SYRACUSE - Both of this year’s Lilly Endowment Scholars were sitting in the same AP Honors English class at Wawasee High School this morning when they got the news.
Their parents, who had figured out what the big announcement was by the time they got to the school, paraded into the class at 8:30 a.m. with the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, school officials and local media.
Community Foundation CEO Stephanie Overbey then called Grant Krull, son of Shawn and Lissa Krull, and Allison Clark, daughter of Alan and Diana Clark, to the front of the classroom to present them the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarships.

    Kosciusko County Community Foundation CEO Stephanie Overbey (L) announces Wawasee High School seniors Grant Krull and Allison Clark are this year’s Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship recipients. Also pictured are the parents of Krull and Clark and Community Foundation staff. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
  

The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship is a four-year, full-tuition scholarship that allows each of the recipients to attend the Indiana university of their choice, she explained. The Community Foundation is able to select two recipients from Kosciusko County.
“The way that we do that is through a blind selection process where the committee has no access whatsoever to the names of the applicants. They’re looking at the application based on a few criteria,” Overbey said.
In explaining the criteria, she said scholarship reviewers evaluate each application on academic excellence, community service, extracurricular involvement, work experience, references and essay responses.
Overbey then read information on WHS senior Grant Krull, who plans to major in mechatronics engineering technology at Purdue University. She asked him to explain what mechatronics was.
“It’s the study of electronics in everyday use and the electronic and physical side, both. How that interfaces,” he said.

    Senior Grant Krull is one of two Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship recipients from Wawasee High School. Pictured (L to R) Lissa, Grant and Shawn Krull. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
  

Grant will graduate with honors in May 2024. He has been active at Camp Mack as a volunteer, a 10-year 4-H member, Swaggers Youth Group, Wawasee FFA and Kosciusko Junior Leaders. His WHS extracurriculars include the Super Mileage Team, Iron Pride VEX Robotics, Thespian Troupe, Academic Super Bowl, National Honor Society, cheer squad, unified football and track teams and swim team.
Some of his references described him as always kind, respectful, shows genuine care for others, a valuable mentor to others, eager to gain knowledge, embraces exploration and discovery of new ideas.
On WHS senior Allison Clark, Overbey said she plans to major in biology and will graduate with honors in May 2024. Allison said she “probably” will go to Purdue, too.
Allison also has been very active in community service, including the North Webster Church of God, Kosciusko Youth Leadership Academy and Warsaw Adult Education. Additionally, Overbey said, Allison was a member of the Wawasee tennis team, book club, robotics team, Academic Super Bowl, National Honor Society, Key Club, environmental club and FFA.
In describing Allison, her references said she constantly displays empathy towards those who are hurting and she looks to comfort others. She always does the right thing, no matter the situation, and there is no “I can’t” in her. She works hard until she accomplishes her goals.
“It’s really nice to not think about the possible debt that I could have been in if I didn’t get the Lilly,” Grant said after the presentation.

    Senior Allison Clark is one of two Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship recipients from Wawasee High School. Pictured (L to R) are Diana, Allison and Alan Clark. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.
  

He said he knew he had a higher chance of receiving the scholarship just because he had been involved in many extracurricular activities and community service hours.
“I’m shocked,” Allison said about receiving the scholarship. “It’s really cool that I don’t have to deal with paying for college that much.”
She said she knew she had some sort of chance of being a recipient but she didn’t think she would actually get it. “It’s a little bit of a shock.”
Alan Clark said it was wonderful his daughter received the scholarship and he and Diana were proud of both of their daughters.
“It just proves that hard work and being a good person pays off,” Alan said. “It opens up a lot of doors for her, places she might not have gone before in Indiana just because of the cost. It’s nice. It takes a lot of stress off people.”
He said Allison applied to a lot of schools and wasn’t sure she had completely decided where she was going, but the Lilly Scholarship opens up other possibilities to her, like the University of Notre Dame.
Alan taught at Warsaw Community High School for a long time and taught honors math, so he had a lot of students who received the Lilly Scholarship.
“So, (WHS Principal) Mr. (Geoff) Walmer called my wife yesterday and we pretty much knew (Allison received the scholarship). The time of the year, they’re not calling us in there for just anything. So we had a real good idea that’s what it was. Just from our background, we kind of knew,” he stated.
Regarding Grant earning the Lilly Scholarship, Lissa Krull said he has worked really hard for a long time since he was a little kid.
“He has always been involved. He doesn’t like to stay inactive. He’s always doing something. When he comes home, it’s like, ‘Mom, I’m going to try this.’ And we just always laughed or were like, ‘OK! Great! No problem.’ We always encouraged him, and he really has followed his own heart and path,” Lissa said.
She said it was amazing and overwhelming to know that college is paid for him.
“He was really concerned with college debt. When we went to school, we weren’t really concerned with that. You were like, ‘Oh, I’m going to college.’ That was foremost in his mind - how he was going to get out of college without much debt, so this really alleviates a lot of that,” Lissa said.
Grant also really loved doing every activity he was involved in, she continued.
“We watched him do things behind the scenes that most kids wouldn’t do. He would always volunteer for stuff, and it’s not the fun, glorious stuff. It’s the stuff behind the scenes,” she stated.
Walmer said having two Lilly Scholars from Wawasee this year is exciting.
“It just speaks volumes to the hard work our kids are putting in, and they’re following the lead of the very hardworking and intentional work our teachers and staff are doing, but to see it pay off - kids buying into the teachers and buying into the education that we’re offering here - and then they take it and their talents to get to the whole next level, and so to see two from here, it’s humbling, because our county has so many bright, bright students. And there are so many other deserving students from Wawasee, Warsaw, Whitko, Tippy - but to know that this year, two of them happen to be Warriors, it’s pretty special,” he stated.
While Walmer didn’t know offhand how many Wawasee students were Lilly Scholars over the history of the program, he stated in his five years as principal they’ve had five Lilly Scholars.
“It’s an emotional time, and these kids are amazing. And to know that they get to have the burden taken off them the next four years, gosh, it brings a lot of pride!” he concluded.
Wawasee Superintendent Dr. Steve Troyer commented, “It’s really special. We had this a couple years ago, too, and it’s always exciting when Wawasee has a winner to begin with, but to have two in the same year is really cool.”
He said Walmer and the WHS team have been thrilled just to have students in the mix, and that’s a testament to the work the kids are doing.
Wawasee alone had 17 applicants this year, Troyer said Walmer told him, and “to have a couple of them be successful, it just sets them up really well for their next step, and we’re really proud of the work that they’re doing, not only academically but they’re really good kids as well. Congrats to them and to the folks at the high school. It’s a great reflection on Wawasee High School and the work and the efforts they’ve been doing over the last couple years to really enhance the academic reputation here. So, kudos to them!”