Reagan Kelly: Holston Foundation Scholar

The article below was recently published as a communication of the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. Thanks to LeRae Collins and the Holston Foundation for providing the article.

Reagan Kelly loves being a United Methodist. She grew up attending Slage’s UMC in Elizabethton, Tennessee, was a member of CCYM (the Conference Council on Youth Ministries), and was elected a Holston delegate to SEJ Conference. She was first introduced to Tennessee Wesleyan University during Senior High Assembly, but did not think it was possible for her to ever be a student there. She was considering pursuing a trade rather than higher education.

That changed when she learned about TWU’s church vocations major and that she could receive scholarships from United Methodists to make higher education possible.

Today, Reagan is a freshman thriving at Tennessee Wesleyan University majoring
in church vocations and pursuing a future of service. She is a Holston Foundation
scholar, received a General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM)
scholarship, TWU ministerial scholarship, and Dollars for Scholars scholarship,
which means that a scholarship from her local church was then matched by the Holston Foundation.

“The Holston Foundation helped my dream of coming to TWU come true and showed me I was finally living an answered prayer because people around me supported me even though I didn’t know them personally,” Reagan said.

On-campus Reagan is a part of the Leadership Academy at TWU that received a grant from the Holston Foundation. She assists with weekly chapel services and participates in service projects alongside the Rev. Skip White, who serves as TWU’s chaplain and pastor at Trinity UMC in Athens.

“I try to share the love of Christ through my actions on campus,” she said.

Reagan was one of the Holston Foundation higher education scholars who received $94,500 to continue their education this year. Scholarships are made possible because of the generosity of donors who want to share a legacy of education with others.