The Rev. Maggie Alsup, chaplain and director of service at Lyon College, had been brainstorming with the director of the college’s counseling and student life center on “ways to help students integrate practices to help them rest and address stress and anxiety” when she saw a call for applications from the PC(USA)’s Teaching the Bible Grant. Lyon College, a Presbyterian-related college and member of the Association for Presbyterian Colleges and Universities, is in Batesville, Arkansas, two hours west of Memphis, Tennessee, and 90 minutes north of Little Rock, Arkansas.
Now is the time eager applicants await their college acceptance letters. Individuals and families start to consider not just what institutions to attend but also how they will realistically pay for them. Churches around the country add these young adults and their families to their prayer lists and prepare to celebrate the members graduating in May or June. But for many seeking a degree, the PC(USA) can do more than just pray for their acceptance and ongoing education.
Laura Bryan, coordinator of the Office of Financial Aid for Service, hopes anyone working full-time (more than 30 hours) for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with education debt will come to the webinars her team is hosting this fall and start the process to have their debt forgiven. “There is help for nonprofit employees through income-driven repayment plans, consolidation and Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” Bryan said.
Victoria Robinson has been shaped by her own experiences and by a willingness to attune to the perspectives of others. Discerning a call to ministry with the support of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been a part of Robinson’s experience.
Emily Dawn Sutphin studied religion from a sociological perspective in college. After graduation, she chose to apply to seminary to have “the opportunity to examine my faith from a variety of angles.”
“Need-based aid is one of the many ways that the Presbyterian Mission Agency responds to its Matthew 25 priorities to end structural racism and poverty.” This statement appears at the end of the full-page announcement in Presbyterians Today about scholarships for full-time undergraduate and seminary students belonging to Presbyterian churches.
When Melonee Tubb graduated from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky with a Master of Divinity degree, she was saddled with $85,000 in student loans.
The message from Monday’s Student Loan Debt Webinar describing recent changes in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF) is overwhelmingly in favor of the borrower — and potentially beneficial to ministers and other church leaders.
