5/19/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn
NOTE: A photograph is available.
Royya
L. James, a recent graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, has
been selected as the 2003-04 recipient of the Judith L. Weidman Racial
Ethnic Minority Fellowship by United Methodist Communications. James is
the sixth recipient of the fellowship, which provides a year of working
with an experienced director of communications in an annual conference
of the United Methodist Church. She will work in the Wyoming Annual
Conference from July 1 through June 30. Don Perry, the director of
communications, will be James mentor. The office is in Endicott, N.Y. A
UMNS photo by Don Perry. Photo number 03-185, Accompanies UMNS #287,
5/19/03
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodist
Communications has selected Royya L. James, a recent graduate of Middle
Tennessee State University, as the 2003-2004 recipient of the Judith L.
Weidman Racial Ethnic Minority Fellowship.
James is the sixth
recipient of the fellowship, which provides a year of working with an
experienced director of communications in one of the United Methodist
Church's annual (regional) conferences.
She will work in the
Wyoming Annual Conference from July 1 through June 30. Don Perry, the
director of communications, will be her mentor. The conference, which
covers parts of New York and Pennsylvania, has offices in Endicott, N.Y.
UMCom
developed the fellowship in 1998 to encourage people of ethnic minority
background to consider religion communications as a career. Among the
64 annual conferences in the United States, there are 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.
"I am very excited about beginning the REM Fellowship and all the new opportunities that will follow," James said.
An
Antioch, Tenn., resident and former UMCom summer intern, James
graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro in
2002, having earned a bachelor's degree in communications with a public
relations concentration. She is a lifelong member of Mount Pisgah United
Methodist Church and has served as college representative, usher and
member of the youth group and Black Methodists for Church Renewal. She
is currently a substitute teacher in the Nashville public school system.
While working as a UMCom intern, James said, she recognized
that the REM Fellowship would allow her another opportunity to learn
about the roles of conference communications in the mission of the
church as well as prepare her to be an effective conference
communicator.
She became passionate about religion
communications, she said. "Secular reporters work passionately to tell
their stories. I feel we need the same type of passion for telling the
story of Jesus! It is possible that someone could be saved if the word
of God dominated the media for a full week."
An eight-person selection committee chose three finalists, who were interviewed May 6 in Nashville.
David
Malloy, the 2002-03 recipient, will complete his fellowship year July
31. Tom Slack, director of communications for the West Ohio Annual
Conference, was his primary mentor.
Larry Hygh Jr. was the first
recipient and spent a year working in the New England Conference. He is
now director of communications in the California-Pacific Annual
Conference. Eunice Dharmaratnam, the second recipient, enrolled in
graduate school after her fellowship year in the Indiana Area
communications office. Nicole Benson, the third recipient, became
communications coordinator and editor in the Texas Conference, after
spending her fellowship year in the Southwest Texas Conference. Ciona
Rouse, the fourth recipient, is communications coordinator for the
denomination's Shared Mission Focus on Young People, and served her
fellowship year in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference.
Information
about the REM Fellowship and other scholarship opportunities is
available at www.crt.umc.org or by calling Amelia Tucker-Shaw at (888)
278-4862.