Agency awards three religion communication scholarships
May. 24, 2007
NOTE: Photographs and video are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Linda Green*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Lauren Elizabeth Kimbrough's desire to answer "God's call to service" and to serve the church through journalism earned the Texas graduate student a $6,000 annual fellowship from United Methodist Communications.
Kimbrough, 23, is the recipient of the Stoody-West Fellowship for Graduate Study in Religion Journalism. A Commission on Communication scholarship committee selected her April 9 to receive the 2007-08 grant to continue graduate study in religious communications at an accredited U.S. college or university.
The committee also chose Matthew David Miller, 21, a rising senior at Central College, Pella, Iowa, as the recipient of the $2,500 Leonard M. Perryman Communications Scholarship for Ethnic Minority Students, which is given to an undergraduate United Methodist student who wants to pursue a career in religion journalism. Perryman was a journalist in The United Methodist Church for more than 30 years before his death in 1983.
United Methodist Communications also announced that Milse Furtado, 22, was chosen as the 10th recipient of the Judith L. Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship on May 21. She was chosen by a committee from the denomination's North Texas Annual (regional) Conference, where she will do her fellowship.
The recipients were selected because of their skills, experience and commitment to religion communications, according to the commission. The commission is UMCom's governing body.
"These scholarships are very important because they encourage future journalists to become skilled at the craft of journalism while also encouraging them to consider religious journalism," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive at UMCom.
"The mainline denominations have not attended to the importance of communication through various media in past decades," Hollon said. "This has put these communions at a great disadvantage in the media environment in which we now live. We must be equipping journalists to tell the story of the church in media today. It is critically important that the church support education for religious journalists if it is to have the capacity to tell its own story and have its story told by others."
Weidman fellowship
United Methodist Communications annually awards the Judith L. Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship, developed in 1998 to encourage people of ethnic minority backgrounds to consider religion communications as a career. The 63 U.S. annual conferences have fewer than 10 conference communicators of ethnic minority heritage in leadership positions. The fellowship carries the name of the late Judith L. Weidman, who encouraged its development during her tenure as UMCom's top staff executive.
"The Racial Ethnic Minority scholarship is critical today if we are to tell the stories of the church in a way that captures the cultural and ethnic diversity of the church," Hollon said. "These scholarships provide one small way for the church to provide a means for all the people of The United Methodist Church to find their voice and tell their story."
Furtado is a 2007 mass communications graduate of Rust College, Holly Springs, Miss. She will work in the North Texas Conference July 1 through June 30, receiving a $30,000 stipend for the year.
A native of Brazil, she is the daughter of a United Methodist pastor. She began her journey in communications by compiling her church's weekly bulletin. Her interest in communications grew, but her local church and others in the country lacked a strong communications program.
In her application, she said she came to the United States because "I believe that God deserves more from us in the communications area." Communications "is one of the best fields to reach out and conquer getting more and more people to his kingdom while reassuring the faith of the believers," she said.
She affirmed communication as a "powerful tool for our church today" and said she wants to acquire the necessary knowledge to help the church in Brazil grow in communications ministries. "I also want to be a part of witnessing the revolution in our society's media as a response to the boldness of our religious influence in people's lives," she said.
Stoody-West fellowship
Kimbrough, a 2006 graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, is a teaching assistant at the school and the Web site administrator for the campus Wesley Foundation. For three years, she has been an active member and leader of the foundation and was baptized into church membership March 21. She has worked for the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel and the college's office of public affairs.
"I first felt called to religion journalism in my second year of undergraduate studies," she said. During her studies, she sensed "there was something missing" and felt the need to use her talents "more directly for the glory of God and the benefit of others," she said.
The convergence of media forms creates a challenge for the church in reaching people, Kimbrough said. A master's degree in communications, she said, would enhance her understanding of the media and its interaction with people, its trends and future developments, "further hone my abilities as a religious journalist in preparation for answering God's call to service" and assist her in influencing upcoming journalists.
The fellowship is named for the late Rev. Arthur West of Lebanon, Ohio, and the late Rev. Ralph Stoody, who were staff executives of United Methodist Communications or a predecessor agency.
Perryman scholarship
Miller, the Perryman scholar, is working on a communications degree from Central College and wants a career that will enable him to "continue to write and tell other people's life stories."
His interest in mass communications began in a publications class at high school in Hampton, Iowa. He subsequently became a reporter for the college newspaper and a sports editor of the Hampton Chronicle, the hometown newspaper.
"My interest in the mass communications realm continued to blossom as I found out that sports journalism was not the only avenue I could pursue," he said. He discovered that he enjoyed covering other news as well, and he said he finds interviewing and getting to know another's story "fascinating."
More information on the annual awards is available at http://umcom.org or by calling (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.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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