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Jacob Southwell: Top-Tier Christian Character Scholarship Winner

By March 30, 2020April 15th, 2020No Comments

MANCELONA, Mich.—Jacob Southwell is one of four high school seniors attending GARBC churches who have been awarded $2,500 scholarships in the first GARBC Christian Character Scholarship competition.

The other three seniors are Kendra Cizauskas of Oakland, Michigan, and Carson Odle and Sarah Iler, both of Lagrange, Ohio. Ten other students received $1,000 scholarships, and 10 more received $500 scholarships to any of seven Christian colleges who are participating in the program.

“I am sure that God is going to use these fine young people in the next generation of leadership within our churches as they impact their world for Christ,” says David Burman Jr., a judge for the scholarship program.

Jacob Southwell, a member of Calvary Baptist Church, Kalkaska, Michigan, plays bass guitar, piano, and viola on his church’s worship team. At his church, he also leads worship for weekly youth group meetings, arranges group parties, helps with kitchen cleanup for dinners, and is part of a Growth Group Bible study. In his community, he is a member of the Gaylord Youth Orchestra, earned a one-year internship as a lab assistant for chemists at the SOS Analytical Laboratory, and has participated in a cooperative rural youth ministry called Crossroads Farms. He is also a member of the HOPE Homeschool Group, where he has taken classes in senior literature and systematic theology.

At home, Jacob is heavily involved in all components of his family’s maple syrup business. He helps runs his family’s farmers’ market booth, including making sales calls to businesses. After high school he plans to study molecular biology, attend graduate school, and then serve the Lord in the field of scientific research.

“Jacob is a fine young man and a very solid Christian,” says Jacob’s pastor, Dan Willis. “Jacob has excellent knowledge of God’s Word.”

Jon Jenks, a judge for the scholarship program says that all of the top-tier winners “have a strong view of the gospel, their responsibility to live the gospel out in their life, and a desire to share the gospel with others. . . . My heart is full to see this new chapter in the GARBC in motion.”

Invest in the future of the association by helping young people who want to pursue a Bible college education. Give to the GARBC Christian Character Scholarship fund.