Howard Payne University junior Sarah Abigail “Abi” Brown was recently named the first recipient of the Jack White Character Scholarship.

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Brown, an art education major from May, Texas, is active in the HPU Baptist Student Ministry, serving on the BSM leadership team and as a leader of the Pray and Do ministry. She also serves at May First Baptist Church as a youth leader, is a member of honors organization Gamma Beta Phi and is a student worker at the Walker Memorial Library.

“I feel very honored to be the first recipient of the Jack White scholarship,” said Brown. “It’s for being of good, moral character in and out of class, so that makes the scholarship a great honor.”

The scholarship was started in 2018 in memory of Jack White by his wife, Mikki Senkarik, and former Baylor University football head coach Grant Teaff. Funding for the scholarship was aided through the sale of a painting honoring White by Senkarik and a donation from Teaff and his wife, Donell. Teaff and White had a lasting friendship that began shortly after Teaff was hired at Baylor and requested that White create new artwork for the team.

Senkarik, along with Coach Teaff, had the opportunity to meet Brown when the scholarship was presented to her.

“Abi is just precious. Her artwork impressed me very much,” said Senkarik. “She’s a wonderful person with a generous spirit and her faith makes me proud. I know Jack would have loved to have met her and would be proud of her too.”

Jack White graduated from HPU in 1955 and went on to become a Master Oil Painter. Through the course of his career, he painted portraits of President Lyndon B. Johnson, NBA player Julius Erving, McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc and Dallas Cowboys’ head coach Tom Landry. He was named a State Artist of Texas in 1975.

To learn more about donation options to this scholarship fund and others HPU offers to its students, please visit www.hputx.edu/give.

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