wfn.org | Agency seeks applicants for second minority fellowship

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

Oct. 7, 1998	Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
{577}

By United Methodist News Service

United Methodist Communications is soliciting colleges, universities and
seminaries for applicants for the agency's second Racial Ethnic Minority
(REM) Fellowship.

The full-time, salaried, one-year fellowship will be given to a recent
United Methodist college or seminary graduate for a 12-month period
beginning July 1. Deadline for applications is March 29.

The fellowship was implemented in 1998 to correct the
under-representation of ethnic minorities serving as communicators in
the church's 66 U.S. annual (regional) conferences. 

"REM is an opportunity for a person of racial ethnic background
interested in looking at religion communications as a career to receive
hands-on experience in this unique field of work," said Barbara Nissen,
resource consultant with the communications agency's Conference
Resourcing Team.  

Applicants should have an educational background in communications and
an interest in exploring annual conference communications as a possible
career goal, she said. 

The fellowship will provide a salary of $30,000 plus benefits, moving
expenses and travel.

The recipient will be placed in one of the church's annual conferences
to work alongside an experienced communicator in a variety of media,
Nissen said. A stipend is being provided for the annual conference
communicator serving as a mentor to the fellowship recipient. The mentor
will serve on the search committee and will help develop a learning
contract.

In choosing the conference where the recipient will work, United
Methodist Communications seeks a location offering the widest variety of
hands-on experience, Nissen said. 

Larry R. Hygh Jr., an African-American graduate student from Marshall,
Texas, is the first recipient of REM Fellowship. Working with the New
England Annual Conference since July, he has been receiving training in
a variety of religious media, from print to broadcast to computer
technology. He will work with the conference as the fellowship recipient
until June 30.

"Larry is an outstanding individual who is setting a standard of
excellence for future candidates," Nissen said.

The experience has been "uplifting and wonderful," Hygh said. He
described it as a chance "to give back to God the talents he has given
me." 

The fellowship has provided a "great opportunity for me to use and learn
communications gifts in a spiritual atmosphere, and gives me a way to
look at whether religious communications is the career path for me to
pursue," he said.

The Foundation for United Methodist Communications is providing
financial support for the new fellowship.

Application forms may be completed online at http://crt.umc.org/info/rem
or obtained by writing to REM Fellowship Committee, United Methodist
Communications, Conference Resourcing Team, P.O. Box 320, Nashville, TN
37202-0320. For more details, send an e-mail to crt@umcom.umc.org or
REM@umcom.umc.org, or call (888) 278-4862.

# # #
United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/