Texan receives first minority fellowship from communications agency
6/5/1998 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Larry R. Hygh Jr. is available with this story.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) -- Larry R. Hygh Jr., an African-American graduate student from Marshall, Texas, is the first recipient of United Methodist Communication's Racial Ethnic Minority (REM) Fellowship.
"I am very honored to be the first recipient of the REM fellowship, and I am excited to have the chance to give back to God that which he has given to me," Hygh said. "I am a lifelong United Methodist and am excited and optimistic about using my talents in the religious communication aspects of the United Methodist Church."
United Methodist Communications launched the fellowship program this year as a way to provide mentoring and direct experience in annual conference communications throughout the church. The scholarship aims to correct the under-representation of ethnic minorities serving as communicators in the church's U.S. annual (regional) conferences. Only three of the 66 conferences in the United States have an ethnic minority communications leader on staff.
"Every local church and every church agency's task is to invite, equip and send leaders into our churches," said the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, head of UMCom's Conference Resourcing Team. The team is charged with ensuring that annual conferences find the people and resources needed for an effective communications ministry. "What we have done is to take it a step further. Racial ethnic minorities have some voice in other areas of the church, but they don't have a large voice or a representative voice in communications, which is a vital link in the connection."
A member of Ebenezer United Methodist Church in Marshall, Hygh, 22, will serve in the denomination's New England Annual (regional) Conference for one year, beginning July 1. He will work in Lawrence, Mass., with the Rev. Michael Hickcox, an experienced communicator in a variety of media. Hygh will receive a salary of $30,000 plus benefits, moving expenses and travel, and Hickcox will receive a $5,000 stipend for serving as a mentor.
What was impressive about Hygh, Horswill-Johnston said, "was his willingness to be a servant to the church. He was not looking for a job but for an opportunity to serve the church and live out his faith."
The New England Conference, the fifth largest in the connection, was chosen to inaugurate the fellowship because it has a communications program that takes seriously the role of communications in mission and ministry, Horswill-Johnston said.
Hickcox is one of the most experienced communicators in the connection and has broad-based responsibilities across the New England Annual Conference that many other communicators do not have, Horswill-Johnston said. "Mike gets his hands in a lot of areas . . . and sees his role as a servant to local churches. This was the attitude we wanted for a mentor."
The conference is pleased to play a role in launching the program, Hickcox said. "We recognize that Larry may go in many different directions in the future, but if he stays in communications in the United Methodist Church, it would be gratifying to know that we played a part in that."
Hygh is pursuing a master of arts degree with an emphasis in education from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He has an undergraduate degree in communications from the school and is a graduate teacher assistant in the communications department. He has served as a contributing writer for The Pine Log, the university newspaper, as well as an anchor and reporter for a Nacogdoches television station and a studio operations technician for a Lufkin, Texas, television studio. He also was a press operations intern during the 1996 Summer Olympics and an intern in both the White House and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Horswill-Johnston said the fellowship will give each recipient:
· enhanced communications skills;
· exposure to a variety of communications tools and media; and
· interaction with people throughout the United Methodist connection.
"It is hoped that by exploring this vocational area, the recipient will seriously consider annual conference communications as a career goal," Horswill-Johnston said.
After the fellowship is completed, United Methodist Communications will be an advocate for each recipient seeking a permanent job as an annual conference communicator. By the year 2000, the agency plans to have a program endowed by the Foundation for United Methodist Communications, which will fund the fellowship annually.
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