NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The Baptist Communicators Association will award three scholarships to students training for careers in religious communication next spring, according to BCA Administrative Coordinator Keith Beene.
Applications must be received by Jan. 12, 2001.
Each year the organization awards a scholarship for $1,000 to an undergraduate student and one $500 scholarship to a graduate student in the name of longtime members Al Shackleford and Dan Martin. The $1,000 Alan Compton/Bob Stanley Minority and International Scholarship is given to a student of minority ethnic or international origin.
Applicants must have at least a 2.5 GPA and have vocational aspirations in religious communications. Funds may be used for tuition, books, housing or food and are forwarded to the institution in which the student is enrolled.
BCA is currently supporting four students through scholarships. Awarded scholarships during last year’s BCA workshop held in Chicago, Ill., were: Jamie Benning, a communications arts student at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky; Jonathan Cross, a journalism student at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla.; and Mercy Kikuyu and Coy McIntosh, both graduate students at Southwestern Baptist Theological.
Benning and Cross split the $1,000 undergraduate scholarship after the scholarship committee was unable to come to a unanimous decision on a winner. Benning, whose husband also attends Cumberland University, said she would like to one day work in gospel radio or in religious print media. Cross, who won the same scholarship last year as a high school senior, is a journalism and business management double major and said he hopes work for a Baptist newsmagazine upon graduation.
McIntosh, a graduate of the University of Alabama, would like to work as a communications minister for a Southern Baptist church after he graduates from seminary. He began studying in Southwestern’s newly designed Computer Mediated Communication program this fall. He said in his application that he foresees the day when media ministries and those who understand computers and the Internet will be at the forefront of a church’s ministry.
Kikuyu won the $1,000 scholarship named in honor members Bob Stanley and Al Compton — two BCA members who used to work for the SBC Foreign Mission Board.
The Compton-Stanley scholarship seeks to help minority and international students with their educational expenses. A Kenyan native, she said she “would like to communicate the Gospel to my people in Kenya through print and television.” Kikuyu is also studying website design and hopes to return to Kenya after graduation to open a Christian school.
Each of the winners expressed a deep appreciation to the organization for sponsoring such a program. The scholarship committee, which received over 40 applications, was comprised of Larry Brumley, Baylor University; Matt Sanders, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Charlie Warren, Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine.
BCA was organized in 1953 as a professional development group for Baptist communication professionals. Its scholarship program was later introduced in 1988. Currently, the association boasts a membership of over 275 Baptist communicators in such varied careers as video producers, graphic designers, professors, public relation professionals, writers/editors and photographers.
For an application, please contact Beene at (615) 904-0152 or by email at [email protected].
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