{"id":33040,"date":"2017-04-17T13:20:13","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=33040"},"modified":"2017-06-20T16:10:22","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T20:10:22","slug":"bringing-strong-ties-emu-2017-yoder-scholars-come-mississippi-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/bringing-strong-ties-emu-2017-yoder-scholars-come-mississippi-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing strong ties to EMU, 2017 Yoder Scholars come from Mississippi and Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU)\u00a0engages in a rigorous process to select recipients for\u00a0the prestigious\u00a0Yoder Scholarships<\/a>. Established in 1993 and named for alumni Carol and Paul R. Yoder Jr., the scholarships cover full tuition and include admission into EMU\u2019s\u00a0Honors Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, the Yoder Scholarships were awarded to Silas Clymer of Collinsville, Mississippi, and Anisa Leonard of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Nairobi, Kenya. They were chosen from a field of 44 applicants who had an average SAT score of 1333, average ACT score of 30.7 and an average high school grade-point average of 4.17.<\/p>\n

The scholars interview during Honors Weekend in February. Honors Program faculty conduct the interviews, evaluating academic performance, extracurricular activities, community involvement, creativity, leadership potential and other factors. Each applicant must prepare a portfolio and resume, write two short essays and submit two references.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for high-caliber creative students with wide-ranging interests and strong leadership abilities,\u201d said history professor\u00a0Mark Metzler Sawin<\/a>, director of the\u00a0honors program<\/a>\u00a0at EMU.<\/p>\n

The graduation rate for EMU honor students has been at 100 percent in recent years, with many completing more than one major. The students receive unique academic and co-curricular opportunities along with intensive mentoring from faculty.<\/p>\n

Anisa Leonard<\/h3>\n

Naming her home town isn\u2019t easy, said Anisa Leonard. \u201cAs any Third Culture Kid will tell you, where I am from is a complicated question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Leonard was eight months old when she was adopted by Eastern Mennonite University alumni John and Glenda Kratz Leonard. The family moved to Harrisonburg when Anisa was five. She attended Waterman Elementary School and Eastern Mennonite School. Her family were members of Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore seventh grade, we moved back to Kenya for my parents to work at Rosslyn Academy,\u201d Leonard said. The academy is an international Christian school of 650 students from more than 50 nations. Leonard, a National Honor Society member, will graduate from Rosslyn in May.<\/p>\n

Because she\u2019s lived extensively in both Harrisonburg and Kenya, Leonard is not sure which location to call home. \u201cCan you list both as my home town?\u201d<\/p>\n

She plans on majoring in social work with a minor in Spanish. She says she and her sister benefited from committed social workers in Virginia and at Kenya\u2019s New Life Home, who helped in the long, complicated adoption process. Their work with her parents are why Anisa and \u201cmy sister are who we are today. I want to be able to make that change in someone else’s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a child living less than a mile from EMU, Leonard grew to love the campus, she said, attending sports camps, as well as EMU sporting events.<\/p>\n

At Roslyn, she was captain for both varsity basketball and varsity soccer. Leonard was a camp soccer coach with young girls for Ambassador\u2019s Soccer-Kenya. A member of St. Julian\u2019s Church in Nairobi, she has also volunteered as a Sunday School teacher for pre-school children at International Christian Fellowship-Nairobi and at New Life Home, the orphanage that \u201cliterally saved my life when I was a really small and sick baby,\u201d Leonard said \u201cThis is the orphanage both myself, and my sister were adopted from. I absolutely love spending time with kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silas Clymer<\/h3>\n

Being awarded the Yoder Scholarship is a \u201chuge honor,\u201d said Silas Clymer. \u201cI still can\u2019t quite believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clymer, of Collinsville, Mississippi, attends Meridian High School . He is the son of EMU alumni Michael and Melody Good Clymer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a connection to [EMU] early on and saw it as an opportunity to learn more about the Mennonite faith and its applications across the globe,\u201d said Clymer, who is a member of Jubilee Mennonite Church Youth Group.\u00a0\u201cI’ve always been particularly interested in the cross-cultural program and the idea of gaining new perspectives of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

After visiting EMU, Clymer realized he was interested in a liberal arts education, he said. \u201cEMU has given me the sense of a community that rewards and encourages curiosity in all sorts of areas, and that is the sort of place I decided I’d like to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clymer plans on studying engineering and may add a minor or double-major in music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find [music] theory fascinating and would love to get into composition,\u201d said Clymer, who played alto and tenor saxophone as a section leader for the MHS marching, concert, jazz and pit bands. Currently, he is a bass guitarist and leader of his church\u2019s Youth Band. \u201cI also like the idea of exploring ways that these different fields connect, such as physics and sound in acoustics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, Clymer attended Mississippi Governor’s School. He was a National Merit Scholar and earned recognition for the highest ACT score at MHS. A member of the National Honor Society, Clymer is captain of the MHS Academic (Quizbowl) team, which won the state championship tournament this year. In addition, Clymer ran cross country and played soccer.<\/p>\n

Clymer has volunteered as a member of the Meridian Community Band and the Community Jazz Band. He also participated in the Community of Hope program, which involved 100 hours of community service, and was a Leader in Training at Pine Lake Fellowship Camp in 2015.<\/p>\n

While at EMU he wants to focus on learning about different careers, his strengths and weaknesses. He\u2019s open to pursuing \u201cmeaningful\u201d studies in a wide range of fields, \u201cfrom the aerospace industry to computer programming to medical research and more,\u201d Clymer said.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I think it would be awesome to find a way to apply music to any of those areas as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong>\u00a0 John Leonard earned undergrad degrees in business and English education in 1992 and 1993; Glenda Glenda Kratz Leonard earned an undergraduate degree in elementary education in 1992 and an MA as a reading specialist in 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n

Michael Clymer earned a BS in math education in 1989 and an MA in conflict transformation in 1999; Melody Good Clymer earned her BS in elementary education in 1989.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU)\u00a0engages in a rigorous process to select recipients for\u00a0the prestigious\u00a0Yoder Scholarships. Established in 1993 and named for alumni Carol and Paul R. Yoder Jr., the ... read more about Bringing strong ties to EMU, 2017 Yoder Scholars come from Mississippi and Kenya<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5725,266,17562,8845,17364,356,5183,6287,14139,5730],"tags":[6795,9331],"feature":[17427,17241],"class_list":["post-33040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions","category-alumni","category-digest","category-emu-at-lancaster","category-engineering","category-language-and-literature","category-music","category-social-work","category-student-profiles","category-undergraduate-programs","tag-diversity","tag-mark-metzler-sawin","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nBringing strong ties to EMU, 2017 Yoder Scholars come from Mississippi and Kenya - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2017\/bringing-strong-ties-emu-2017-yoder-scholars-come-mississippi-kenya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bringing strong ties to EMU, 2017 Yoder Scholars come from Mississippi and Kenya - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Each year, Eastern Mennonite University (EMU)\u00a0engages in a rigorous process to select recipients for\u00a0the prestigious\u00a0Yoder Scholarships. 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