Seventeen Eastern PA Conference students are among over 2,000 United Methodists who received a total of $4 million in financial assistance in 2022 from the denomination’s Office of Loans and Scholarships. The total awarded to EPA recipients was $20,800.

“These future leaders range from first-year to doctorate-level students,” said Allyson Potts, executive director of the office, which is administered by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM).

“The GBHEM scholarship makes it possible for me to earn my degree with less debt and therefore allows me to focus on preparing for ministry as a pastor,” said Elizabeth “Libby” Hickok, a member of Fredericksburg UMC. She is a certified candidate for ordained ministry in her first year of a Master of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. While there, she also serves in a local church’s children’s and youth ministry.

Grateful for ‘generous scholarship’

Elizabeth “Lisi” Santos Fisher is grateful for “the generous scholarship award I received” to support her studies in Fuller Seminary’s Doctoral Program in Marriage and Family Therapy.  “My thesis is focused on the interception of faith and psychology.”

Fisher is developing a resource to help victims of moral injury find spiritual aspects of healing beyond the usual psychological trauma therapy. “I propose to build a resource to help people reach the dimensions of the spiritual domain,” she said, using “the forgiveness model and other spiritual disciplines to aid the healing process.”

Potts thanks EPA churches for their Special Sunday offerings that help hard-working students pursue dreams of service through ministry and other fields. Those offerings are received in churches on United Methodist Student Day, World Communion Sunday, and Native American Sunday. Other sources of scholarships come from gifts, annuities, and endowments GBHEM has invested and administered for decades.

United Methodist students may apply for a Fall 2023 GBHEM scholarship online until March 30, 2023, at www.gbhem.org/scholarshipapplication. View the video “GBHEM Scholarships Make an Impact in the Lives of Students.”