Grant will fund 'Shakespeare in the Schools' initiative

GREENCASTLE -- DePauw University is among four of Indiana's independent colleges and universities which have been selected as the 2010 winners of the Ball Brothers Foundation Venture Fund competitive grant program.

DePauw and Franklin College, Hanover College, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College will share seed funding for campus start-up initiatives aimed at stimulating creativity and innovation and fostering competition and collaboration among the state's 31 independent campuses.

DePauw's award totals $15,000. The funds will be used to develop and implement "Shakespeare in the Schools," a semester-long program focusing on the work of William Shakespeare, for each of Putnam County's four public high schools.

Established by the Ball Brothers Foundation (Muncie, Indiana) and administered by the Independent Colleges of Indiana, the Ball Brothers Foundation Venture Fund has disbursed more than $750,000 for 34 innovative initiatives on Indiana's independent campuses over the past twelve years.

The 2010 recipients were chosen by a panel of judges from a field of 29 proposals submitted by 20 ICI member colleges and universities.

Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc. (ICI) is a nonprofit corporation that represents the state's 31 nonprofit, accredited, undergraduate degree-granting institutions of higher education. Learn more at the organization's Web site, www.icindiana.org.