Ethan Sugg Named 2026 Board of Trustees Scholar
Posted on September 15, 2026
Ethan Sugg had already decided the University of South Alabama was where he belonged. He just wasn’t expecting the phone call that came during an Honors College retreat.
University President Jo Bonner and Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Andi Kent were on the line. Sugg stepped away from a team-building exercise and learned that he had been selected as South’s 2026 Board of Trustees Scholar, the University’s highest academic honor.
“I was shocked at first,” Sugg said. “I didn’t think I would be getting this award, but it was a welcome surprise.”
This scholarship is awarded based on a combination of ACT or SAT scores, grade-point average and the rigor of a student’s high school coursework. Renewable for up to four years, the award supplements other institutional scholarships and can also support undergraduate research, study abroad and other educational opportunities.
There was an unusual precedent in the Sugg family. Ethan’s older brother, Noah, received the same honor in 2024.
The similarities between the brothers extend well beyond the scholarship. Both graduated from Fairhope High School, are accomplished musicians and Honors College students and plan to attend medical school. Both play multiple instruments. Noah’s primary instrument is double bass; Ethan’s is bassoon.
But Ethan Sugg arrived at South with interests and ambitions distinctly his own and with a habit of finding connections among subjects that might seem unrelated.
Sugg is particularly curious about new treatments for neurological conditions that have proved effective even though researchers are still working to understand exactly how they interact with the brain. It’s one of the connections Sugg is interested in understanding.
Music, he said, stimulates many regions of the brain and muscle reactions. “That’s all electricity and chemistry.”
In high school, he earned a 4.55 weighted grade-point average while completing demanding International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement coursework and participating in an unusually broad collection of activities. At South, he plans to study biochemistry and music, with medical school eventually leading, perhaps, to neurology or cardiology.
South was already familiar territory. Sugg’s mother, Dr. Rebecca Sugg, is a professor of neurology at the University, and through his own physician shadowing and other experiences around USA Health, he met physicians, residents and other healthcare professionals; he also was already familiar with people in South’s Department of Music.
“I have connections to the departments I’m interested in,” he said. “It just felt like the right fit.”
Sugg’s path to the bassoon began with a listening assignment.
During seventh grade at Fairhope Middle School, as students were returning from the COVID-19 shutdown, his music teacher gave the class several pieces to listen to and asked students to write about what they heard. Sugg chose Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”
One instrument caught his attention.
“The bassoon just stood out to me,” he said. “It was like nothing I had ever heard.”
By eighth grade, he was learning to play, largely on his own, during breaks in a storage closet at Fairhope Middle School.
Then he broke his arm.
Unable to play or rehearse, Sugg stayed involved by filing music and helping other music students read their parts. Once he could play again, he returned to the storage closet and worked to catch up.
That unconventional beginning eventually led to years of orchestral performance, including two youth orchestras and three years in a statewide honor orchestra. At Fairhope High School, he served as principal bassoon and drum major. At South, he switches to saxophone to play with the Jaguar Marching Band.
Sugg’s interests extend well beyond the laboratory and rehearsal room. At Fairhope, he participated in Model United Nations, tutored chemistry and was involved in organizations and activities ranging from honor societies to Dungeons & Dragons.
Keeping everything straight requires a system. Sugg carries a pad of sticky notes and a collection of colored pens to map out each day, including what he needs to accomplish, where he needs to be and what he needs to bring with him.
Asked how he balances so many interests, he laughed.
“Very delicately,” he said.
