Two Penn Seniors named 2024 Lilly Scholars

Penn High School has students who have been named 2024 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship recipients. The two seniors are Bella Schaetzle and Jayden Wang. Bella is the daughter of Penn Geography teacher Dan Schaetzle. She attended Walt Disney, Mary Frank and Discovery. Jayden attended Northpoint and Discovery.

 

 

The Lilly Endowment Scholarship is highly competitive awarding winners with four-year, full-tuition scholarships and a book stipend for the Indiana college or university of their choice. Awards are based on academic excellence, leadership, community service, employment history, written essays, personal recommendations, underrepresentation, and whether the student is the first generation of his/her family to attend college. The Community Foundation received more than 120 applications from 12 schools. Finalists’ names were submitted to Independent Colleges of Indiana for final selection.

 

Lilly Endowment Community Scholars may also participate in the Lilly Scholars Network (LSN), which connects scholars with resources and opportunities to be active leaders on their campuses and in their communities. Both the scholarship program and LSN are supported by grants from Lilly Endowment to Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI).

 

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion. The Endowment funds significant programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion. However, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.

 

Since 1997, Independent Colleges of Indiana has administered the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program statewide with funding provided by Lilly Endowment. Founded in 1948, ICI serves as the collective voice for the state’s 29 private, nonprofit colleges and universities. ICI institutions employ over 22,000 Hoosiers and generate a total local economic impact of over $5 billion annually. Students at ICI colleges have Indiana’s highest four-year, on-time graduation rates, and ICI institutions produce 30 percent of Indiana’s bachelor’s degrees while enrolling 20 percent of its undergraduates.