2025 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar for Owen County Announced

The Owen County Community Foundation (OCCF) is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2025 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship for Owen County – Vishwa Patel of Owen Valley High School. Lilly Endowment Community Scholars are known for their community involvement, academic achievement, character, and leadership. 

“It is an honor to award this exceptional student the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship. Vishwa’s unwavering dedication to academics and extracurricular pursuits, along with her genuine passion for learning, embody the spirit of this prestigious award. We are confident that Vishwa’s ambition and talent will enable her to achieve her goal of becoming an engineer and make a meaningful impact in her field,” said Ronda Stogsdill, 2025 Committee Chair of the nominating OCCF Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Committee.  

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 required equipment for four years. The scholarship is for full-time undergraduate students leading to a baccalaureate degree at any eligible Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university. Lilly Endowment Community Scholars may also participate in the Lilly Scholars Network (LSN), which connects both current scholars and alumni 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) and Indiana Humanities. 

“This scholarship allows me to study stress free without having to worry about financial complications. It will keep me motivated for my future studies. I am grateful to have achieved this scholarship!” said Vishwa Patel, 2025 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar for Owen County. 

In determining Owen County’s Lilly Endowment Community Scholar nominees, consideration was given but not limited to, the following criteria: eligibility, academics, leadership and accomplishments, and interview by the OCCF Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Nominating Committee. After the field of applicants was narrowed down, nominees were submitted to ICI, the statewide administrator of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, which approves the final selection of the scholarship recipient. 

“This year we saw a deep field of scholarship applicants filled with students on their way to doing great things. Our Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship application process requires students to demonstrate academic excellence, community-mindedness, leadership, and communication skills, and we were thrilled with the quality of applications and interviews. These students are excellent role models for our communities, and they all demonstrate great potential in leading the next generation,” said Janet Rummel, President & CEO of the Owen County Community Foundation.  

Lilly Endowment created the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program for the 1997-98 school year. Since then, grant funding in excess of $490 million has supported more than 5,300 Indiana students who have received scholarships through the program. 

The primary purposes of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program are: 1) to help raise the level of educational attainment in Indiana; 2) to increase awareness of the beneficial roles Indiana community foundations can play in their communities; and 3) to encourage and support the efforts of current and past Lilly Endowment Community Scholars to engage with each other and with Indiana business, governmental, educational, nonprofit and civic leaders to improve the quality of life in Indiana generally and in local communities throughout the state.  

About the Owen County Community Foundation: The Owen County Community Foundation (OCCF) is a public charity founded in 1994 as a resource to connect caring individuals with causes they support, enabling them to make a charitable impact on the community. Since its founding, the OCCF has been able to grant more than $12 million to area nonprofit and charitable organizations in our community. The OCCF is committed to enhancing the quality of life for all citizens of Owen County, now and for generations to come. For more information, visit owencounty.org or call (812) 829-1725. 

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private 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. Although the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, 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.