wfn.org | Five seminary students receive Dempster Graduate Fellowships

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 11, 2002	News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71B{096}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Five doctoral candidates preparing for careers in
theological education have received Dempster Graduate Fellowships from the
United Methodist Church for the 2002-2003 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 represent the United Methodist Church's 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 48-year-old fellowships are named for John Dempster, a 19th-century
Methodist preacher who helped found 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 2002-2003 recipients are:
7	Edgardo Colsn-Emeric, an ordained elder in the North Carolina Annual
Conference. He is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., the
University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt., and Duke University Divinity
School in Durham, N.C. He will be enrolled in a doctoral program this fall.
7	Amy Christine Cottrill, an ordained elder in the West Virginia
Annual Conference. She is a graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Ind.,
and Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She is enrolled at Emory
University in Atlanta.
7	Rebecca Duke-Barton, a probationary member of the South Georgia
Conference. She is a graduate of Emory College, Atlanta, and Wesley
Theological Seminary, Washington. She is enrolled at Emory University in
Atlanta. 
7	Natalya Alexeevna Shulgina, a probationary member of the Russia
Annual Conference. She is a graduate of Medical College, Kursk State Medical
University and the Theological Seminary of the United Methodist Church in
Russia. She will enroll in a doctoral program this fall.
7	Darryl William Stephens, a candidate for ordination in the Texas
Annual Conference. He is a graduate of Rice University in Houston and
Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. He is enrolled at Emory University in
Atlanta.

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