Recent Samford University graduate Jeremiah I. Chester and religion majors Megan Lacy and Andrew Toney have been awarded highly competitive fellowships from the Fund for Theological Education (FTE).

Chester, a May philosophy and religion graduate from West Palm Beach, Fla., was named a 2010 FTE Congregational Fellow in recognition of his demonstrated gifts and commitment to potential ministry.

He will receive a $10,000 fellowship to assist with tuition and living expenses during his first year in the Master of Divinity degree program at Princeton Theological Seminary. The fellowship also provides for him to attend the 2010 FTE Leaders in Ministry Conference June 16-20 at Boston University School of Theology in Boston, Mass.

Chester’s FTE fellowship is co-sponsored by his home church, Orthodox Zion Primitive Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Lacy and Toney will each receive a FTE undergraduate fellowship, which includes $2,000 for tuition and other educational expenses or for a self-designed experience related to the exploration of ministry. The fellowship also provides for them to attend the 2010 FTE conference in Boston, Mass.

Lacy is a rising senior from Murfreesboro, Tenn.  Toney is a rising junior from Collierville, Tenn.

FTE undergraduate and congregational fellows are chosen by a national committee of theological educators and church leaders on the basis of academic achievement, an interest in exploring ministry as a vocation and demonstrated leadership in a church or school. Fellows were selected from applicants across the U.S. and Canada.

FTE fellowship awards are funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc.