By Thad Williams
The Louisiana Tech Baptist Collegiate Ministry awards a chosen student with a scholarship to award the recipient for his or her qualities as a leader and to honor the memory of Tech alumnus Dennis Wallace.
The Dennis M. Wallace Scholarship is awarded to a single student each year who has demonstrated qualities of intentionality within the organization. People who are chosen have shown on multiple occasions that they frequently go out of their way to make connections with new people and show genuine kindness to them. In order to help students cover minimal costs such as books and housing, the scholarship grants them $200 per quarter for the entire year.
It is awarded through the BCM on behalf of Wallace’s family.
Madeline Blundell, a senior at Tech, was the recipient of the scholarship for this past school year. She has spent a large amount of her time at the BCM dedicated to meeting and forming relationships with anyone who walks through the doors.
“It was really… such an honor and it was very humbling,” Blundell said. “It wasn’t something to work towards, it was something that they notice about somebody.”
Not many people know about the scholarship or why it is awarded, but it is a way to honor the memory of this influential student from Tech and to show appreciation to students who continuously try to help others. While the scholarship does benefit students who currently attend Tech’s campus, the nature of the scholarship also serves to honor the life and memory of Wallace, as well as represent what the BCM stands for.
Dennis Wallace was a student who attended Tech back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and was involved in the former Baptist Student Union (BSU), now known as the BCM.
Wallace was always willing to help other students with their academic needs, according to Scott Sullivan, an alumnus of Tech who was a part of the BSU at the same time as Wallace.
A few years after graduating from Tech, Wallace was accidentally struck by a car, resulting in his unexpected death. After seeing the connections he had through the BSU and the impact he made, Wallace’s family worked with the organization to create the scholarship. The Dennis M. Wallace Scholarship not only represents and honors the life of Wallace, but it also helps to show how the BCM itself can work to benefit and serve anyone.
“That is where the [BCM] is at its best,” Sullivan said.
