In the spring of 1986, with the help of their daughter, Renee Edwards Sensabaugh, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Thompson established a scholarship in memory of Mr. Thompson's grandmother. The Alma Saylor Sandefur Business Scholarship is a tribute to Mrs. Alma Sandefur, who was a guiding force behind her children's education.

Although she never went beyond the fourth grade herself, Alma Saylor Sandefur was committed to Christian higher education. In 1920, she and her husband, R.J., moved to Keene so their three youngest children could attend Southwestern Junior College. Her son, Cree, remembered she was so determined that her children have an education that she took her boys into hot cotton fields and worked with them for three or four weeks at a time to earn money for tuition and clothes. Her persistence and determination paid off. Today, well over a dozen of Mrs. Sandefur's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are alumni of Southwestern Adventist University.

Scholarship award requirements

Each year this scholarship is awarded to a business major on the basis of scholastic ability and exhibited potential.

Students Recipients 

2019-2020 -Ariel Infante

2018-2019 -Sharne Lazarus

2017-2018 -Mario Pena Jr., Stephanie Campos

2016-2017 - Jessica Sullivan, Mario Pena 

2015-2016 - Jessica Sullivan 

2014-2015 - Tony Seery 

2013-2014 - Anna Semakula

2012-2013 - Anna Semakula

2011-2012 - Michael Denny 

2010-2011 - Michael Denny