wfn.org | Six seminary students receive Dempster Graduate Fellowships

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Feb. 26, 2001 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Six doctoral candidates preparing for careers in
theological education have received Dempster Graduate Fellowships from the
United Methodist Church for the 2001-2002 academic year.

The awards, at $10,000 for a single recipient and $11,000 for a married
recipient, are the largest offered by a Protestant denomination, according
to the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville.

The fellowships help graduate students move toward careers in theological
education and represent the United Methodist Church's strong commitment to
excellence in theological education, both in the United States and around
the world, said the Rev. Robert F. Kohler, a staff executive in the board's
Division of Ordained Ministry.

The 47-year-old fellowships are named for John Dempster, a 19th-century
Methodist preacher who helped establish three denominationally related
seminaries.

Recipients are chosen based on intellectual competence, academic
achievement, promise of usefulness in teaching careers, personal qualities,
and clarity of spiritual purpose and commitment.

The 2001-2002 recipients are:
·	Emily Lillian Burch, a candidate for ordination from the Memphis
Annual Conference. She is a graduate of Auburn University and is enrolled at
Perkins School of Theology.
·	James Davidson Byassee, a candidate for ordination from the Western
North Carolina Conference. He is a graduate of Davidson (N.C.) College and
Duke Divinity School, Durham, N.C. He is enrolled in the Duke University
graduate program in religion;
·	Amy Christine Cottrill, an ordained elder in the West Virginia
Conference. She is a graduate of Earlham College, Richmond, Ind., and
Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She is enrolled at Emory University,
Atlanta.
·	Janet S. Everhart, an ordained elder in the California-Nevada
Conference. She is a graduate of the University of California-Davis, Drew
University Theological School, Madison, N.J., Graduate Theological Union,
Berkeley, Calif., and Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind.
She is enrolled at Iliff School of Theology, Denver.
·	Sergei V. Nikolaev, a native of Russia, who will be ordained at the
Russia Conference, May 16-20. He is a graduate of Moscow Engineering Physics
Institute and the Russia United Methodist Theological Seminary. He is
enrolled in the graduate program in religious studies at Southern Methodist
University, Dallas, and plans to teach at the United Methodist seminary in
Moscow.
·	Woo Young Park, a native of the Republic of Korea and a member of
First United Methodist Church in Flushing, N.Y. He is a graduate of Yonsie
University in Seoul, Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul and Candler
School of Theology at Emory University, Atlanta. He is enrolled at Union
Theological Seminary, New York, and plans to teach at the seminary in Seoul.

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United Methodist News Service
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