Four Seniors Await Lily Results

The Class of 2022 Lilly Endowment Scholarship finalists have been selected, and four finalists from Paoli were chosen: Haley Cox, Aidan Dooley, Michael Hannon and Gracie Walls. Nine Orange county students total are still in the running.

According to Lilly Endowment Inc., the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program is designed to help raise the level of educational attainment in Indiana, increase awareness of the beneficial roles community foundations can play in their communities and encourage efforts of Lilly Endowment Community Scholars to engage with each other and state leaders to improve quality of life in Indiana.

The Lilly Scholarship recipients will receive free tuition to a public or private college in Indiana for four years. The scholarship does not cover room and board.

To qualify for this scholarship, students had to be in the top 25% of their class, score a 1200+ on the SAT and be a U.S. citizen. Each applicant had to include in the scholarship application their community involvement, academic achievements, sports involvement and personal life information. Two essays and a high school transcript were also required when submitting the application. These finalists also had to participate in a timed essay after being selected.

“It would be amazing to receive this scholarship. I want to attend optometry school after receiving my bachelor’s degree, so having some of that college paid for already would be a blessing. All finalists have worked hard to get to this point, but I feel like my community involvement and hard work in school puts me at a slight advantage. I have applied to numerous other scholarships, but none of them are as important as this one,” said Walls.

The scholarship will be presented in December, and nonselected students will be notified if they are not selected.

Story by Makiya Russelburg