By Annabelle Blair | Echo
Fourteen scholars from inner-city Chicago and Indianapolis will join the Taylor community this fall as part of Act Six, a program with a mission to prepare students to be leaders on campus and in their communities.
Through Act Six, students will receive full ride scholarships as well as leadership training for all four years at Taylor. They currently attend weekly cadre meetings in their home cities (similar to Taylor's MAHE cohorts) and study topics including culture, race, privilege, identity and leadership development. Felicia Case, adjunct faculty of higher education and director of intercultural programs, said the education is comparable to some of Taylor's upper division interarea classes.
Steve Mortland, vice president for enrollment management and marketing, has been trying to bring Act Six scholars to Taylor since he heard about the program eight years ago. This year, logistical needs within partner organizations and universities fell into place, allowing several Taylor alumni who work for Act Six to contribute to the extensive application and selection process.
Mortland is impressed with the high retention rate of Act Six scholars and their history in cities with similar programs. The program began on the west coast and has expanded partnership to Shepherd Community Center and Pursue Scholars, organizations in Indianapolis and Chicago that collaborate with Taylor, providing funding and narrowing scholarship candidates.
"We're really partnering with Indianapolis and Chicago to see their neighborhoods changed," said Mortland. The Act Six scholars represent an expansion of Taylor's "kingdom-minded" mission, according to Mortland, which will broaden the perspectives of both students and faculty.
Although Taylor's rural location has been a challenge to administration's goal of engaging with inner city communities, Mortland sees this program as a step in the right direction. "This is a stake-in-the-ground moment that says, 'we are going to change us,'" he said. "What's changed Taylor more than anything else hasn't been administration or faculty, but a change in students."
James Tluang, a senior in high school, is one of the recipients. An Indianapolis resident and member of the Burmese American Community Institute, Tluang said his goal is to be in a chapel band. He also wants to grow in the Christian environment Taylor fosters.
"I want to tell (students) more about my culture," he said. "If I can, I want to bring a lot of Burmese students over to Taylor. The food we eat is different-and the clothes that we wear . . . If they are willing, I want to bring (students) to my community and show them, this is how we think."
Sophomore Chin Ai Oh hosted one of the Act Six scholars (who has since been accepted) when the student visited campus as an applicant. Oh remembered introducing the student to the girls in her dorm and seeing her spend hours tutoring math to a new transfer student.Oh said the scholar wanted to be a math teacher and was very excited about her dreams. "Based on that one student I hosted," said Oh, "I know she's going to go out and do what she says she wants to do."
The Act Six program incorporates a demographic of students within the U.S. who may influence Taylor's education quality and create a student body team willing to challenge the current environment.
"These students will give us a deeper, broader picture of America - and that can only help," Case said.
