An unexpected benefactor

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 16th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: paying for college. It can be expensive. According to the Federal Reserve, more than half the nation’s college students graduate with debt.

EICHER: For those committed to a Christian college education, the cost can be out of reach.

But not for students at one school in Mississippi. A board member established a scholarship that removes tuition worries for every student. Here’s WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: Two years ago, high school student Erin Slade fell in love with Mississippi College during a campus visit. It’s a Baptist college in Clinton, Mississippi. But Slade thought Christian higher ed was out of reach.

SLADE: My parents were very hesitant. They were like, “We don't know how you're going to afford this. We cannot afford to send you there.”

Slade visited other colleges. Secular colleges that were much less expensive. She tried to put MC out of her mind.

SLADE: But there was something there that kept drawing me back. I think it was the community.

By that time, Slade had introduced her friend, Ayla Jackson, to MC. She, too, felt the appeal of Christian higher ed.

AYLA: So I went, and I fell in love with it. I mean, I stepped on campus, and I was like, “I have a peace. This is where God called me to be.”

Jackson’s parents also liked MC, but the cost was prohibitive. Still, mom Andrea really wanted to make it work.

ANDREA: I was like, I'm not going to undo everything I have worked for my whole life for my kids, and send them to school for four years—and pay for it—for them to undo what I've done. I'm just not interested in that. So Christian education is huge, huge priority for us, but the expense was an issue.

Then came the Speed Scholarship.

AUDIO: [NEWS CLIP]

This month, 650 new students will arrive on campus at Mississippi College. None of them will pay a penny for their tuition, which is about $20,000 a year. The students are all recipients of the school’s new Leland Speed Scholarship. To be eligible, they only had to do three things: be Mississippi residents, agree to live on campus, and meet the school’s basic admission requirements.

Free tuition on that large of a scale is unheard of. Anita Walters is the guidance counselor at the high school Erin and Ayla attended. When news about the scholarship broke in October, Walters didn’t believe it.

WALTERS: Somebody sent me the link. And the funny thing is, I didn't click on “accept.” That's crazy. This is not even possible. And then somebody else sent me the link. And I was like, “Okay, let me go read about it.”

Fast forward to February of this year. Instead of finalizing her admission to a state school, Erin Slade is visiting MC. She’s making sure everything is in order with her recently-awarded Speed Scholarship.

SLADE: They are going to start typing up my accommodation letter so that I can hand it out to my professors and kind of get that ball rolling.

The accommodation letter is related to Slade’s dyslexia.

SLADE: I will be just getting extended time, which is a time and a half on some tests and quizzes, just because my brain works different than everybody else's.

She also stopped by the Baptist Student Union building.

SLADE: We walked in. There was somebody making cookies.

AUDIO: [Photoshoot]

A month later in Memphis, Ayla Jackson is getting her senior photos taken at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

AUDIO: [Photoshoot]

Ayla Jackson during her senior photo shoot Photo by Kim Henderson

They’re both thrilled Ayla is heading to MC this fall, thanks to the Speed Scholarship. Ayla wants to be a child life specialist. That’s a healthcare role.

ANDREA: Her dream job is St. Jude, where she would come alongside doctors and the families and be the gap to be able to emotionally support the children, even the relatives, the mom and the dad, the siblings.

AUDIO: [Graduation]

At their graduation May 5, both Ayla and Erin were named “Ambassador of the Year.” Administrators usually give it to the one senior who’s been the best Christian leader in the class. This year, it had to be two.

AUDIO: [Graduation]

Ayla and Erin have been through orientation at MC, and they know which dorm they’ll be in. They know their roommates’ names.

They also know their free-tuition scholarship made it all possible. A small Christian college being able to offer free tuition for 650 students, well, it’s really rare.

Ayla expresses their gratitude for the donor.

AYLA: It just shows you how much of an impact it can have in somebody's life. The impact that your schooling can have on your life.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee.

REICHARD: To read the feature story about the scholarship, look for the August 26 issue of WORLD Magazine. You can also find a link in today’s show notes.

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