I am Chance Ferguson from Princeton, West Virginia, and I would consider myself as someone who desires to see the growth and development in the lives of the people around me and in myself. Luckily, I’ve been blessed with the outstanding opportunity to receive higher education to help me move forward to the next season in life. What accompanies this gift is the utter drive and motivation to become the best, most intellectual version of myself I can possibly become during four years in an establishment designed to do exactly that. From my only brief, distant knowledge of the story of Kalia D. Davis I am saddened our world lost such a treasured prospect. Her respectable work ethic has fueled me and my own personal motivation. This opportunity I’ve been given is exactly as stated: given. She has instilled a constant reminder to me to work hard, and to never take that work for granted. So, even when I’m striving and pursuing an even better version of self in comparison to the days prior, I must not lose sight of the days I have been given. Nonetheless, it would be ignorant of me to neglect the planning for my future. One of the strongest, if not the strongest, burdens upon my life is one that is financial. Funding my own university has been strenuous, and continuing this funding is seemingly impossible. In order to fearlessly continue my intellectual pursuit to be a Christian minister, I must receive help financially. I have desired to go into ministry since I was a young child. I’ve been around ministry since childhood as my mother has been a church administrator longer than I’ve lived. Consequently, we have never had much money, but the prize is so much greater than monetary. My efforts go unanimously to God and to the burdened work of ministry God has placed upon my life. I want so badly to be able to continue college without the fear of where my next semester will come from. The only way this is possible is from people like you. What a tragedy it is for such a great young person to pass, yet what a blessing that her memory would nurture the seeds of a new generation to bring up more fruitful young-people. In all of this, I want to be considered one of these prized, fruitful young-people. Oh, how undeserving I am to receive such a gift. I am so grateful to you and for your work to be so selfless in rewarding people with their means to go to college and to form a life for themselves. Your work will never go unnoticed. Thank you for your time to read over this and for your careful effort to select an appropriate person.

Jack Terry’s story is a story of triumph in the very midst of one of histories greatest tragedies. Dr. Terry’s story inspires me to remain hopeful in even the most troublesome situations. To be an oppressed polish person threatened by death and constantly reminded of his family's death is inconceivable to such a lucky young man as myself. Dr. Terry especially inspires me to persevere. To see such a dooming, fatal situation result in the perseverance of a successful, loving man inspires me to remain hopeful for perseverance in even the worst of situations like Dr. Terry found himself in. I was born into a small household of only my mother and father. My father is incredibly old, and all my siblings on both sides of my split family are the age of most people’s parents. There is animosity between me and my siblings, mostly from the broken relationships between them and my parents. I am the only child born to my parents, but I have nine half siblings. This never caused much trouble for me because only a few of my siblings live close to us. My father has many problems with his heart, and is unable to work. We live on his social security and my mothers church secretary salaries. A couple of years ago, I remember sitting in the living room of our small house and watching television with my mother. My father had gone to bed unusually early that afternoon to lay down. My mother, questioning why he had not been out of their bedroom in quite some time, went to check on him to assure he was fine. When my mom went back to the bedroom, she was devastated to find him unresponsive and in a stroke. I rushed into the bedroom to find him with his eyes rolled into his head unable to speak. That event only took a year and a half to smooth out back to normal, but that brief time felt as if it had been a millennium. My experience is nothing compared to millions and millions of human beings going through unfathomable circumstances. I have decided to go into service for the rest of my life, and use higher education to be a servant to others rather than to benefit myself. I will use my education to make a change in the world around us, and to bring hope and perseverance, just like Dr. Terry, to the people who need it most.

