KCCF Names Lilly Endowment Scholarship RecipientsTwo Kosciusko County students have been named recipients of four-year, full-tuition scholarships as the Kosciusko County Community Foundation 2010 Lilly Endowment Community Scholars.
Cassady Palmer and Collin Abbott will receive full tuition to the Indiana colleges of their choice and $800 yearly stipends for required books and equipment.
Cassady Palmer is a senior at Wawasee High School. She is the daughter of Dave and Leslie Palmer. Cassady plans to attend Indiana University and study political science. Cassady is ranked first in her graduating class. She holds a grade point average of 11.76 on a 12-point scale.
She has contributed more than 350 hours of community service to nine different organizations and has held part-time jobs in addition to managing the varsity boys basketball and football teams. Her awards are numerous including being named Scholar Athlete and attending Hoosier Girls State. Cassady's references described her as dedicated, focused and a leader.
Collin Abbott is a senior at Warsaw Community High School. He is the son of Joseph and Elaine Abbott. He plans to attend either Indiana University or the University of Notre Dame to study pre-medicine. Collin is ranked first in his graduating class. He holds a GPA of 13.44 on a 12-point scale.He has contributed nearly 200 hours of community service to 11 different organizations including a significant amount of time working with people with developmental disabilities. He has held a part-time job, played tennis for four years and intramural basketball for three years. His club memberships and activities are numerous and his honors include perfect attendance, citizenship award and scholar athlete. Collin is the senior class president. His references described him as a natural leader, insightful and committed.
The Kosciusko County Community Foundation uses a "blind" application review process in which the names of the applicants are removed from applications. This year of the 57 applicants, six finalists were selected to be interviewed by the Community Foundation. The finalists' interview scores were combined with their application scores. The applications were scored based on academics, extracurricular involvement, employment history, community service, essay response and references. Cassady and Collin were the top ranked applicants after the scoring process was complete. The Community Foundation forwarded recommended recipients to Independent Colleges of Indiana for review and selected Cassady and Collin as recipients.
ICI is a nonprofit corporation that represents 31 regionally accredited degree granting, nonprofit, private colleges and universities in the state.
The scholarships are the result of a statewide Lilly Endowment initiative to help Hoosier students reach higher levels of education.
Since 1968, Kosciusko County Community Foundation Inc. has brought caring people and charitable endeavors together for the good of the community. The Community Foundation is a public charity, and gifts made to the Foundation are tax-deductible. For more information about the Community Foundation, visit www.kcfoundation.org, call 574-267-1901, or visit the office at 102 E. Market St., Warsaw.
