Below is a press release from CBF-partner Passport Inc.
Passport, Inc. is pleased to announce the awarding of three scholarships in our third year of offering The Chester Phelps Passport Seminary Scholarship. Each recipient has served on PASSPORT Summer Staff and is pursuing a career in ministry through seminary training.
Passport has awarded a total of $6,000 to be shared between each of the following Passport Summer Staffers: Jessalyn Brown (Truett Theological Seminary), Sophia Carter (Wake Forest Divinity School) and Paxton Vaughn (Duke Divinity School).
Jessalyn Brown is a third-year student at Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, where she is pursuing a Master of Divinity with a concentration in preaching. Jessalyn served one summer with Passport Camps as the Youth Pastor. She is currently serving as a Resident Chaplain on Baylor’s Campus. She does life with the students in Heritage House, the Fine Arts community home to various students with artistic interests.
Sophia Carter is a second-year Wake Forest University School of Divinity student pursuing her Master’s of Divinity. Sophia has served one summer with Passport Camps as the Mission Project Coordinator. She serves in multiple capacities, including a Worship Leader at WFU, church administrator at Wesley Memorial UMC in Winston-Salem, and Youth Minister at Emerywood Baptist Church in High Point, NC.
Paxton Vaughn is a second-year student at Duke Divinity School, where she is pursuing a Master of Divinity. Paxton has served three summers with Passport Camps as Missions Coordinator and Assistant Director. She serves with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship North Carolina as a Campus Ministry Specialist in Raleigh, NC.
The Chester Phelps Passport Seminary Scholarship is made possible by partnering with River Road Church, Baptist through annual budgeted funds and a growing list of donors. As this scholarship became a reality, Passport requested to name the scholarship in honor of Rev. Chester Phelps, a career minister at River Road who brought many groups to Passport over the last thirty years. Chester began his time at River Road in 1984 as the Minister to Preschoolers, Children, and Youth. He retired in 2004 as the Minister of Youth, though he returned twice to interim ministry positions in 2012-13 and 2016-17. He received a BA from Carson Newman College and graduate degrees from Kent State University and the Presbyterian School of Christian Education.
With the high cost of seminary, Passport and River Road share the goal of wanting students who are called to ministry to be able to pursue their theological education without undue financial burden.
The main requirement for recipients is to complete a summer ministering on staff at PASSPORT Camps successfully.
“These students did a wonderful job ministering with us this past summer at Passport. We are so pleased to be able to help out in a small way with the cost of their seminary education and so thankful to River Road Church for continuing to make these scholarships available!” – Rev. David Burroughs, President of Passport, Inc.
Passport is a national non-profit student ministry providing creative summer camp experiences for youth and children, focusing on mission action and education.
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