Faith is the definition of my life. My faith has called me into a vocation where, without faith, I can do nothing. Faith has enabled me to come back to Christ, and find purpose and meaning in my vocation. To know how this faith has influenced me, you must know my testimony of how I was the prodigal son who came back to the Father. I was born in church, my mother has been the secretary at our church for the entirety of my life, I was saved at an early age, and I truly loved the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. At the end of middle school, and the beginning of high school, I had lost my fire for the Lord, and I had faded away from obedient faith involuntarily. I was having out with my friends who were not Christian's and neglecting my relationship with Christ. I remember being on a basketball court in the back of my friend Cameron's neighborhood behind his mother's bakery and lying to his little brother to convince him we did not have vapes in our hands to stay out of trouble. We were together all the time and made bad decisions all the time. Our mindset regarding the purpose of life, the value of women, the weightiness of money, and the cleanness of one's mouth were all in opposition to the Bible and what Christ taught. I did not make a conscious decision but found myself emotionally empty. I was sitting in my friend Jake's chair spinning around his wooden floors when my mind zoned out of the conversation we were having and into my own thoughts. I had realized that the way I was living resulted in emptiness, loneliness, and a lack of purpose. I realized that the way I was living, and the lifestyle I was cultivating, was only bound to lead me into a life of vanity. I began spacing myself away from that corrupt company, and at camp that summer, I rededicated my life to the Lord. I got the opportunity to preach my first sermon January 29th, 2022. In that sermon, I preached on Colossians 3:1-11 and the Lord convicted my heart. My life had not been reflecting that Christian lifestyle laid out for us in the text. I found myself chasing Christ instead of worldly pleasures in response to that conviction, and soon after another conviction came, one to preach the word. I began to preach every so often, and more churches called asking me to fill in for them Sunday after Sunday, so I became a fill-in preacher. For the past three years have been consistently preaching. I desperately desire to preach the word and be a steward of the word and to disciple others in their walk with Christ. I want to love the Lord in all that I do and follow Him into every season of my life. Without a doubt, I know that the Lord has called me into ministry, and I want to follow His call into that. With the help of this scholarship, I can pay for my college without fear of financial burdens for years to come. This scholarship will help me to faithfully follow this call into college to further my education and ability to preach faithfully and serve sacrificially for the rest of my time here on Earth.

I would not say my journey and service shaped my goal but instead created my goal. I am going into a vocation where service to others is the entirety of the job. The goal of my job and of my desire to seek higher education is to make some sort of change in the people around me. I want to see change come for our generation and generations to come. We as humans have stories, and we have issues, and when we conclude that all the people of the world have a story, a life, and a future, we must respond with compassion. The other day I was walking around our school’s track with some teachers and students because it was warm and sunny outside, while walking I turned to the teachers behind us and brought up that very point: all friends, family, strangers, and everyone with life have their own story, problems, struggles, and complex intricacies that define them as human beings. When we ponder this, the response naturally is to be more compassionate people. I have been able to serve at summer camp for 5 years now as a counselor, and the stories these children tell and things they admit are absolutely gut wrenching. When I became aware of what was happening in some of these children’s lives, I was drawn to speechlessness at their lives. Service is not about what we do, but who they are. Humble service has changed my life, not because I served, but because the people I serve are so valuable. The key aspect of servicing the servant is that it recycles pride into humility. Being a servant has absolutely humbled me and pushes and fuels my passion to serve others for the entirety of my life because there will never be a shortage of people who need help. The day I am out of work is the day no one needs an ear to hear, a mouth to comfort, and an action to provide — that day will never come. As though we can become so preoccupied with our own lives and our own ambitions that we neglect all the things happening around us. Service to others has shaped my goal by drawing my life’s attention to those who need it around me. Service has created a humble heart, an attentive eye, and a compassionate ear within me. I seek higher education because I can help people with it, and that is what servitude has created in me.

