteer Girls State, where she was elected as her party’s gubernatorial candidate. Bean founded a club to promote civic engagement in politics, registering more than 100 students to vote in state and national elections. She worked at the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development as a policy research intern, focusing on attracting and relocating companies to Tennessee, and at Launch Tennessee as a capital investment intern, managing due diligence processes for prospective and portfolio companies…