Jan. 16, 2020
Contact: Judith Cebula
317.916.7327 | cebulaj@lei.org
Lilly Endowment Honors 100 Indiana Educators
with Teacher Creativity Fellowships
Indianapolis – Indiana’s K-12 teachers, principals, media specialists and school counselors spend their days inspiring students to explore, inquire and grow. In 2020, 100 educators from across the state will nurture their own curiosity and personal development through Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowships.
Launched in 1987, the Endowment’s Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program gives Indiana’s K-12 educators working in public and private schools across the state the encouragement and financial support to renew their commitment to the education profession. Learn about the 2020 fellows here.
Each fellow will receive a grant of up to $12,000 to fund personally and professionally meaningful activities. These educators work in a variety of schools in Indiana, including traditional public schools, charter schools and private schools (both religiously affiliated and independent). The schools are in cities and towns and in suburban and rural communities throughout the state.
Travel is an important part of the proposed renewal activities for most of the 2020 fellows. The educators have made plans to explore locations across the globe – from journeys along the Mississippi River valley and in national parks throughout the United States, to treks across Europe and travel in Australia, Kenya and Tanzania.
Many of the fellows will pursue creative passions in the arts and humanities by attending studio art classes in the American west, learning the art of glassblowing, and visiting the locations that inspired beloved English and Irish authors. Some will make time for writing retreats, traveling to Spain, England and Brazil. Others will participate in language and cultural immersion programs to become fluent in German and Spanish.
Some will tend to their interests in science and math by exploring ecological wonders in Latin America, Africa and Australia and studying the lives of French and Greek mathematicians in their native countries.
“These teachers, school counselors, principals and media specialists have designed projects that promise to restore them both personally and professionally,” said Ted Maple, the Endowment’s vice president for education. “For more than three decades we have learned how meaningful these renewal experiences can be for the educators themselves. But we know, too, that they return to their schools rejuvenated and with a greater commitment to their students and their schools.”
Including the 2020 class, more than 3,100 Indiana educators have received grants since the Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program began in 1987. The Endowment selected the 2020 fellows from a competitive pool of more than 450 applicants. In addition to grants to support renewal for K-12 educators in Indiana, the Endowment funds renewal programs for people working in human services and in the arts in central Indiana and for clergy who pastor churches in Indiana and across the nation.
About Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion, and it maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.