Written by: Lily Amback / News & Opinion editor and Josiah Steele / Staff writer
The Lilly Endowment Scholarship is one of the most rewarded scholarships that students can receive. It offers the recipient a full ride scholarship to any Indiana school of their choice.
To apply for the scholarship, a student must write multiple essay-styled paragraphs about their activities, service learning projects and, surprisingly, even who they would like to eat dinner with, dead or alive.
New Palestine’s two Lilly Scholarship finalists this year are seniors Isabelle Singer and Heidi Bloomer.
“I think just making sure my essays and paragraphs I wrote were clear and very detailed, and I made sure that I highlighted everything that I was involved in, that was probably the most challenging part,” Singer said.
The reason this was so challenging is because both Singer and Bloomer have participated in lots of activities.
“I have not done too many (service projects) that I’ve headed because I’ve helped out a lot,” Bloomer said.
Both Bloomer and Singer helped with the Special Olympics. Bloomer helped at Indiana State University’s summer Special Olympics; meanwhile, Singer participated in New Palestine’s unified track and swimming.
Along with school projects, Bloomer also is heavily involved in her church.
“One that I recently did was a 5K for our community at my church, Zion Lutheran. We held a 5K to raise funds for a youth center that we took this past summer to organize,” Bloomer said.
Singer also lends her time to outside organizations, including her church among other things.
“I helped a lot with my church, that was a big part, and, in Greenfield, I helped with a theater group called ‘Children’s Theater’ in the summer,” Singer said.
Bloomer was inspired to apply for the Lilly Scholarship when she saw New Pal graduate Emma Mann become a finalist in 2022.
“It was a few years ago when Emma Mann…entered for it and she became a finalist. So I really looked up to her. She didn’t really know me and I don’t really know her, but I just thought that all that she did was really great and I really looked up to that,” Bloomer said. “So when the opportunity came out and I started talking to my mom about it, it’s been a goal since freshman year to apply and see where it takes me.”
Bloomer and Singer have their top colleges narrowed down. Bloomer would like to go to Indiana State University or Huntington University, a private Christian college in Huntington, Indiana. Singer has her list narrowed down to Purdue specifically.
Bloomer would like to go into occupational therapy and Singer would like to study tourism management.
Singer said she didn’t seek this scholarship solely for the money, but for the experience.
“It is one of the most, not challenging, but very time-consuming applications to apply for and to fill out. And so, I knew if I could fill out that scholarship, I could fill out any other scholarship, because all the other ones are much easier and not as time-consuming,” Singer said.
