Scholarship

GRACE WU MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

$2,000 Academic Scholarship

Deadline: April 1, 2022

The Scholarship: Grace Wu was a member of Chinese Christian Church of Thousand Oaks (CCCTO). She passed away in 2013 due to mental illness. Grace donated part of her estate to CCCTO. The GRACE WU Memorial Scholarship will be awarded annually to help the next generation of Christian counselors with a heart to serve the Asian American community and to give these counselors encouragement in their graduate studies so that they can shine Jesus’ light in the darkness of mental illness.

Enlighten Mental Health Ministry: Enlighten is a non-profit organization whose passion is to shine God’s Light on those facing mental health challenges to brighten lives with His help, hope, and healing. The Ministry is for individuals and families affected by mental illness, churches and their leaders, and anyone who has a heart to walk with others from mental illness towards mental health.

Its mission is to:

Encourage: We will encourage through empathy, friendship and support groups. We will do this in an environment of faith and hope, believing that God loves us.

Educate: We will educate by teaching about the causes and effects of brain diseases to help equip people to understand how to achieve mental health. We will also seek to remove the stigma of mental illness, its myths and misunderstandings.

Empower: We will empower individuals and churches with resources so that they can take action to care for the mental health needs of others and/or themselves.

Each year, Enlighten hosts a mental health seminar/webinar to encourage and educate. The annual seminars/webinars began in 2018, which included plenary speakers and an assortment of workshops on various mental health topics.

Great Oaks Christian Ministries: Enlighten Mental Health Ministry is a part of the Great Oaks Christian Ministries (GOCM), which is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. GOCM supports missions and community care ministries including mental health and cancer patient care. To learn more, see http://www.goaks.org

Criteria for applicants:

Must be a graduate student currently enrolled in an accredited Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Program, Masters in Social Work (MSW) Program or a Clinical Psychology (Psy.D./Ph.D.) Program at a local Southern California area university or college.
Must have an overall undergraduate and graduate school GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Must be of Asian American descent or have a desire to serve the Asian American community.
Must have a heart to bring his/her skills to the Asian American Christian community and the Asian American community as a whole following completion of his/her graduate program.
One scholarship per person.
Must be a professing Christian as found in Romans 10:9 ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’
Must be a regular attendee at a local church.

Application process:

Your completed application with supporting documents must be submitted either by:

Online: Complete Word or pdf application and share as Google Document. Upload filled-in Word document or pdf. Share documents with enlightenmh@gmail.com

Email (preferred method): enlightenmh@gmail.com with “Scholarship” in your subject line

Mail: Enlighten Mental Health Ministry, c/o Chinese Christian Church of Thousand Oaks, 218 W. Janss Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

Deadline: All applications and supporting documents must be received by April 1, 2022.

Submit completed application found on Word document or pdf along with the following information.

TESTMONY OF FAITH:

Give a 500-word or less testimony of how you became a born-again Christian.

WORKSHOP PROPOSAL AT OUR ANNUAL ENLIGHTEN SEMINAR:

Prepare a proposal for a workshop to be presented at the October 2021 Enlighten Webinar. The workshop can be on any subject of mental health that the applicant thinks the seminar participants would be interested in attending. The workshop must be practical. See the website for ideas of past workshops from 2018 to 2020 (https://enlightenmentalhealth.org/). The proposal should include a 500-word or less description of the workshop topic or theme and objectives. The applicant is required to present the workshop at the October 2021 Enlighten Webinar in order to receive the scholarship.

Audience: Individuals and families affected by mental illness, churches and their leaders, and anyone who has a heart to walk with others from mental illness towards mental health. They will include people from different ethnicities. Prepare a proposal to a general audience.

PERSONAL STATEMENT ESSAY:

A 500-word or less essay of the reasons for entering psychology and how their ethnicity has affected their view of this field.

PAST EXPERIENCES:

Please include a short description of any past and present experiences in the psychology field and involvement in the Asian American and/or Asian American Christian Community.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION:

Two letters of recommendation: one from a teacher or faculty member of your school and one from your pastor or Christian leader under whom you have served. Letter should be on official school or organization letterhead. Please have the writer include the student’s first and last name.

Letters of recommendation should highlight the following:

Relationship with the applicant
Applicant’s personal and professional strengths
Applicant’s community involvement
Applicant’s potential to contribute to the field of psychology

INTERVIEWS:

The top scholarship applicants will be interviewed by the Scholarship Committee, where the applicant will also be asked about their workshop proposal.

QUESTIONS:

Email: enlightenmh@gmail.com
Call (805) 322-0491

Jesus said: “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

John 8:12