DECATUR COUNTY, IN — The Decatur County Community Foundation recently announced this year’s Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship recipient and the four DCCF Community Scholarship winners.
Lilly Endowment has selected Adam Mack, a senior at North Decatur Jr./Sr. High School, as this year’s Decatur County recipient. Lilly Endowment Community Scholars are known for their community involvement, academic achievement, character, and leadership.
Each Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship provides for full tuition, required fees, and a special allocation of up to $900 per year for required books and equipment for four years of undergraduate study on a full-time basis leading to a baccalaureate degree at any eligible Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university. Mack is the son of Tim and Debbie Mack. He is a senior patrol leader with the Boy Scouts of America; a student board member and volunteer with the Greensburg Community Bread of Life; a member of the National Honor Society; as well as a team captain for North Decatur’s cross-country team and member of the school’s drama club, among other activities.
The four remaining finalists for the Lilly Scholarship receive the DCCF Community Scholarship, one of the top awards offered through Decatur County Community Foundation. This year, the four finalists include Savannah Bower from South Decatur (daughter of Chris and Stephanie Bower); Christopher Gauck from North Decatur (son of Steve and Kimmie Gauck); South Decatur’s Allison Nobbe (daughter of Mitch and Lori Nobbe); and Jessica Williams from Greensburg High School (daughter of Tim and Lora Williams). Each of these students will receive a $5,000 scholarship from DCCF.
“We are very proud of all of these finalists,” said DCCF Scholarship Program Manager Jenny Schebler. “They are all outstanding students and excellent representatives of our community.”
The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship is a competitive award administered in Decatur County by the Decatur County Community Foundation. Fifty-seven Decatur County students began the multi-step process in August by completing an online application. A selection committee made up of local representatives evaluated each anonymous applicant’s citizenship, leadership, and personal attitude as demonstrated through involvement in the community, school activities, and jobs that they have held. Students were also evaluated on academics. The top five scores from this round of evaluations moved on to the finalist round, where they prepared and presented a speech to a new round of judges, along with answering some impromptu questions.
Nominees were then submitted to the statewide administrator of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, ICI, for the selection of scholarship recipients.
Lilly Endowment created the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program for the 1998-1999 school year and has supported the program every year since with tuition
grants totaling in excess of $439 million. More than 5,000 Indiana students have received the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship since the program’s inception.
(Decatur County Community Foundation press release)
