New AGWM Pennington Family Scholarship

New scholarship honors late NCU student, service in missions

At the North Central University Commencement exercises on Dec. 12, 2020, President Scott Hagan, Ph.D., announced that the university’s scholarship for children of Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) missionaries would be named the AGWM Pennington Family Scholarship, in honor of Micah Pennington, a member of the graduating class who passed away in January 2020.

Micah’s parents Steve and Trina Pennington, who have served as career AGWM missionaries in Africa, were present at the ceremony to receive Micah’s diploma. They were moved to tears at the president’s announcement, grateful that their son’s name would be honored and remembered in this way. At Micah’s memorial service last January, students and employees stepped up to the microphone to articulate how Micah noticed everyone and helped them feel included. He was well known on campus as a member of the NCU Housekeeping team and beloved by those who knew him across campus—students, faculty, and staff. At the initiative of the Housekeeping team, a work closet in the College Life Center was dedicated and named “Micah’s Housekeeping Lounge” in his honor.

Sustain missionaries, support students

The AGWM scholarship had been implemented three years ago in response to critical needs observed by North Central University President Scott Hagan, Ph.D. “When I heard there were missionaries who were leaving the field because they could not afford to send their kids to college, it broke my heart,” Hagan explained. “We are providing full-tuition scholarships for all qualified dependent children of Assemblies of God World Missionaries.”

The AGWM MK Scholarship Fund was created to alleviate the financial burden of college tuition for children of AGWM missionaries, allowing them to continue the Lord’s work in the field of their calling. The renaming of the scholarship to the Pennington Family Scholarship serves to honor the life of one “missionary kid,” Micah Pennington, his family who has faithfully sacrificed and served in overseas missions, and all who serve to bring the Gospel “so that all may know” the redeeming news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.