April 21, 2004 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

Ilceia de Oliveira Avelar, a senior at United Methodist-related Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss., was named the winner of the Leonard M. Perryman Communications Scholarship for Ethnic Minority Students. The scholarship provides $2,500 to an ethnic minority junior or senior pursuing a career in journalism. The late Leonard Perryman was a journalist for the United Methodist Church for more than 30 years.

Kristin Knudson Harris, a graduate student at Iowa State University, will receive a $6,000 Stoody-West Fellowship. The Stoody-West Fellowship was named for the Rev. Arthur West of Lebanon, Ohio, and the late Rev. Ralph Stoody, who were staff executives of UMCom or a predecessor agency. The Commission on Communication’s scholarship committee chose the winners from five Stoody-West applicants and three Perryman applicants during its April 20 meeting. The commission oversees UMCom. All of the scholarships are for the 2004-05 year and are awarded on a one-time basis.

The recipients will be able to further their education in journalism and direct their skills toward religious communications, according to Olivia Schwartz, Upper Marlboro, Md., chairwoman of the UMCom scholarship committee. “These scholarships will enable these two United Methodist students to tell the church’s story in a variety of ways.”

Avelar, a native Brazilian and member of the Central Methodist Church in Nilopis, Brazil, is a print journalism major at Rust College, and is active in church-related activities at the school and in the community. As a communicator, she hopes to use her skills to promote and enhance church services, particularly in the area of public relations.

She wants to help the church promote activities that benefit communities in various countries, including Brazil, she said in her scholarship application.

“The plight of the street children in Brazil needs to be improved, and the Methodist Church in the country is playing an active role to address the situation,” she said. “I would like to be the spokesperson for the church in programming the (church’s) mission ... in the communities regarding the problems of the poor.”

She said she was led to Iowa State because the disciplines at other schools are combined “with a view toward ordained ministry.” Although she works for the United Methodist Church and has an undergraduate degree in religious studies and communication, “I do not feel called to professional ordained ministry,” she wrote in her fellowship application.

“I believe my area of expertise is that I am able to interpret the specialized language of ‘the Church’ in ways that people without formal religious background can understand,” she said. “As a result, individuals who are interested in developing a more complete understanding of faith and its integration into life are being excluded from the cultural conversation.”

She wants to help people have a basic understanding of society’s many religious traditions, she said.

The Stoody-West Fellowship and Leonard M. Perryman Scholarship are “outstanding opportunities” for students with a desire to pursue religion communications as a career, said Amelia Tucker-Shaw, resource consultant at United Methodist Communications. “These opportunities provide United Methodist Communications an avenue to help cultivate and support the education of future religion communicators to enhance the diversity of voices telling the stories of the church.”

More information on UMCom scholarships is available by contacting Tucker-Shaw, at (888) 278-4862, or by visiting UMCom’s Web site at www.umcom.org.

News media can contact Linda Green (615)742-5470 Nashville, Tenn. or E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities

Board of Higher Education and Ministry: Division of Education

United Methodist Higher Education Foundation

Partners in Education