Three
members of Holy Trinity Seminary’s sophomore class, William Frei of the Diocese of Charleston, Grant Kelly of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, and Samuel Maul of the Diocese of Fort
Worth have been awarded prestigious Basselin Scholarships
for next year at Theological College of the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C.
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| Grant Kelly, Samuel Maul and Will Frei |
The
Basselin Scholars Program is a special, three-year honors program in philosophy
consisting of the junior and senior years of undergraduate study and one year
of graduate work, leading to the B.A. and M.A. degrees respectively. It is for
qualified seminarians who have a vocation to the priesthood appropriate to
their age and level of discernment, and who have completed two years of
undergraduate study with a superior level of academic performance. An endowment was established in 1914 by
Theodore B. Basselin, a wealthy New York businessman, to fund a program “for
highly trained men aspiring to the priesthood to obtain further study and
education in scholastic philosophy and oratory.” The Basselin endowment,
administered by Catholic University, provides a full three-year scholarship to
qualified, age-appropriate seminarians.
Monsignor Michael Olson, Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary, stated, “While
we will miss these three men for their leadership in the community, all of us
are very proud of their achievement and they remain part of the extended
community of Holy Trinity Seminary.”
Recipients
for the Basselin scholarship are selected after a competitive process from
among applicants from college seminaries throughout the United States. In the last three years, six of the fifteen
current Basselin scholars began their collegiate formation at Holy Trinity
Seminary. These most recent recipients
will join former Holy Trinity seminarians Joseph
De Orbegozo, Stephen Elser, both
of the Diocese of Little Rock, and Mark
Hebert of the Diocese of Beaumont as Basselin seminarians at Theological
College.
