Seniors at PHS have the opportunity to apply for and receive the Lilly Scholarship each year. The Lilly Scholarship covers tuition, required fees and provides a special allocation of up to $900 per year. This money is used 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. Seniors Lauren Rutherford, Aron Busick and EB Kerby are the scholarship finalists from Paoli. These students had to write a timed essay and had a formal interview with the Lilly panelists.

“At the moment, I still do not know where I want to attend next fall, and honestly, the Lilly Scholarship will not influence my decision of where I go. But getting the Lilly Scholarship would be such a great accomplishment because you are competing with the top kids from the entire county. To be selected as a finalist is such an award, but to actually be able to graduate college debt free would be such an amazing opportunity and relief,” said Kerby.

To be eligible for the Lilly Scholarship, students must be in the top 25 percent of their graduating class, score 1,000 or better on the SAT and be on track to obtain an academic honors diploma.

“I plan to attend Indiana State University if I were to get the Lilly Scholarship to major in exercise science to become an athletic trainer,” said Busick.

Each student who applied for the Lilly Scholarship went through an application process and the top students from Paoli High School, Orleans High School and Springs Valley High School were selected to move on to the next round.

“If I were to be awarded the Lilly Endowment Scholarship, I would plan to attend Rose-Hulman to study biochemistry. After obtaining my degree, I would seek employment at the Eli Lilly Company considering they focus around medicine development and that is what I plan to pursue a career in,” said Rutherford.

These finalists are currently waiting for the final decision on the Lilly recipient, which should be decided in the near future.