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[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

>Communications agency awards scholarships

>May. 16, 2008

NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)--The role of a Christian journalist is to share
the good news and to reach out to people and meet their spiritual needs,
says the winner of the annual graduate fellowship from United Methodist
Communications.

Milse Furtado, 23, is recipient of the $6,000 Stoody-West Fellowship for
Graduate Study in Religious Journalism for the 2008-2009 academic year.
A native of Brazil, she is a 2007 mass communications graduate of United
Methodist-related Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss.

A scholarship committee of the Commission on Communications selected
Furtado in April to continue graduate study in religious communications
at an accredited U.S. college or university. She was selected for her
"excellent skills, academics, experience and continued commitment to
religious communications." The commission is the governing body of
United Methodist Communications.

The committee also selected Aloise H. McCullough, a rising junior at
United Methodist-related Oklahoma City University, as the recipient of
the $2,500 Leonard M. Perryman Communications Scholarship for Ethnic
Minority Students, given annually to a United Methodist undergraduate
student pursuing a career in religion journalism.

>Graduate study recipient

Furtado, who is the daughter of a United Methodist pastor, is no
stranger to church communications. In 2007, she became the 10th
recipient of the Judith L. Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship and
has spent the year working in the denomination's North Texas Annual
(regional) Conference.

She believes church communicators have "taken a pacifist role in the
life of the church" and become "caught up in writing about church events
and end up forgetting about the needs of the unchurched." Christian
journalists, she said, should be bold and proactive in addressing
teenage drug abuse and suicide, as well as the hurts and needs of people
living on the edge.

The needs of the unchurched have prompted Furtado to want to round out
her journalism career with graduate study in psychology, in order to
understand human beings and their behavior.

"This is the dream that God has put in my heart for my contribution to
the future of the church communication--to step up and meet the needs of
His children, whether it is telling the history of the church or helping
people struggling with depression, drugs, suicidal thoughts and many
issues afflicting humanity today."

The fellowship is named for the late Rev. Arthur West of Lebanon, Ohio,
and the late Rev. Ralph Stoody--both staff executives of United
Methodist Communications or a predecessor agency.

>Ethnic minority recipient

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including being
personally impacted, inspired McCullough to become a journalist as she
observed journalists in the Gulf Coast being "the eyes and ears for
communities worldwide." She and her family evacuated New Orleans for
Oklahoma the day before Hurricane Katrina hit.

McCullough, also the daughter of a United Methodist pastor, wants to
report on events through the lens of spirituality, faith and hope. A
2006 internship through the United Methodist Board of Church and Society
"stretched my desire to help create hopeful possibility in the world,"
she said.

She wants to be "an African-American religious communicator because I
believe journalism is a tool that can help connect people around the
world, as it did through the Hurricane Katrina stories, and because I
want faith to be in the news equation."

The scholarship is named for Leonard M. Perryman, a journalist in The
United Methodist Church for more than 30 years before his death in 1983.

Both scholarships provide financial resources to help young people
pursue careers in religious journalism and to ensure professionalism in
communications, said the Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive of United
Methodist Communications.

"The importance of training journalists who can cover religion
knowledgably and with keen insight has never been more important,"
Hollon said.

For more information on the annual awards, visit www.umcom.org, e-mail
scholarships@umcom.org or call (888) 278-4862.

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in
Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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