Topping and eleven others receive scholarship
(GBHEM)— The eleven scholars awarded the 2010-11 Georgia Harkness Scholarships will visit the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference in December as part of a continuing program of global women’s leadership development.
Last year, the eleven 2009-2010 scholars visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, to immerse themselves in the experience of women there and to share their own determination to respond to God’s call to ordained ministry. Letters went out to the scholarship recipients this month.
“The number of applicants was considerably lower this year,” said the Rev. HiRho Park, the director of Continuing Formation for Ministry at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Park said she received 75 applications in 2009, compared to 50 this year. Park said that may be due to the poor economy, which means many women in a formerly two-income household are now the sole breadwinner and do not believe they can afford to go to seminary.
Also, Park said the grade point average required to apply for the scholarship was raised to 3.0 from 2.75 in 2009. Another noticeable change this year was a higher number of racial-ethnic women applicants than in the past, Park added. About 25 percent of all applicants were racial-ethnic students.
Harkness, the first woman theologian to teach in a Protestant seminary in the United States, dedicated her life to dismantling discrimination because of race and sex in The United Methodist Church and the world.
Harkness, who taught at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., died in 1974. She was instrumental in the 1956 decision giving women full clergy rights in The Methodist Church.
The scholarships go to women over 35 who are preparing for ordination as elders in The United Methodist Church as a second career. The recipients are chosen by a committee of United Methodist elders and GBHEM staff.
The scholarship recipients for 2010-2011 and their annual conferences are:
* LaRonda Barnes, North Georgia Annual Conference, Clarkston United Methodist Church, Clarkston, Georgia
* Tracey Beadle, Southwest Texas Annual Conference, University United Methodist Church, Austin, Texas
* Valerie Black, Kansas West Annual Conference, Wichita Dellrose United Methodist Church, Wichita, Kansas
* Bessie Hamilton, Kentucky Annual Conference, St. Paul United Methodist Church, Frankfort, Kentucky
* Linny Hartzell, Northern Illinois Annual Conference, Trinity United Methodist Church, Yorkville, Illinois
* Wendy Inman, Southwest Texas Annual Conference, Greune United Methodist Church, New Braunfels, Texas
* Mimi Mills, New England Annual Conference, Crossroads United Methodist Church, Sanford, Maine
* Heather Scherer, Oklahoma Annual Conference, Faith United Methodist Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma
* Charla Sherbakoff, Holston Annual Conference, Bearden United Methodist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee
* Jody Topping, Desert Southwest Annual Conference, Los Arcos United Methodist Church, Scottsdale, Arizona
* Norma Villagrana, Missouri Annual Conference, Hyde Valley United Methodist Church and South Park United Methodist Church, Saint Joseph, Missouri