Scholarship Quotes

2025 Recipients

I’m so grateful to you for helping make the conference happen and to JWHA for the truly pivotal scholarship funding. JWHA’s intellectual and material support have blessed me beyond my ability to measure.
 
My experience as a scholarship recipient this year was as excellent as ever. The labor burden was very light, for the most part encompassing only staffing the registration table on Thursday. This was, to be fair, no small thing and lasted from approximately 3 PM until 7 PM, but for the rest of the conference my time was my own. When I checked in with Cheryle Grinter, she would encourage me to partake of the conference’s offerings. And I like staffing the registration table every year, as I get a chance to greet friends and acquaintances as well as refresh myself on or learn names of attendees. This is a great opportunity for a student to feel less like a stranger or interloper and more like a part of the Association.
 
The conference programming was wonderful. When I presented, audiences were encouraging, and co-panelists and chairs offered much appreciated feedback. The bus excursion felt overwhelmingly special, and having the reception meals plus the comp’d presidential banquet as a scholarship recipient was much appreciated as a way to get the most out of the conference and worry less about leaving the venue for meals and missing out on conference events or opportunities to interact with friends, mentors, and colleagues.
 
If I have a regret it’s that I didn’t end up spending more time with my fellow scholarship recipients. After the first day, we all seemed to be pulled in so many directions. Could JWHA fit into the schedule a student reception that would bring together not only the scholarship recipients but also any other students attending? Sometimes while reading about the New Mormon History, I see these mentions of folks hanging out for hours after the day’s programming ends, scenes like a young Jan Shipps, Michael Quinn, and others geeking out together into the early morning hours, and I find myself craving a similar experience instead of the mild loneliness of bundling off to our separate accommodations that seems to happen every night in our present JWHA conferences. I realize that I may well be looking at things through rose-tinted glasses and through nostalgia for a time I didn’t myself experience. Yet still, I wonder if at least something like the spirit of that would be possible. A reception maybe could extend the time available for peer-to-peer conversation, maybe not past midnight as in the most grandiose “old days” stories, but maybe past 9 or 10 PM or something. Of course, I also realize that “what if we sleep less and talk more” isn’t necessarily the healthiest suggestion, and plenty of my student peers are more insistent than me about getting to bed at a timely hour, so I can’t promise that all other students would share my enthusiasm for late night chatter. I guess I’m a bit of a sap. I light up around JWHA friends and amid our delightfully geeky conversations about the details of Restoration history, and I long for more time together. –Makoto Hunter
 
The scholarship and conference as a whole were incredibly valuable for me. It not only gave me the opportunity to pursue unique research, but also allowed me to connect with other scholars whose perspectives I learned a great deal from. The sessions left me significantly more excited and motivated to continue my research on LDS history. I also appreciated how the program highlighted the importance of young scholars’ voices. I am not sure of what I would improve, but I will let you know if I think of anything. Overall, this experience was an incredible encouragement at this stage in my scholarly journey, and I am grateful for the support. Thank you again! –Grace Guentzel

2024 International Recipient Shares Her Experience

Allegra Goldstraß, a Center for Religious Studies (CERES) student at the Ruhr Universität Bochum, talks about her experience as a 2024 John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA) Scholarship recipient. We hope her insights will inspire others to apply for future scholarships and help them get the most out of their experience at the JWHA annual conference.  Watch her interview.

2024 Recipients

I’m so incredibly grateful for my JWHA conference experience and scholarship. This was the first historical conference I had ever attended or presented at, and I learned A LOT. It was refreshing to meet so many of you and learn more deeply about our shared tradition. –Zachary Brady

I‘m very grateful that I was given the opportunity to travel to the US to attend the JWHA conference and present my research. Meeting new people, making connections, and getting some valuable input on the content of my presentation has helped me to gain new perspectives and ideas that will continue to help me further my research in the future. –Allegra Goldstraß

I remain overwhelmed by JWHA’s incredible generosity to students through the scholarship award and am so grateful to have been selected as a recipient. Even the request to provide volunteer service as part of receiving the scholarship is itself less burden and more blessing! By volunteering at the registration desk, I got to have a personal interaction with almost every attendee, getting to know the breadth of our association and the depth of our camaraderie. To any student who submits a paper proposal to the JWHA conference, I would say to make sure that the very next thing you do is apply for the scholarship. The application process is painless, and the potential outcome, from financial support to making connections, is well worth it. And hopefully, like me, you’ll be hooked on the conference! –Makoto Hunter

2023 Recipients

No words can sufficiently express the appreciation I feel for the generous scholarship JWHA gave me this fall. Thanks to the award granted, I was able to provide adequate childcare for our preschooler in order to leave my family and make the drive from Bentonville, Arkansas to Fredericksburg. The friendships and scholarly bonds that were created at this year’s conference would not have been possible without the generous support of JWHA donors. From my family to yours, thank you. –Robyn Spears

2022 Recipients

This was my first time attending the John Whitmer Historical Association’s annual conference, but I hope it won’t be the last. I attended as a presenter, volunteer, and student, and in every capacity JWHA was a treat. The feedback I received on my paper was both encouraging and thought-provoking and even helped work out a point of confusion in my research. As a volunteer, there was work, but it was flexible and meaningful, and I was happy to help make the conference happen. And as a student, I was floored by how much mentorship association members extended to me. Longtime members and scholars whose work I recognized and admired frequently paused to introduce themselves to me and discuss their research and listen to my own. I hope to make it back to JWHA very soon and to see it thrive for another fifty years.  –Makoto Hunter (she/her/hers)

My experience as a scholarship winner was career- and life-changing. The opportunity to do research, to present on research, and to mingle with scholars and historians who I respect and admire was invaluable to me as a student. Everyone Allegra Goldstraß, a Center for Religious Studies (CERES) student at the Ruhr Universität Bochum, talks about her experience as a 2024 John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA) Scholarship recipient. We hope her insights will inspire others to apply for future scholarships and help them get the most out of their experience at the JWHA annual conference.at the conference was so welcoming and so kind and made me feel like I was an old friend instead of a new attendee and young student. My experiences at the conference, including the awards ceremony, the volunteering, the panels, the banquet, and the other events were handled professionally, and were enjoyable and worthwhile. I would recommend this experience to any student engaged in Restoration research, and particularly to those who are thinking of pursuing that kind of research in the future. It was an unforgettable and pivotal experience for me.  –Michael Burnham

As a first-time attendee at JWHA, and as a first-time scholarship recipient, I had no idea what to expect. Happily, I was greeted by so many happy welcomers, I immediately felt right at home. As I spent the next several hours meeting registered guests at check-in, I felt the magnitude of what exactly was happening grow in my mind: scholars, researchers, and history enthusiasts all gathering for a weekend of phenomenal research discussions and a growing, fecund field of meaningful mentorship. I entered Independence as a hesitant doctoral student from the neighboring University of Arkansas, and left JWHA feeling supported, sought after, valued, and appreciated. Just what I needed! Thank you!  –Robyn Shahan Spears

I have attended conferences associated with the Restoration Movement for years. Some were apologetic in nature, others primarily devotional, and still others academically focused. While I always had the opportunity to interact with other attendees, I sincerely feel like JWHA had a degree of social intimacy that the others did not have.  I was able to interact with scholars and hobbyists, fellow servants, and dissidents, alike. And what’s more, it was all on a friendly and often insightful basis. I have a newfound respect for the organization and look forward to a continued association in the years to come.  –Justin Martinez