Claflin University Receives Grant from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School
Jul 23, 2020
Claflin University has been awarded a $50,000 grant by Leadership Education, a non-degree-granting initiative of Duke Divinity School, the spiritual center of Duke University, located in Durham, N.C. The funding from the grant will be used to help strengthen and build capacity for Claflin's Granville Hicks Leadership Academy for Clergy and Laity and improve the church history archives in the University's library.
The Granville Hicks Leadership Academy honors the Rev. Dr. Granville A. Hicks, a 1957 Claflin graduate who has been recognized for his leadership as a pastor and district superintendent in the South Carolina Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Hicks was instrumental in creating programs to improve race relations, education, and leadership development at the conference.
Dr. Echol Nix Jr., program director for the grant and associate professor of philosophy and religion at Claflin, says he hopes the grant will help to enhance and improve the Leadership Academy for years to come. "We have held the Academy for many years, but we would like to strengthen it," Nix said. "With this grant, we plan to host pre-academy workshops in the four regions of South Carolina to see what pastors need and what challenges they are facing in order to recruit and spark interest for the next Academy."
The grant also will make it possible to develop webinars and digital content that would be of service to ministry leaders and their congregations beyond the luncheons and Leadership Academy. A South Carolina Churches' digital archive would be developed with the funding and housed in the H.V. Manning Library. It would include pastoral documents, sermons, recordings of worship music, and oral histories and photos of South Carolina churches.
Dr. Isaiah McGee, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences; Dr. Scott Ryan, assistant professor of religion and biblical studies; and Dr. Arlecia Simmons, assistant professor of mass communications, along with an advisory committee also assisted in securing the Leadership Education grant.
The next Granville Hicks Leadership Academy is scheduled for January 2021.