United Church Homes is introducing a new educational program, The Ralph C. and Sue Quellhorst Program for Leadership Endowment Fund Scholarship. The endowment fund is sponsored by the Rev. Ralph C. and the late Sue Quellhorst. A former conference minister for the Ohio Conference, Rev. Ralph Quellhorst has always been passionate about helping the community.

The endowment will be used to grant fellowships in support of staff education and development, professional internships for graduate and undergraduate students including co-op opportunities and job shadowing, pastoral leadership development in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), and field placements, as well as a new program for minority leadership development.

The inaugural Quellhorst Fellow is Cale Sandridge, who began an internship with United Church Homes in December 2014. A Heidelberg University senior who’s majoring in business administration and sports management, Cale is a scholar-athlete, president of Heidelberg’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes and treasurer of the ’Berg Enactus Organization.

During his internship with UCH’s Advancement Department, Cale’s ambition and dedication to learning has transformed his way of thinking. He applies the concept of our core values to his business classes at Heidelberg and the result is a young man prepared to make a difference in his future career and community. He made site visits to both housing and healthcare communities to better understand the UCH mission, and is conducting research, learning how the database software program works, and attending event-planning sessions to support donor events.

Cale recently visited Rev. Ralph Quellhorst, now a resident at Chapel Hill Community, to thank him for the opportunity provided by this program, and to develop relationships with donors that allow these funds to be available for students like him.

The Ralph C. and Sue Quellhorst Program for Leadership Endowment Fund Scholarship will provide diverse learning opportunities. With gifts like this, such opportunities match a donor’s passion to a need within UCH. The organization looks forward to the transformative leadership development and educational training.