Banet named HCCF Lilly winner
The Harrison County Community Foundation recently announced Isabelle Banet of North Harrison High School as the recipient of the 2022 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship for Harrison County.
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/equipment for four years of undergraduate study at any eligible Indiana public or private non-profit college or university.
“I have been working towards this scholarship since the beginning of my freshman year, and to finally be awarded it feels surreal,” Banet said. “Getting an interview was such an honor, let alone receiving it. I don’t think that it has hit me yet.
“I’m just so grateful and excited for this opportunity,” she said. “All my hard work will finally mean something. I want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way and made me the person I am today.”
Banet lives in Palmyra with her mother, Sally Banet, and sister, Amelia Banet. She has been involved in more than 15 different activities in high school, including Student Council, Youth Leadership of Harrison County, National Honor Society and president of Region 12 Business Professionals of America. Banet also volunteers at Harrison County Community Services.
Banet plans to major in education with a focus on mathematics to become a teacher at the secondary level and return to Harrison County.
When asked where she would find herself in 10 years, Banet said, “I see myself teaching in Harrison County, and, hopefully, I will have made resources available to adults and children who suffer from addiction or have been affected by it. In addition, I hope to create programs that allow students and families of Harrison County to have access to food and clothing at no additional cost.”
“I am so excited to say that I am a 2022 Lilly Scholar, and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me,” Banet said.
In August, Harrison County senior high school students began applying for the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship. Eighty-one applications were received. In October, a volunteer committee of six former HCCF board members participated in the interview process.
Six Harrison County applicants were interviewed, and the finalists’ names and applications were submitted to Independent Colleges of Indiana, which administers the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program statewide for a final decision. ICI is a non-profit corporation representing 29 regionally accredited degree-granting, non-profit private colleges and universities in the state.
The primary purposes of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program are to help raise the level of educational attainment in Indiana; to increase awareness of the beneficial roles Indiana community foundations can play in their communities; and 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.
Lilly Endowment created the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program for the 1998-99 school year and has supported the program each year since with tuition grants totaling more than $439 million. Since the program’s inception, more than 5,000 Indiana students have received the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship.
To learn more about HCCF’s scholarship programs, contact Heather Stafford, director of programs, at 812-738-6668 or by mail at [email protected]
