Mercy Oyana, a sophomore, and Phillip Gehman, a first-year, are the first recipients of the Rueben Savanick Memorial Scholarship. Oyana is majoring in the American Sign Language (ASL)-English Interpreter Preparation Program. Gehman attends First Deaf Mennonite Church, and his career goal includes ministry with Deaf youth and/or Deaf church planting.

This scholarship, established by the Savanick family and managed by the Anabaptist Deaf Ministries Board, honors Reuben Savanick, a Goshen College alumnus and a child of deaf parents. Savanick was active in Mennonite Church Deaf Ministries and worked for many years at the Mennonite Publishing House.

The scholarship, awarded to Goshen College or Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary students, was designed to foster and encourage students studying American Sign Language to pursue careers in ministry or other fields related to the Deaf Community. Goshen College is also the only Anabaptist or Mennonite Church-affiliated college that offers a Bachelor’s of Arts in ASL-English Interpreting.

The Anabaptist Deaf Ministries Board of Directors is a national board chosen from Deaf and hearing people across the Anabaptist churches and charged with the responsibility of giving overall direction to the deaf ministry of Mennonite Church USA.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: College, Scholarship, Student, Study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.