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The Garrett Ham Scholarship

Funding honors research at the Pruet School of Christian Studies since 2008.

The Garrett Ham Scholarship supports students in the Carl Goodson Honors Program at Ouachita Baptist University who are majoring in Christian Studies or Biblical Languages. Recipients use the funds to conduct original research for their senior honors thesis — from traveling to Israel to retracing the biblical landscape, to conducting research at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

I established the scholarship in 2008 after my first year of law school at the University of Arkansas. During my senior year at Ouachita, I was the only theology student to write an honors thesis — and I found that disappointing at a school that prides itself on the academic study of Scripture. The scholarship was my way of encouraging the next generation of Christian Studies students to take the thesis experience seriously. I funded it annually until I was able to endow it permanently.

The scholarship has since produced an impressive roster of graduates. Chris Redmon went on to Duke Divinity School and the Ph.D. program in New Testament at Duke. Cole Jester clerked for the Eighth Circuit, served as Deputy Chief Legal Counsel for Governor Sanders, and was appointed the 35th Secretary of State of Arkansas — the youngest in the state's history.

Apply: The scholarship is awarded by Ouachita's Honors Council with approval of the Dean of the Pruet School of Christian Studies. If you are a Christian Studies or Biblical Languages major considering the Honors Program, you can download the application here.

Past Garrett Ham Scholars