“Not to sound cliche, but it really did mean the world to me to receive this scholarship,” Reidling says. “It is helping me reach my goals by paying for some of my tuition, which allows me to focus my attention on student teaching by easing that financial burden. I also have a family, so it is imperative and meaningful that I have the support of this scholarship to aid me on this journey. It has also opened up many meaningful conversations about Wayne Dempsey himself, and I am thankful that I was able to receive this scholarship in his honor.”

Dempsey, the longtime executive vice president and chief financial officer at Brenau, died in 2014 at age 65. He was an avid musician with an affinity for the piano, and he started Brenau on a journey before his death to replace all of its aging pianos with concert-quality Steinways.

Reidling plans to meld his music education studies with additional graduate studies to take him toward an unexpected vocation.

“I have experienced a call into ministry, which has led me to apply to be in the Master of Divinity program at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology,” he says. “I am proud to say that I have been accepted into the program and will start my graduate degree in the upcoming fall semester. I am sure that I will have the opportunity to bridge both of my disciplines, music and theology, sometime in my life.”