Five of the eight Lilly Endowment Scholarship finalists for Cass County came from Logansport High School, including seniors Finley Gay, Kylee Langley, Madison Lupke, Aryan Patel and Yamna Perez-Marroquin.
Elijah Beard, Lewis Cass High School; Drew McKaig, Pioneer High School; and Graycie Storm, North Miami High School were also finalists.
The Lilly Scholarships are awarded to people who have a GPA of 3.5 or higher, on an unweighted 4.0 scale and score of 1100 or more on the SAT or 24 on the ACT. They must be high school seniors between 2023-2024 that will have graduated by June of 2024 with a diploma from an accredited Indiana high school. Students will pursue a full-time baccalaureate course of study at an accredited private or public Indiana college or university.
According to Patel, the winner of the 2023 Lilly Scholarship for Cass County, the scholarship provides for full tuition, including fees and a special allocation of up to $900 per year for books and equipment for four years.
“The scholarship is for undergraduate students studying on a full-time basis leading to a baccalaureate degree at any eligible Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university,” Patel said.
Patel explained how he felt when he received the Lilly Scholarship award.
“I feel accomplished after being awarded the Lilly Scholarship,” Patel said. “It had been one of my goals since the start of my sophomore year, so it felt great to see all the hard work pay off in the end. When I first received it, I was a little shocked, but now it’s more about using this scholarship to accomplish my future goals than anything else.”
Senior Gretchen Prifogle was one of the applicants for the Lilly Scholarship program. She explained how entering the program went.
“The application took a long time to complete,” Prifogle said. “There were three parts to it. We had to turn in a personal statement of activities, a statement of future goals, and an essay. The essay took me a long time to complete because I was very nervous about messing up. It was an honor to qualify for the scholarship, and all the work I put into it helped me on other scholarships.”
Langley, the Editor in Chief of the Magpie, was also a contestant in the Lilly Scholarship program.
“To become a Lilly finalist there is a very long process,” Langley said. “For starters, to qualify the senior must reside in Cass County, and have a high enough GPA and a high enough SAT/ACT score. Once those are checked off you can begin to actually start the application process. It takes about a month or so once the applications are due for the foundation to announce the finalists.”
Langley felt strong anticipation awaiting the results.
“I remember checking the mailbox every day just waiting for the letter to come. I was very anxious but was just ready to know,” Langley said. “However, once I got the letter and realized I was a finalist I was so shocked. I remember having so many emotions and was just so proud of myself. I’m not one to usually cry from happiness, but this was a moment that I did.”
