Caleb Larson, a senior at EN, recently won the Lilly Endowment Foundation Community Scholarship.

The Lilly Awards are available in all counties of Indiana to one recipient, covering four years of tuition to any university in Indiana, and $900 each year for books or other required expenses. The mission of the Lilly Endowment Foundation is to provide higher education for Hoosiers, since Indiana is one of the states with the lowest amount of residents over the age of 25 who have a Bachelor’s degree.

To be eligible for this award, applicants must be a resident of Noble County, attend an accredited high school, hold a GPA of at least 3.5, and show that they are well-rounded seniors, with evidence such as extracurricular activities, volunteering, community involvement, academic excellence, work experience, and leadership roles.

Caleb met and exceeded these requirements. He is the president of Student Council, the president of National Honor Society, the Head Sound Tech of EN Theatre, last year he was the Junior Representative in Key Club, he’s on the speech team, the BiPhyChem team, he’s involved with EN soccer and he coached a little league soccer team with NASA. He’s also a member of the ICE vocational program and holds a job as an IT Assistant for East Noble School Corp. Caleb says that joining clubs is, “the best way to meet people and make friends that you would otherwise never have the opportunity to know.”

On Wednesday, April 8^th, the ten finalists were announced including three other seniors from East Noble – Mackenzie Corbin, Alyssa Claymiller, and Katie Lane, who will each receive a $1,000 award. Wednesday morning, Caleb was called down to the office under the ruse that there was an attendance mistake that he needed to clarify. When he got there, he was directed into Mr. Gilg’s office where he and Ms. Longenbaugh were sitting. Caleb says, “At this point I was completely confused, as no matter what attendance offense they may have thought I could had committed, it did not warrant the attention of two assistant principals.” Mr. Gilg and Ms. Longenbaugh led him to a conference room in the office where the director of the Noble County Community Foundation, his parents, and his grandparents all sat. The director hugged him and told him he was the recipient of the Lilly scholarship. He says, “My mom was crying, and my dad had the biggest smile… it was just an emotional moment!”

Caleb plans on attending either Wabash College in Crawfordsville or Purdue University in West Lafayette for computer science.

“It is an incredible honor and I feel unbelievably grateful to everyone who made this possible for me. What do you say in that situation? Thank you just isn’t enough,” says Caleb.