Howard Payne University celebrated Constitution Day on Friday, Sept. 17. Members of the Student Government Association (SGA) and the HPU Sumners Scholar program partnered with the staff of HPU’s Walker Memorial Library to provide educational opportunities and celebrate the ratification of the United States Constitution.

On Constitution Day, students from SGA and current Sumners Scholars were available in the academic buildings across campus to answer questions, direct students to the library and distribute pocket Constitutions. Prayer guides and opportunities to request prayers for the United States were available and were used in a group prayer time on the front steps of the Walker Memorial Library.

During the week of the event, an exhibit about the U.S. Constitution and the influence of Christianity on the principles of democracy was created and displayed in the Walker Memorial Library. Fact sheets, quotes, articles, books and pocket Constitutions were also made available as part of the exhibit.

The generosity of the Sumners Foundation allows rising juniors at HPU who are interested and invested in civic engagement and leadership to apply for admission into a highly competitive and richly rewarding scholarship program. Four scholars are selected each year as recipients of a two-year scholarship. The Foundation’s mission is “to encourage the study, teaching, and research into the science and art of self-government, to the end that the American People may understand the fundamental principles of democracy and be guided thereby in shaping governmental policies.”

For more information about the Sumners Foundation scholarship program, please visit www.hputx.edu/sumners.