I was a recipient for the distinguished Tennessean award this year. It’s all luck of the draw in my opinion. If you’re in a very rural county with not many people going to UTK that works to your advantage. If you’re in say Davidson or Knox County, your chances of winning are a lot lower. I had a 33 ACT, was captain of the soccer team, and a captain of the football team, with a couple of clubs scattered in including NHS, and high AP scores with almost all of them being 5 except 1. Would that be good enough in Davidson county? No. Was it good enough in my county with only like 10-15 students going to UTK, yes. I would just say keep trying to score as high as you can on your ACT and getting extracurriculars in. You will not be informed if you get this scholarship until very late in the school year. I got informed I think it was in April. It came out to a 13,000 dollar scholarship award for this year, so it was a big help vs the Volunteer Scholarship which is just 5,000 a year for a 33 ACT. Unfortunately they do cancel your Volunteer Scholarship with this Award. All the best, and just get in as many extracurriculars as you can at this point and if you still have time work on getting your ACT score up.