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W&L Students Honored by Cabell Brand Center

Congratulations to two W&L students for winning competitive scholarships from the Cabell Brand Center to Promote the Common Good: Jinae Kennedy and Ellyn Kirtley.

Jinae, a first-year student from Blacksburg, Va., won the $1,000 Harlan and Debby Beckley Scholarship. It is named for W&L’s Harlan Beckley, the Fletcher Otey Thomas Professor of Religion and director of the Shepherd Poverty Program, and his wife.

Ellyn, also a first-year student, is from Wauwatosa, Wis. She receives the $1,000 Sheila and Ken Garren Scholarship. The two W&L students are among six winners total.

The scholarships acknowledge the students’ commitment to work toward the common good and encourage them to “accept the challenges of diminishing poverty, promoting the environment, and advancing peace and justice,” according to the center’s press release. The students had to write an essay about what they plan to do with their studies and their lives for the common good.

The Garrens and the Beckleys are donors to the scholarship program, which is part of the Cabell Brand Center for Global Poverty and Resource Sustainability Studies, based in Salem, Va. Brand is the founder of the Roanoke, Va., organization Total Action Against Poverty (TAP) and the author of a book, “If Not Me, Then Who? How You Can Help with Poverty, Economic Opportunity, Education, Healthcare, Environment, Racial Justice, and Peace Issues in America.” The organization supports W&L’s Shepherd Poverty Program.