{"id":2080,"date":"2016-01-19T09:16:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T14:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/?p=2080"},"modified":"2016-12-02T15:13:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T20:13:23","slug":"giving-tuesday-amanda-hartman-westmoreland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/2016\/01\/giving-tuesday-amanda-hartman-westmoreland\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Tuesday – Amanda Hartman Westmoreland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our monthly\u00a0Alumni\/ae Tuesday Guest Post has expanded! We’re proud to present #VDSGiving. We have invited VDS and GDR alumni\/ae to write about\u00a0what their Divinity School education meant to them, and to also write about the impact of the scholarship assistance they received. Our goal is to demonstrate how scholarship support has a lasting impact on our students, and to highlight the importance of giving.<\/em><\/p>\n

Be sure to also check out the Divinity School Instagram feed every Tuesday for our\u00a0Alumni\/ae Instagram Takeover Day. Each week, we will showcase a different alumnus\/a as they document their day in photos. Follow @VUDivinity on Instagram today!<\/em><\/p>\n

If would like to contribute a post to the Alumni\/ae Tuesday Guest Post series, #VDSGiving post or participate in our\u00a0Alumni\/ae Instagram Takeover Day, please\u00a0email\u00a0Addie Sullivan (addie.sullivan@vanderbilt.edu) \u00a0in the Vanderbilt Divinity School Alumni\/ae office.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fourth grade was a big year for me.\u00a0 It was the first time I made a \u201cB\u201d on my report card, marring my straight \u201cA\u2019s\u201d record and breaking my ten-year-old heart.\u00a0 My dog Promise passed away, the last pet I had that was a part of my family before I was born.\u00a0 And I remember knowing for the first time that I would have to earn a scholarship to be able to attend college.\u00a0 Obviously, I was a very serious fourth grader.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once I heard God\u2019s call on my life and heart, I knew for certain that scholarships would be vital in affording the theological education I desired and the United Methodist Church required in order to serve in full-time, ordained ministry.\u00a0 When it was time to start visiting and applying to graduate school, I began looking at two well-known Methodist seminaries where I knew friends, family, and my former ministers had been educated.\u00a0 With the encouragement of one of my mentors and a brochure about the Turner Leadership Scholar program given to me by my university\u2019s chaplain, I added Vanderbilt Divinity School to the list.<\/p>\n

On a beautiful November day, I first stepped onto Vanderbilt\u2019s campus and fell in love.\u00a0 I conversed with students who were passionate about the time they were spending engaged in community and study.\u00a0 I listened to professors whose knowledge and wisdom overwhelmed me.\u00a0 I enjoyed delicious pastries and bagels that foreshadowed the future treats of coffee hour on Fridays.\u00a0 When I left that first visit, I knew two things for certain.\u00a0 One\u2014that VDS was the right environment for me to learn and grow in ministry.\u00a0 Two\u2014that without a scholarship, it would be a great financial burden on my future to attend VDS.\u00a0 Yet, I also left that day with the hope and promise from VDS\u2019s admissions office that Vanderbilt would be generous with scholarship assistance, something that would be proven true when I received my acceptance of admission and a letter awarding a sixty percent tuition scholarship, an offer much greater than the other seminaries and divinity schools where I had applied.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A few weeks later, I received a call letting me know that I had been chosen to receive one of the Turner Leadership Scholarships, which would not only pay entirely for my tuition and fees but also would offer a stipend and three year United Methodist leadership program and internship with a local church community.\u00a0 Yet, the true gem of my VDS experience would come from the friendships and collegiality I formed with the other members of my cohort and scholarship program.\u00a0 The other students who walked alongside me during my years at VDS became fast friends and colleagues whose wisdom, insight, and experience of growth enriched and enhanced the academic and pastoral learning I gained while studying at Vanderbilt.\u00a0 Since graduating, these relationships have continued to strengthen my ministry.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t many days I don\u2019t reach out to one of those friends looking for insight, suggestions, or just a good laugh.\u00a0 I also meet each week via online video chat with friends from my VDS scholarship program for a covenant discipleship group, a safe space to work through the intersections of life, ministry, and my own spiritual journey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Last class at VDS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don\u2019t know what I would do without the relationships I formed at VDS, but I do know that those relationships would have never happened without the generous financial support I received through scholarship.\u00a0 Because I know how vital scholarship was to my own experience, I give back financially to Vanderbilt Divinity School every year.\u00a0 Now, I am in full-time ministry<\/em>, so my yearly gift is small and in no way can ever repay the generosity I was shown by those who support VDS.\u00a0 But, I trust, with every little bit I give, I am passing on the gifts of theological education and holy friendships that have changed my life.<\/p>\n

by Amanda Hartman Westmoreland, MDiv’14<\/p>\n

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Our monthly\u00a0Alumni\/ae Tuesday Guest Post has expanded! We’re proud to present #VDSGiving. We have invited VDS and GDR alumni\/ae to write about\u00a0what their Divinity School education meant to them, and to also write about the impact of the scholarship assistance they received. Our goal is to demonstrate how scholarship support has a lasting impact on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1576,"featured_media":2082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[508,779],"tags":[846,106,986,653,264,814,848,135,31],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniae-tuesday","category-giving-tuesday","tag-givingtuesday","tag-admissions","tag-alumniae-tuesday","tag-community","tag-scholarship","tag-theological-education","tag-turner-leadership-scholar-program","tag-united-methodist-church","tag-vanderbilt-divinity-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1576"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2080"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2080\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltdivinity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}