Even after 83 years of life, Marie Fowler is still not done improving herself and going through new experiences. On May 11, Fowler made history by becoming the oldest student in Howard University history to earn a degree. She received her doctorate in divinity, which she aptly described as a calling from God in an interview with WLOX.
“It was never my thought that I would go beyond maybe one semester because, after all, I started school when I had been out of school since 1959,” she said. “I didn’t even know if I could even retain information.”
Instead of dropping out after a single semester, Fowler persevered through three years of grueling work to obtain her degree. She credited her parents for giving her “the opportunity to even pursue an achievement like this.”
“My mom and dad was born in an era when it was illegal for them to learn to read and write,” she said. “We taught my dad how to read and write and how to sign his name.”
“[Fowler] was the life of the party,” said one of her professors Alice Ogden Bellis. “She knew what she needed, what she wanted, and she came here and she did that.”
Fowler matriculated through Howard University’s School of Divinity, which recently received a $1.25 million donation from Lilly Endowment Inc. The funds will be used to create an online resource to educate and assist officials within the church, and the school hopes to grow that resource into an in-person department. Per the university’s press release, Howard is one of 142 organizations receiving this grant from Lilly Endowment through its Compelling Preaching Initiative.
“Preaching, by all accounts, is the foremost venerated and formative practice of the Church,” said the Dean of Howard’s School of Divinity Kenyatta R. Gilbert. “African American preaching in North America, historically and contemporarily, has been esteemed for its aesthetic richness, persistent calls for justice, ecclesiastical reform, moral and ethical responsibility, spiritual redemption, and transformation. It is one means God uses to inject hope in a society of chaos and confusion.”
“The grant will enable the School of Divinity to launch a national podcast dedicated to African American preaching, with a specific focus on social justice, congregational care, and preaching,” the press release said. “Additionally, the initiative will establish an annual preaching symposium, providing mentoring opportunities for prospective graduates who will be pairs with experienced clergy members. The program will also offer an opportunity for alumni to return to campus and mentor current students. Furthermore, the School of Divinity plans to develop two non-degree certificate program in African American preaching. One centering a homiletical concentration tailored for HUSD’s current Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degree-seeking students and the other will offer a pathway for non-degree seeking students to access a comprehensive curriculum covering the fundamentals and critical understanding of preaching.”
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