WCS: Thankful student Off to an Amazing Start - July 2010

College sophomore Jamiela Isaiah knows the value of an education and she is working hard here to earn it. Thanks to a scholarship through the World Communion Sunday Offering she is beginning her second year at West Virginia Wesleyan in Buckhannon where she is getting her bachelor’s in psychology.

“It has been a good first year. I made all A’s both semesters, made lots of friends, and found my niche at Chapel Hill United Methodist near campus. I was also inducted into the academic honor society Alpha Lambda Delta,” said the young scholar. Jamiela has kept herself busy not only studying hard, but also becoming more involved in a number of leadership activities including serving as secretary for a campus advocacy group called the Social Justice League and supporting a children’s campaign to raise awareness of mistreatment of children in Uganda.. While still having three more years to go, Jamiela has already begun discerning her next step, which includes attending graduate school to get her masters in psychology.

The daughter of two pastors from Charleston, West Virginia, Jamiela grew up in the Methodist Church and participated in Sunday school, youth, and local missions and outreach, and attended a mission trip in Nicaragua. “My father is the chaplain at the Charleston Area Medical Center while my mother is the pastor at St. Andrews UMC where our family attended and I was confirmed.”

Jamiela’s family placed great value in education and knew it would be the key to opening opportunities for her and her little sister. “Our parents were always careful to encourage us to do well in school by rewarding good grades.” “The work got a lot more difficult around high school, and I had to work harder. This turned out to be a blessing because it made me more independent.”

Though coming from a good home and nurturing community, Jamiela says attending a school like Wesleyan would “have been impossible without the scholarship I received through the World Communion Sunday Offering. It is a wonderful program. Having the World Communion Scholarship lets me know that someone (the United Methodist Church and its people) are always looking out for me no matter what. Regardless of my career path, church will remain a huge part of my life and my family’s. Wherever I go, I hope to help others the way the church has helped me. I want to be a good model Christian in my day to day life.”

---by Philip Brooks, Marketing Intern at United Methodist Communications

Please encourage your leaders and congregations to give to the World Communion Sunday offering.  Thank You Very Much! To learn more about World Communion Sunday click here.