Dec. 9, 2019
ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA – North Carolina Wesleyan College was recently awarded with a $300,000 grant over the next four years from Lilly Endowment Inc. This grant will help to further the College’s efforts with its Youth Theology Institute (YTI), known as “Connect- YTI” on campus.
Connect, a summer camp and year-long mentorship program exists to connect high school and college students to Christ, community and the church. Over the past four years, over 100 students have attended the program with the help of over 35 local churches who send students. Connect has hosted several community-wide youth events and explored different theological topics from Justice to Jesus in the Gospels, believing that theology (the study of God) is a life-long journey, not merely a religious study from a book.
This gracious donation will provide the program with significant sustainability for the next four years. Some of the projects they hope to continue are growing and strengthening their summer institute, training and equipping college students as mentors, hosting more guest speakers and artists at Wesleyan, helping high school and college students within their discernment process of life and providing local youth leader mini-conferences on campus to empower and equip lay leaders with issues they face in ministry.
“This is such exciting news for our program! The Lilly Endowment has been so generous to us over the past four years. I have told many people, it’s really cool to see how the generosity of one person or family can impact the lives of so many people. I think this grant and the endowment is a testament to that,” stated Mikah Brondyke, Director of Connect- YTI. “The past four years have laid a great foundation for our program. It will be really neat to watch our program build upon this and continue the work of encouraging and empowering the next generation of youth.”
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family – J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli – through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly & Company. The Endowment exists to support the causes of religion, education and community development. Lilly Endowment’s religion grant-making is designed to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians. It does this largely through initiatives to enhance and sustain the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes.
See the release at NC Wesleyan.
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Contact:
Crystal Hill
Director of Marketing & Communications
252.985.5202
chill@ncwc.edu
