Darby Renfro had mentally made a selfless decision about college.
The Grenada, Mississippi freshman was drawn to Mississippi College in Clinton and felt that, somehow, she would wind up there. But her brother, one year older, planned to pursue ministry, and she knew the Christian university would be a great preparatory environment for him.
“There was kind of no way financially that we could send both my brother and me here,” she said. Until the university announced its new Leland Speed Scholarship for Mississippi residents last fall. The scholarship, made possible by a gift from MC’s longest-serving board member, offers free tuition to freshmen and transfer students from Mississippi that meet the university’s admissions requirements.
This fall, Renfro and her brother are both at MC as recipients of the new scholarship. At a time when college costs are increasing at an unsustainable rate, Speed was a futuristic thinker who had an answer to the challenge so many students face, said Michael Wright, MC’s dean of enrollment management.
“The whole concept is really removing the barrier of cost of premium Christian higher education,” he said.
The university’s mission is to offer both academic excellence and a commitment to the cause of Christ, Wright said — values Speed also embraced.
“That’s really what he believed in too, and that’s why he wanted to remove that barrier to Mississippi residents,” Wright noted.
Helping students find their mission
The name Leland Speed isn’t unfamiliar to MC students and alumni.
The library is named for Speed’s father, a one-time mayor of Jackson. The younger Speed, who died in 2021, served for decades as a trustee.
His scholarship has brought exponential growth and some dramatic shifts to life on campus. Whereas MC used to host around 300 people at its preview days, Wright said, the most recent events have seen more than 800. In fact, many of the university’s statistics have seen increases of 100% or more. Applicants increased from around 2,500 freshmen and transfers to just over 4,000 this year.
Dorms are full because living on campus is a requirement for recipients; Speed wanted students to have the full MC experience, Wright said. Before the scholarship, in-state students comprised 55–58% of the university’s incoming class. This year, the split is decidedly more local: 75% of this year’s freshmen and transfer students are from Mississippi.
Right place, right time
Transfer student Eli Cooper was playing football at a community college and planning a career as a football coach. But as he sought the Lord, Cooper said, he sensed a different call on his life.
MC felt like the right place to pursue his call to ministry, but he applied a month after the deadline and got on the university’s waiting list. Once he was accepted, the Forest, Mississippi student received the Speed Scholarship and enrolled at MC this fall.
Currently, Cooper feels led toward pastoral ministry. His college experience has been a huge blessing in his life because he has no doubt God is calling him to ministry, he said. “The Leland Speed Scholarship is just making me stepping into God’s calling a whole lot easier.”
