Scholarship Season

It’s that time of the year when we begin thinking about how we are going to partner with our companion parishes in the Iringa Diocese to support secondary students. Many of you have met these students when you have traveled to Iringa and you know that these scholarships change lives.

I would encourage you to share stories of individual students you have met with others in your faith community. My congregation had the privilege of sponsoring several secondary students, many for their entire secondary careers. One of them was Stanley, a student with a huge smile and a healthy imagination. I still smile when I remember a letter my congregation received from him after he had completed Form VI. He wrote, “You are like the camel for a traveler in the desert. You are carrying me to a better life.”

The process for making pledges is similar to what we have done in past years:

• In late September, your congregation can expect to receive a list of the students you have supported for the past year, along with a letter from Bega Kwa Bega outlining the guidelines and the extra priorities for the year.
• In October, your cluster leader will contact your congregation to solicit your pledge for the 2022 school year. At that time you will also receive specific instructions about how to report your pledge.
• Early in November, you will send your completed pledge to your cluster leader. Cluster leaders report the pledges to BKB-SPAS and the pledges are compiled and reported to the team in Iringa. This is how our partner congregations in Iringa know how much money they have for secondary student scholarships.
• In December, our partner parishes in the Iringa Diocese assign awards for specific students. Your congregation’s pledged funds are due in the Saint Paul Area Synod Office by Dec. 31. Once received, they are recorded and made available in Iringa. This is critical because students cannot remain in school if scholarship payments are not made.
• January is the beginning of the school year in Iringa for students in Form I-IV. BKB makes the first round of scholarship payments for students.

As we look forward to another school year, those of us on the Scholarship & Education Working Group of the Iringa Committee are grateful for you and for your commitment to providing education for these students in the Iringa Diocese. Your willingness to share the abundant resources God has provided is changing lives in ways we can’t even imagine.

Rev. Lynda Thompson
Chair, Scholarship & Education Working Group