Higher education Making seminary debt manageable
ELCA Stewards of Abundance tries targeted scholarships By Elizabeth Hunter
Editor’s note: Third in a three-part series on the economy of theological education today.
“ I
’d assumed seminary would be costly, but I didn’t realize how costly,” said senior Gwendolen Powell, one of 13 students at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., to receive an ELCA Stewards of Abundance scholarship this year. “It’s sad because it shouldn’t be about money. It’s about God. If we are committed to continuing the church, we need to be committed to raising leaders.” Stewards of Abundance, a 2009-
2014 effort to help reduce seminary debt, has provided targeted scholar- ships coupled with financial educa- tion at all eight ELCA seminaries. It also has worked to foster a culture of generosity in the church. Funding for the effort came from a $1 million Lilly Endowment grant and match- ing funds from the ELCA church- wide organization and seminaries. The targeted scholarship was wel-
come news for Powell. Her first year at seminary left her $30,000 in debt. Each year ELCA leaders set a threshold of concern for seminar- ians’ educational debt. For Powell’s class, that’s approximately $33,500, said Jonathan Strandjord, ELCA program director for seminaries and director for ELCA Stewards of Abundance.
Both Powell and Katie Slack (see profiles) were at high risk for going over that threshold and being unable to repay loans on typical ELCA first- call clergy salaries.
Hunter is a section editor of The Lutheran.
Luther distributed nearly $120,000 in Stewards of Abundance scholarships, ranging from $2,000 to $13,000, said financial aid director Bill Silva-Breen. With the scholarships, students
didn’t have to borrow more. For example, if a student needs $30,000 (for tuition, housing and living costs) and receives $20,000 in grants, “the maximum amount they could borrow in federal aid would be $10,000, compared to about $20,000 if they had no scholarship/grant help,” he said. “Scholarships are a sure way of keeping educational debt down.”
That holds true for seminarians who received scholarships from the Fund for Leaders—now at $36 mil- lion, said Rachel Wind, director of the ELCA’s premier scholarship vehicle (
www.elca.org/fundforleaders). “Everyone cares about leadership,” she said. “Enough people just don’t know about [the need] yet.” The fund distributed 16 full-
tuition scholarships and dozens of partial scholarships for 2013-14, Wind said. ELCA research shows that in 2009, master of divinity students who didn’t receive Fund for Lead- ers scholarships graduated with a median educational debt of about $35,000—well above the threshold of concern. Those who did receive the scholarships had less debt over- all (a median of $31,000)—this dropped to $22,500 for those who received a total of $20,000 or more. In 2012 that pattern continued, with even less debt levels at gradu- ation for fund recipients: $27,000 in educational debt overall, and
44 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
$17,000 in educational debt for those receiving a total of $20,000 or more—amounts more easily repaid by those earning average ELCA first-call salaries.
COURTESY OF LUTHER SEMINARY, ST. PAUL, MINN.
Katie Slack, a Stewards of Abundance scholarship recipient, plans to gradu- ate in May 2014.
Katie Slack
On hearing the call: “I was raised in the ELCA. A class in my junior year [at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn.] called ‘God and Human Suf- fering’ opened my eyes to my call. I knew I wanted to be with people when they were going through tough times in their lives,” she said.
Student debt: Slack and her husband, Patrick, had more than $50,000 in undergraduate student
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