The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program is designed to help raise the level of educational attainment in Indiana, increase awareness of the beneficial roles Indiana community foundations can play in their communities and encourage efforts of Lilly Endowment Community Scholars to engage with each other and with state leaders to improve quality of life in Indiana.
The Endowment believes that education at all levels is important to the personal, civic and economic well-being of Indiana’s residents and communities. This program aims to encourage many of Indiana’s most talented students to attend one of the state’s higher education institutions and, ultimately, pursue careers in Indiana.
The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program is administered by the Independent Colleges of Indiana and includes significant participation by the community foundations serving each of Indiana’s 92 counties.
Key Elements of the Program:
Who: Grant County high school seniors, with an unweighted GPA of 3.5 or higher, and a minimum SAT score of 1200 or ACT of 25. Applicants must plan to pursue a full-time baccalaureate course of study at an accredited public or private college or university in Indiana.
What: The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship covers tuition, required fees, and provides a special allocation of up to $900 per year for required books and equipment for four years of full-time undergraduate study leading to a bachelor’s degree at any accredited Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university.
When: Check the Applications & Timelines page here.
Where: The online application can be accessed under Applications & Timelines page here. Finalists are interviewed in person by the Lilly Scholarship Committee at the Community Foundation of Grant County office.
Why: The Lilly Endowment believes that education at all levels is important to the personal, civic, and economic well-being of Indiana’s residents and communities. This program aims to encourage many of Indiana’s most talented students to attend one of the state’s higher education institutions and, ultimately, pursue careers in Indiana.
How: Applicants are notified of the scholarship opportunity by their high school counselor, via social media, and by a postcard mailed to their home. The first round of the application process is done online and is reviewed blindly by a stellar committee including two previous Lilly scholars. The applicants are scored on their GPA, SAT or ACT, responsibility, personal statement essay, leadership essay, and community essay. The top applicants move on to the interview round. All finalists are asked the same 10 questions, and are evaluated on character, level of effective communication, passion for community/others, passion about future plans, and knowledge and response to a current event. The scores from the application round, and interview round are combined, and the two top-scored candidates are sent as recommendations to Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI) for their review and final approval. Once approved by ICI, we’re able to officially announce the Lilly Scholarship recipients to two high-quality Grant County individuals.
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