I would not define my testimony as a moment I found the Lord, but instead a moment when I came back to the Lord. I was born in church, my mother has been the secretary at our church for the entirety of my life, I was saved at an early age, and I truly loved the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. At the end of middle school, and the beginning of high school, I had lost my fire for the Lord, and I had faded away from obedient faith involuntarily. I was having out with my friends who were not Christian’s, and neglecting my relationship with Christ. I remember being on a basketball court in the back of my friend Cameron’s neighborhood behind his mother's bakery and lying to his little brother to convince him we did not have vapes in our hands to stay out of trouble. We were together all the time, and made bad decisions all the time. Our mindset regarding the purpose of life, the value of women, the weightiness of money, and the cleanness of one’s mouth were all in opposition to the Bible and what Christ taught. I did not make a conscious decision but found myself emotionally empty. I was sitting in my friend Jake’s chair spinning around his wooden floors when my mind zoned out of the conversation we were having and into my own thoughts. I had realized that the way I was living resulted in emptiness, loneliness, and a lack of purpose. I realized that the way I was living and the lifestyle I was cultivating was only bound to lead me into a life of vanity for the rest of my life. I began spacing myself away from that corrupt company, and at camp that summer, I rededicated my life to the Lord. I got the opportunity to preach my first sermon January 29th, 2022. In that sermon, I preached on Colossians 3:1-11 and the Lord convicted my heart. My life had nit been reflecting that Christian lifestyle laid out for us in the text. I found myself chasing Christ instead of worldly pleasures in response to that conviction, and soon after another one came, one to preach the word. I began to preach every so often, and more and more churches called asking me to fill in for them Sunday after Sunday, so I became a fill-in preacher, and for the past three years I have been consistently preaching. I desperately desire to preach the word and be a steward of the word and to disciple others in their walk with Christ. I want to love the Lord in all that I do, and follow Him into every season of my life. Without a doubt, I know that the Lord has called me into ministry, and I want to follow His call into that. With the help of this scholarship, I can pay for my college without fear of financial burdens for years to come. This scholarship will help me follow this call into college to further my education on preaching, and on learning the word.

A personal accomplishment I have achieved is becoming a good orator. I have been public speaking for three years, but it took a lot of refining, reading, and practice to achieve this skill. I began speaking and was mediocre at best, my speeches were not encapsulating, nor did they change the mind or lifestyle of the person listening in the audience. It is extremely difficult to listen to a nervous, monotone voice reading something from a piece of paper like a lifeless robot, and that is what I was. I decided to begin my journey of refining my speaking. A more experienced speaker wisely advised me to re-listen to my speeches first with both voice and video, secondly with just voice, and finally with just video. This process helped me to build a good stage presence with both audibly and visually. Working on a multitude of insignificant things, like hand movement, space utilization, crouching or even jumping, and fave expressions helped me clearly captivate the audience’s attention. Audibly I began using pauses in serious moments, getting quieter in intense moments, loud in passionate moments, slow in sad moments, and accelerated in exiting moments. These things helped build my stage presence and speech presentation to enable me to get a point clearly to the listener and captivate the audience exceptionally. Moreover, I learned that when I spoke, I must not turn from point to point too fast or else I would lose the attention of the audience. I learned to give illustrations and tell stories because they draw attention back to the topic and relate the speech with the listeners on a more personal level. I learned and incorporated the truck ideology which uses a truck for an example: whenever one drives a truck and has passengers in the back of the truck, they must not turn too quickly because the people in the back will fall out, but if you turn slowly and steadily, the people in the back of the truck will stay in, this illustration shows the importance of a steadily flowing speech and the crucially behind smooth traditions between points. I also learned to make the speech applicable to the person listening and emphasize the importance of the point of the speech to the audience so that they know to apply the advice and listen intently to learn from the speech. One of the most advancing things I have incorporated into my speech building is the formulation of rising tension; to formulate rising tension, one must build up tension and expense in the listeners heart in order to offer a solution to the problem which would typically be your main point or main idea. If you build tension in the first stages of the speech, then when you resolve the tension the resolution applies to the tension the listener may face personally. All of these things and more have been a part of my journey to being a refined orator. I am not perfect, and I have much more room to grow in comparison to how I have already grown. I still consider this learning and growth to be an accomplishment, and an exceptional one in my own lifetime.