wfn.org | Six theology students receive Dempster fellowships

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

March 31, 2004	 News media contact: Linda Green 7 (615)742-5470 7 Nashville,
Tenn. 7 E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL-KOR{143}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Six students preparing for careers in theological
education have received Dempster Graduate Fellowships from the United
Methodist Church for the 2004-05 academic year.

The awards, $10,000 for single students and $11,000 for married students, are
the largest offered by a Protestant denomination, according to the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville. The
scholarships are given through the board's Division of Ordained Ministry.

The annual fellowships have helped graduate students move toward careers in
theological education for the past five decades and represent the United
Methodist Church's commitment to theological education both in the United
States and around the world, according to the Rev. Robert Kohler, a staff
executive in the division.

The 50-year-old fellowships are named for John Dempster, a 19th-century
Methodist preacher who helped establish three denominationally related
seminaries.

Selection for the Dempster award is based on intellectual competence,
academic achievement, promise of usefulness in teaching careers, personal
qualities, and clarity of spiritual purpose and commitment.

The 2004-05 recipients are:
7	The Rev. Sharon Lynn Betsworth, an ordained elder in the Iowa Annual
Conference and a graduate of Luther College, Wesley Theological Seminary and
Princeton Theological Seminary. She is a third-year doctoral candidate
specializing in the New Testament at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
Calif.
7	James Davidson "Jason" Byassee, a probationary member of the Western
North Carolina Annual Conference and a graduate of Davidson College and Duke
Divinity School. He is in the fifth year of a doctoral program at Duke
University in Durham, N.C., specializing in systematic theology.
7	Beth Felker Jones, a certified candidate in the South Indiana Annual
Conference and a graduate of DePauw University and Duke Divinity School. She
is in her fourth year of a doctoral program at Duke University, specializing
in systematic theology.
7	Jane Ellen Nickell, an elder in the West Virginia Annual Conference
and a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College and Vanderbilt Divinity
School. She is enrolled in her first year of a doctoral program at Drew
University in Madison, N.J., and will specialize in the sociology of religion
with specific interests in religious pluralism in higher education.
7	WooYoung Park, a candidate in the New York Annual Conference, is a
graduate of Yonsei University and Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul,
Korea, and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He is a
fourth-year doctoral student specializing in social ethics at Union
Theological Seminary in New York City.
7	Hwa Young Chong Will, an ordained elder in the Northern Illinois
Annual Conference, is a graduate of Ewha Women's University and Hankuk
University of Foreign Studies in Seoul and Garrett-Evangelical Theological
Seminary in Evanston, Ill. She is a fourth-year doctoral student specializing
in systematic theology at Garrett.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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