Advocate awards Breazeale with $1,000 college scholarship

The South Carolina United Methodist Advocate has selected Susann Breazeale, a rising freshman at Wofford College, as the newspaper’s 2022 college scholarship recipient.

Breazeale plans to major in government/journalism (pre-law) and will receive $1,000 from the Advocate toward her studies at Wofford in the 2022-2023 academic year.

The Advocate’s scholarship is for students who are South Carolina United Methodists and who are planning to enroll or are already enrolled at one of the four United Methodist colleges in South Carolina: Claflin University, Columbia College, Spartanburg Methodist College or Wofford College.

The scholarship is available to students with an interest in communications, journalism or business.

Breazeale has been an active member of Grace United Methodist Church, Pickens, all her life. Baptized as an infant at Grace, she grew up in the church, completing confirmation in 2016. Her pastor, the Rev. Valerie Mireb, noted she served as an acolyte for nine years and a communion steward, plus has assisted with children’s church, Christmas Eve preparations and other church ministries.

She was the editor of her high school newspaper, The Sapphire, and in that capacity, she said in her application essay, “I saw firsthand how shared writing can bring people together, not unlike how the Word within the Bible also serves to bring people together for a common good. I made a conscious effort to involve those who were unseen a lot of the time, to bring them into the fold of the life of our school by seeking them out for interviews, quotes and photographs. I sought not only to feature those who were involved with many school events, but also ‘the least of these’—those who often stood on the sidelines or were largely unknown by many. My efforts were to make all feel included and represented by my words, just as journalism in ministry does.”

“Today, writing, journalism and our relationships with those around us continue to be a way to spread the good news of Jesus Christ,” she wrote.

Through the intersection of government and journalism, she hopes to bring people together for a common good, to help the unseen and unheard be seen and heard.

The application process for the Advocate 2023 scholarship has begun, with a deadline of March 1, 2023. For more information: www.advocatesc.org/about-us/scholarship.