The latest recipient is Emmalyn Doyle, a junior at Concordia University Irvine (CA). Emmalyn's home is Scottsdale, Arizona. She has attended Lutheran schools all of her life, beginning at Christ Lutheran School and continuing at Valley Lutheran High School in Phoenix. Along the way she earned honors for her academic record and her participation in school activities.
My family is almost entirely comprised of Lutheran educators. Both sets of grandparents, several aunts and uncles, and my parents are LCMS educators, so one could say that serving in this vocation runs in the family. Besides familial influence, I attended LCMS schools my entire life and always wanted to be a teacher ever since I can remember. The only area where I felt stumped was choosing an age group and subject, but God used people and prayer to lead me to my current vocational path. Throughout my childhood, my grandparents and parents were committed to taking my siblings and me to church and teaching us apologetics. As I grew up, I noticed that many of my friends were falling away from the Church because their foundations were not as solid as my own. Too many teens abandon the faith because they are falsely led to believe that the Christian faith is blind and uncertain. God has put it on my heart to teach young adults that being a Christian does not negate the use of reason and logic, but rather makes sense of the natural world and humanity’s need for a Savior.
I firmly believe that God is calling me to teach high school theology to reach teens who are struggling with life’s hardest questions and seek answers that bolster a faith which incorporates both the head and heart. My conscientiousness, honesty, and work ethic, cultivated by family and teachers, are strengths that will serve me well in my vocation. It will take hard work to teach teens and research answers to their questions, especially in today’s postmodern culture. Therefore, delivering such answers must be done with an honest commitment to the Word of God, with the “gentleness and respect” that 1 Peter 3:15 calls us to in our evangelistic and apologetic work for the Kingdom.
The Scholarship Committee awarded Emmalyn with a grant in the amount of $4000 and encouraged her to apply for additional funding for her senior year at Concordia. She responded to the committee with this note of appreciation:
I wanted to extend my deepest appreciation for the generosity of you and the scholarship committee in this financial assistance, which is such a blessing to my family and me. MVLC’s support of church worker students is truly amazing, and I am so blessed and encouraged by this scholarship fund I look forward to continuing my studies this year, made possible by MVLC. Students like myself are indebted to churches and generous scholarships like this one, which allow church workers the support needed for ministry. Thank you so very much!
