Six theology students receive Dempster fellowships March 31, 2004
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (UMNS) - Six students preparing for careers in theological
education have received Dempster Graduate Fellowships from the United
Methodist Church for the 2004-05 academic year. The
awards, $10,000 for single students and $11,000 for married students,
are the largest offered by a Protestant denomination, according to the
United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville.
The scholarships are given through the board's Division of Ordained
Ministry. The
annual fellowships have helped graduate students move toward careers in
theological education for the past five decades and represent the
United Methodist Church's commitment to theological education both in
the United States and around the world, according to the Rev. Robert
Kohler, a staff executive in the division. The
50-year-old fellowships are named for John Dempster, a 19th-century
Methodist preacher who helped establish three denominationally related
seminaries. Selection
for the Dempster award is based on intellectual competence, academic
achievement, promise of usefulness in teaching careers, personal
qualities, and clarity of spiritual purpose and commitment. The 2004-05 recipients are: - The
Rev. Sharon Lynn Betsworth, an ordained elder in the Iowa Annual
Conference and a graduate of Luther College, Wesley Theological Seminary
and Princeton Theological Seminary. She is a third-year doctoral
candidate specializing in the New Testament at Graduate Theological
Union in Berkeley, Calif.
- James
Davidson "Jason" Byassee, a probationary member of the Western North
Carolina Annual Conference and a graduate of Davidson College and Duke
Divinity School. He is in the fifth year of a doctoral program at Duke
University in Durham, N.C., specializing in systematic theology.
- Beth
Felker Jones, a certified candidate in the South Indiana Annual
Conference and a graduate of DePauw University and Duke Divinity School.
She is in her fourth year of a doctoral program at Duke University,
specializing in systematic theology.
- Jane
Ellen Nickell, an elder in the West Virginia Annual Conference and a
graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College and Vanderbilt Divinity
School. She is enrolled in her first year of a doctoral program at Drew
University in Madison, N.J., and will specialize in the sociology of
religion with specific interests in religious pluralism in higher
education.
- WooYoung
Park, a candidate in the New York Annual Conference, is a graduate of
Yonsei University and Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul, Korea,
and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He is a fourth-year
doctoral student specializing in social ethics at Union Theological
Seminary in New York City.
- Hwa
Young Chong Will, an ordained elder in the Northern Illinois Annual
Conference, is a graduate of Ewha Women's University and Hankuk
University of Foreign Studies in Seoul and Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. She is a fourth-year doctoral
student specializing in systematic theology at Garrett.
News media can contact Linda Green at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
|
Korean News
