Stephens, Wallace bring CCHE report
By Melissa Lilley
GREENSBORO (BSCNC Communications) - Navigating the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) Web site and getting involved in Convention ministries will soon be a whole lot easier. Joel Stephens, president of the Council on Christian Higher Education, unveiled www.myncbaptist.org during the Council’s report Nov. 11 during the BSCNC annual session. The new site, which will go live next month, is a portal for North Carolina Baptists to use when registering or applying for many different Convention events. As part of the report, Stephens explained that this will also be the Web site students will use to apply online for the NC Baptist Scholarship. Students may begin applying Jan. 1, 2010, and applications are due April 1, 2010.
For the 2009-2010 academic year, 663 students received scholarships and nearly $1 million was awarded. To be eligible for the scholarship, full-time, undergraduate students must attend one of the five BSCNC affiliated educational institutions: Campbell University, Chowan University, Gardner-Webb University, Mars Hill College or Wingate University. Although the Council desires to expand the scholarship program to include other schools, Stephens said the current downturn in the economy and Cooperative Program giving prevents that expansion at this time.
The scholarship is renewable up to four years and students must re-apply each year. Students must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5 to remain eligible for the scholarship. This year, every student who applied, and who qualified, received a minimum $1,500 scholarship. Students must submit an application, a letter of recommendation from their pastor, be a member of a church in friendly cooperation with the BSCNC for at least one year, and answer two essay questions about how their life has been impacted because of their time on the campus of a North Carolina Baptist college or university.
Stephens read excerpts from student essays that related to how their faith was strengthened during college and how the NC Baptist Scholarship helped make it possible for them to attend the school of their choice.
Dr. Jerry Wallace, president of Campbell University, brought a greeting on behalf of the BSCNC affiliated institutions and their presidents. Wallace thanked North Carolina Baptists for supporting these schools and shared that the scholarship program “has come at a very fine time” for Campbell and is a “strategic part of our financial aid.”
Wallace also said he is “grateful for the affiliated relationship” with the BSCNC. “It is working in a beautiful way. We cherish and prize our relationship with the BSCNC. A relationship that goes back more than 150 years.” Wallace encouraged messengers to “learn more about the Baptist colleges and universities of this state” so they may more and more “appreciate who we are and what we are.”
