wfn.org | Campus ministers receive graduate scholarships

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 19, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.  
  10-71B{288}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Eight individuals and a clergy couple working in
campus ministry have been named 2003-04 recipients of an annual scholarship
offered by the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

The agency is providing $25,000 in assistance through the Baker Graduate
Awards, given through the board's Office of Loans and Scholarships.

Baker Award recipients receiving money for advanced study are:
7	William Campbell, a doctoral candidate at Wesley Theological
Seminary, Washington.
7	Beth Cooper, a doctoral candidate at Wesley Theological Seminary,
Washington.
7	Jennifer Copeland, a doctoral candidate at Duke University, Durham,
N.C.
7	Donald and Marjean Ehlers, doctoral students at the University of
Missouri-Columbia.
7	William Finnin Jr., a student at the University of Florida,
Gainesville 
7	Janice Rivero, a doctoral candidate at Wesley Theological Seminary,
Washington
7	Tom Teekel, a doctoral student at Asbury Theological Seminary,
Wilmore, Ky.
7	Tom Wall, a doctoral candidate at Lutheran Theological Southern
Seminary, Columbia, S.C. 
7	Laura Lee Wilson, a doctoral student at Wesley Theological Seminary,
Washington.

The awards, named for the late James C. Baker, are given to campus ministers
or those serving in a chaplaincy and continuing their education through a
full-time degree program, a certified non-degree program or independent
studies program. Baker began the program in 1913 for college students
attending the University of Illinois. He named it the "Wesley Foundation,"
and it became the model for denominational ministry at public universities
across the country.

A limited number of students received the award for the 2003-04 academic
year. "We celebrate being able to financially support some of our dedicated
campus ministers and chaplains in their pursuit of advanced study," said
Angella Current-Felder, executive director of the Office of Loans and
Scholarships.

Campbell is director of the Wesley Foundation at Middle Tennessee State
University, Murfreesboro.

Cooper is director of the Wesley Foundation and campus minister at San Diego
(Calif.) State University.

Copeland is the United Methodist campus minister at Duke University.

The Ehlers are co-directors of campus ministry for the state of Missouri and
work directly with students at Northwest Missouri State University. They are
two-time Baker Award recipients.

Finnin, chaplain and pastor on the campus of Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, is on leave pursuing study at the University of Florida, where he
will continue work in the area of interfaith explorations bridging Christian
and Hindu traditions.

Rivero is campus minister and director of the Wesley Foundation at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Teekel serves as director of the Wesley Foundation at Stephen F. Austin State
University, Nacogdoches, Texas.

Wall, a second time Baker recipient, is campus minister at the University of
South Carolina, Columbia.

Wilson serves as campus pastor and executive director of the Wesley
Foundation Campus Ministry at the University of Delaware, Newark.

Information about scholarships and loans in the United Methodist Church can
be found online at www.gbhem.org/gbhem/loans2.html or by contacting the
Office of Loans and Scholarships, P.O. Box 340007, Nashville, TN 37202-0007;
phone: (615) 340-7342.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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