Jubilee Scholarship expands to graduate certificates

Starting this year, Luther Seminary is providing full-tuition scholarships to graduate certificate students who have been endorsed by their synods.

This new effort, an extension of the Jubilee Scholarship, aims to fill a gap for people who can’t commit to a full-time degree program but still want to pursue formal education at the seminary. The initial round of graduate certificate scholarships supports 11 students who have been nominated by their synods in ELCA Region 3.

“We’re starting with this small experiment with our ELCA partners in Region 3,” said Jessi LeClear Vachta ’14 M.A., director of enrollment services at Luther Seminary. “It’s very much mission-aligned with Luther in terms of educating leaders, and it’s a partnership with our synods to strengthen and raise up leadership for the church.” These partnerships will likely be expanded next year, she added.

Along with receiving the scholarship, the students will benefit from learning in a cohort with support from Jon Anderson, the seminary’s director of rural ministry. They will also have access to all the same spiritual direction and campus resources available to degree students.

“These students are building a cohort of a network of ministry colleagues who are in similar situations as them,” LeClear Vachta said. “It’s education but also community building and network building.”

Luther Seminary offers the following eight-course graduate certificates: Bible; History of Christianity; Systematic Theology; Christian Ministry; Leadership and Innovation for Ministry; and Children, Youth, and Family Ministry. Students can take the courses one at a time, completing a certificate in two years.

For more information, visit luthersem.edu/admissions.

Featured photo: Graduate certificate students (photo by Courtney Perry)

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