Following this year’s changes in Church of Christ scholarship funding, the Associated Women for Pepperdine hosted their annual Fall Festival on Friday.
The event, which ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., took place in the Waves Cafe and Hahn Fireside Room.
Founded by Helen Young in 1958, AWP has grown from 750 members to more than 2,500.
The money raised at the Fall Festival will support the pool of funds used to award renewable scholarships to 15 Church of Christ students who are now evaluated more closely for active involvement in their home churches through letters of recommendation, quality of Pepperdine application essays and other criteria. This year’s scholarships were awarded in $5,000 sums, though this could change in future years with increased donations.
“Although this will eventually result in fewer scholarship awards,” the AWP website explains, “it will provide more substantial scholarships to attract, retain and support the most committed and active Church of Christ students from around the country. Current student scholarship awards will remain unchanged.”
According to Tami Williamson, executive coordinator of AWP, scholarships of $200 to $300 used to be awarded to hundreds of Church of Christ students, but it became virtually impossible to evaluate the eligibility of so many students. To encourage spiritual growth and more personal, beneficial relationships with the students, fewer are now chosen.
Scholarship recipients must now sign a basic behavioral contract that ensures they will maintain the minimum GPA required, participate in Campus Minsistry and remain in good standing with University disciplinary committees, among other standards. The increased sum awarded to these 15 students is only part of the positive growth the scholarship is designed to foster in their lives.
“We can get to know them on a more real basis instead of a name in a book,” Williamson said. “We really do want to encourage them in becoming the men and women of God that we see them to be through the application process.”
