Developing Community Leaders

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The Advance Committee

Project Information

Developing Community Leaders

The Global Ministries scholarship program facilitates the educational preparation and training of mission partners from around the world, whose subsequent work will have the most direct and positive impact on the communities from which they come. The scholarship program emphasizes support for studies that respond to the four main programmatic emphases: elimination of poverty, global health, leadership development, and congregational development.

Our Goals

Seek—We work directly with our partners across the globe to identify constituents (especially lifting up women, young people, and the most marginalized) who have the potential to develop their skills according to the priorities mentioned above, and in direct accord with the priorities of their own contexts.

Select—We support participants whose future work will make the biggest possible difference in the spiritual and physical well-being and development of their communities. At the same time, we create and guard a space for young people who show that spark of great potential.

Mentor—We develop and maintain a connection with our students as we walk together in mission, even from our own distinct locations across the globe. We encourage the kind of communication between our staff, our directors, the conferences, and the students that will enhance the students’ growth and connection to mission.

Connect—We understand that the most important part of our work really begins when the students complete their studies, rather than the support we give during the years of their degree programs. We see the scholarship program as a long-term connection in mission.

Leadership Development Grants, Advance #982468

Learn more at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/work/education/scholarships/

Quick Facts

• A maximum of 250 students are covered in any given year, including those who are continuing their studies and those who are new.
  
  
• The scholarship program provides on average $1.25 million in scholarship support each year.
  
  
• Students must be clearly related to Global Ministries’ mission partnerships, which means they must be from church, ecumenical, or grassroots partner institutions.
  
  
• International students come from partners in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. National students are from communities of color within the United States.
  
  
• Although the scholarship program receives far fewer female applicants than male applicants, the scholarship recipients each year are about half-and-half along the gender line. We highly encourage women from around the world to apply, in order that they might break the cycle of female oppression through the pursuit of education and their subsequent work.
  
  
• About half of the students whom we fund are in graduate-level studies and half are in undergraduate-level programs.