$65,000+ in Scholarships Awarded at Advent Christian Village

For over 100 years, Advent Christian Village (ACV) has supported students. For the past 27 years, scholarships have been awarded at ACV to deserving individuals — all made available by generous benefactors who value education. Close to $1.5 million has been awarded so far.

The 2018 scholarships were awarded at a banquet held on evening of May 1. This year, scholarships totaling more than $65,000 were awarded.

After dinner and ACV President/CEO and Jones Scholarship trustee Craig Carter’s expressions of appreciation, last year’s first-place scholarship winner, Keverly Lee, addressed the crowd, reporting on her first year at college. Keverly first congratulated the scholarship recipients, and then talked about how different her college experience has been from high school. Through the challenges, she has learned to adapt and change. She finished by challenging the seniors with “Don’t stand in your own way. Go for it. Stay in the moment and enjoy it.”

Following Keverly, scholarship trustees and sons of Marvin E. Jones, Mike and Robert Jones spoke briefly about the scholarship process and the quality of applicants they had to choose from this year. Suwannee County Schools Superintendent Ted Roush also spoke, thanking the Joneses for their continued support of Suwannee County education.

Scholarships awarded to those associated with Advent Christian Village were Forward Fund scholarships recipients and ACV employees Bill Ditter, Sharon Kay Lytle and Doug Mabey. The following children of ACV employees received Marvin E. Jones scholarships: Blakely Burch, Kendall Calhoun, Lindsay Carter, Tim Carter, Abigail Harmon, Matthew Hilliard, Micah Hilliard, Amanda Mabey, Da’Shari Perkins and Dallas Taylor.

Always the most anticipated portion of the evening is the announcement of the Suwannee High recipients of the Marvin E. Jones scholarships. This year, six finalists received a single $1,000 scholarship, two runners-up received a $3,000 scholarship (given as two $1,500 scholarships over two years) and the winner received a $20,000 scholarship (given as four $5,000 scholarships over four years). The finalists were John Fry, Alexandria Jackson, Kaleb Lane, Margaret Reaves, Hunter Rode and Alexis Thompson. The runners-up were Cara Seaman and Blake Tedder. And the winner was Alyssa Howard.

Marvin E. Jones (1917–92) was an advocate of Advent Christian Village in many ways. His financial support over the years made possible the construction of several buildings at ACV. During the last three years of his life, Jones directed his gifts to the Marvin E. Jones Education Trust, which benefits young people of ACV and selected graduates of Suwannee High School in Live Oak, which also serves Dowling Park.

After Al and Ruth Lawton’s children finished college, they decided to support the staff of ACV by establishing the Forward Fund that makes scholarships available to Advent Christian Village employees who wish to further their education.

Advent Christian Village is grateful to be part of this support of education and congratulates each of the scholarship winners.