Lilly recipient: Emily Mathews

In Clark and Floyd counties the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship was awarded to four deserving students, including one of our own, senior Emily Mathews.

“I found out that I was going to be awarded the Lilly the day after I was supposed to find out,” Mathews said. “When I didn’t hear anything the day they told I would find out, I told everyone that I didn’t get it and I was sad. So, when I did find out, of course, I was excited, but I was also relieved and very happy.”

Since the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program was first offered in 1998, Lilly Endowment has remained in its belief that education at all levels is indispensable to the personal, civic and economic well-being of 

Indiana’s residents and communities.

The scholarship includes full four-year tuition to any school in Indiana of the recipients’ choice. Achieving the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship is not easy to do, as one can imagine. The application process is quite short compared to most; however the application has a GPA requirement of at least 3.5 and the essay questions have a 250 word max.

The deadline for the application was September 11. After the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana went through all of the applicants they chose semi-finalists. These semi-finalists were interviewed by the Community Foundation of Southern Indiana.  

“The hardest part of the Lilly was the interview part,” Mathews said. “ I was so nervous, I even spelled my name wrong on the sign-in sheet. They drilled me with questions, so I tried to be myself, and just be true to what I wanted for my future. I’m glad that worked.”

In addition to selecting the recipients, the Lilly Endowment Community selected alternates in each county in the event that the chosen recipients decide a college out of Indiana, which will disqualify them, simply because a recipient must go to a college in the state of Indiana. Lilly recipients must declare his or her college choice and course of study by May 1, 2018.