Highlights

Campus News

Wildcat Weekly Minute for Nov. 17, 2011

A look at what's happening on campus this week.

Faith

Cleansed through the Cross

Dr. Quarles speaks on the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice at weekly chapel

Sports

LC hoops teams wrap up homestand with pair of wins

Off to Ozarks, UT-Dallas next

Organizations

LC media student give to Toys for Tots

More than 100 toys will help local charity

Campus Life

February is Heart Health Awareness Month

Stay healthy and 'God Red'

Culture

All the Shakespeare you could laugh at… and more!

tlc's adaptation of 'Shakespeare Abridged' pulls out all the stops

Special Coverage

LC brings another successful ‘Follow the Star’

'Christmas on the Hill' and 'Gala' add to festive weekend

Illinois student wins 2010 Smith Scholarship

by Al Quartemont

50 students compete in largest turnout ever

In a room full of highly-talented and qualified high school seniors vying for the opportunity to have their college experience paid for, one of the 50 students who packed the Granberry Conference Center Saturday stood out for a simple reason - she was the only one not from Louisiana.

But a few moments later, after the names of all the participants were read by LC Director of Enrollment, Byron McGee, she would stand out again. Kara Parikh, a home-schooled student from Round Lake Beach, Ill. had become the 2010 Clyde and Elizabeth Smith Memorial Scholarship winner. With that, Parikh will begin the next step in what she believes is a call to become a medical missionary - with all tuition, and room and board for your years at LC now paid for.

"I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but praise God," Parikh said just moments after learning she had won. "My dad is a bi-vocational pastor. So, there's not a whole lot of money there for school. What I told the panel (of instructors who conducted the scholarship interview) is the sooner I can get out of debt, the sooner I can get out on the mission field."

Parikh was chosen from among the other students following a morning of interviews, leadership exercises, and a group discussion. The final decision was made by a panel of LC faculty and staff members.

Seeing the hand of God in their lives is nothing new for Parikh and her family. Her father was born in India. He came to America to study engineering and architecture at Carnegie Mellon University - at the time, he was one of only six students from around the world to be given a scholarship to attend there.

Later, while living with an uncle in Houston, Bob Parikh became a Christian. Immediately, his parents disowned him and the rest of his family rejected him, including the uncle in Houston. Bob wound up living with another uncle in Pittsburgh. But when that uncle found out Bob was a Christian, he kicked his nephew out of the house and onto a snow-filled street just a few days before Christmas.

"I thought if you went out in the snow, you would die," Bob recalled. "(My uncle) said, 'go tell Jesus - ask him to take care of you.' Here I was, out in the street in the richest country in the world. In India, a poor country, I lived like a king."

With nowhere else to go, Bob was taken in by another Indian family in his church. It was at that church he met his future wife, Mary. Later, they both attended the same Bible college. Bob would go on to the seminary. Eventually, they wound up in Round Lake Beach, a community just north of Chicago, where he currently is the pastor of a Southern Baptist Church.

The Parikh family had never heard about Louisiana College until recently. Bob said he thought LC was a secular school when he first heard about it. But a friend told him about LC's connection to the Southern Baptists. When the family found out LC boasts one of the top pre-med programs in Louisiana, they made a phone call and wound up speaking with LC President, Dr. Joe Aguillard.

When Dr. Aguillard informed them of the college's intent to pursue a medical school of its own, the family, which also has a son attending Pensacola Christian College, thought LC might be the place for Karat. The only question - how to pay for it. Question answered.

"We knew God would provide, we just didn't know how," Bob Parikh said. "We had a lot of people praying for her. Seems like God answered the prayers and chose to provide for her through this scholarship, and we are so thankful to the people who made it possible."


NOTES: The Clyde and Elizabeth Smith Scholarship began in the early 1980s as a donation from Tom and Beverly Durham. The Durhams currently live in Texas and could not attend Saturday's competition.

The 50 students who competed for this year's scholarship mark the largest group LC has had compete. Each student has applied for admission to LC next year and had to have scored a 28 or better on the ACT to be invited. Those who competed but did not win also receive partial scholarship money.

Last year's Smith Scholarship winner, Mary Unsworth, spoke to the audience that attended the banquet. Unsworth talked about how coming to LC has allowed her to "rediscover" herself.

"Whether I'm in History, English or Astronomy, the teachers teach with a Christian world view," Unsworth said. "People are teaching me through their lives, teaching is their passion. They make me want to reach out to God."

"Even if they don't call our name (as scholarship winner), God might be calling you to LC. Three of my four best friends were my toughest competition last year."

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