Application open for 2017 Lilly Community Scholarship

Sunday, August 7, 2016

The Putnam County Community Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2017 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship.

The online application is available on the Community Foundation website, www.pcfoundation.org.

This prestigious scholarship will provide full tuition and fees for four years' attendance at any Indiana college or university.

Selection criteria for the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship is based on scholastic abilities and intellectual pursuits, capacity to lead and motivate fellow students, social commitment and extracurricular involvement, and the ability to articulate career plans that demonstrate motivation and initiative.

"It is a significantly earlier timeframe this year," Dean Gambill, director of Community Development, noted. "In the past, our scholarship application deadline for all of our scholarships was early January."

The early timeline is the result of a recommendation from community foundations who participated in a statewide evaluation of the program conducted by Lilly Endowment in 2015. During the evaluation process, a number of community foundations suggested that identifying Lilly Scholars earlier in the school year would give more time for them to decide which college or university to attend.

The 2017 Putnam County Lilly Endowment Community Scholar will be named in mid-December 2016. Previous scholarship recipients were identified in April of the year they graduated from high school. The change affects the program for all Indiana community foundations.

"The 2017 scholar will receive our community's 36th Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship," said Putnam County Community Foundation Executive Director Elaine Peck. "We are thrilled to provide this scholarship opportunity to Putnam County students."

The timeline for the remaining scholarships administered by the Putnam County Community Foundation will remain the same. The online application will be available beginning Nov. 1 and must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Jan. 13, 2017.

The Putnam County Community Foundation is a nonprofit public charity established in 1985 to serve donors, award grants and provide leadership, enriching the quality of life and strengthening community in Putnam County.

The Foundation administers more than 270 funds and endowments, supporting a variety of charities. Questions about scholarships should be directed to Gambill at 653-4978 or dgambill@pcfoundation.org.

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