6 first-year students receive Brenau scholarships

GAINESVILLE - Six first-year students at Brenau Univesity will each receive a $500 scholarship from the university's Servant-Leader Scholarship program. They will join nine upper-class students who were previously tapped for the scholarship program.

Scott Briell, senior vice president for enrollment management and student services, and the Rev. Don Harrison, university chaplain, said the six were selected from a pool of more than 50 new students based on applications in which they described their personal definitions of servant-leader qualities.

The first-year recipients for the 2010-11 Academic year, all from Georgia, are health science major Laura Aguilar, pre-nursing major Katelyn Faith Dill and biology major Jayne Arthur, all from Gainesville, pre-nursing major Ashley Valentine from Hoschton, theater major Allison Glasscock from Dacula and early childhood education major Evelyn Hester from Columbus.

"Based on their applications, we determined that these six young women all understand that the core conviction of a true leader is that leadership is all about helping other people," said Harrison. "Hopefully this scholarship will help them gain the intellectual and spiritual tools they will need to apply that philosophy to their everyday lives."

The Georgia recipients from upper classes include seniors Kimberly Bradberry, a psychology major from Jonesboro; mass communications major Sarah Fell from Brunswick; nursing major Heidi Coffee from Winder; and education major Khayriyyah El-Amin from Atlanta as well as Rebecca Weber, a theater, political science and history major from Medinah, Ill. The group also includes junior psychology major Megan Blackwell from Kennesaw; junior biology major Christine Gava, a Rwanda native who lives from Gainesville; sophomore music major Jaya Shelton from Thomasville and sophomore biology major Darnisha Coverson from College Park.

Brenau's Servant-Leader Program focuses on collaboration and cooperative management in campus religious and spiritual life, supervised study, community service and the development of healthy lifestyles. The program is in its third year and has produced sorority presidents, two who have won the "Miss Brenau" scholarship, varsity athletes and a host of alumnae who graduate with honors