Rogers named 2024 scholarship recipient

Dec. 7—LAGRANGE — The LaGrange County Community Foundation is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2024 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Award for LaGrange County — Braden Rogers of Westview Junior-Senior High School.

Lilly Endowment Community Scholars are known for their community involvement, academic achievement, charitable, and leadership, a news release stated.

Each Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship provides for full tuition, required fees and a special allocation of up to $900 per year for required books and required equipment for four years.

The scholarship is for full-time undergraduate students leading to a baccalaureate degree at any eligible Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university. Rogers will graduate high school with academic honors and intends to pursue a degree in landscape architecture at Purdue University or Ball State University.

He is the son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth Rogers of LaGrange.

In his application essay, Rogers wrote: "Traveling to beautiful places around our country, I have always been drawn to landscape. I've always been the guy who notices a nicely manicured golf course or the detail of an intricately designed walkway. It wasn't until I began looking into possible career paths that I realized I could one day bring happiness and peace to others through landscape architecture. My long-term goals are to run my own architectural firm and raise a strong and active family within a great community."

Rogers' school involvement includes being part of student government as class vice president his junior year, being a Student Council member and serving on the Prom Committee. Rogers is the goalkeeper for the Westview Boys Soccer Team and participates in school musicals. He most recently held the lead role in the musical, "Grease" and participates in show choir, jazz band, weightlifting and is a member of the National Honor Society.

Rogers also has a love of skiing. He founded the Westview Ski Club and is involved in SOLO (Special Outdoor Leisure Opportunities). SOLO provides opportunities for people with physical and mental limitations to experience downhill skiing with a friend or instructor. The group meets every Monday during the winter months and skis for two hours.

Lilly Endowment created the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program for the 1998-99 school year and has supported the program every year since with grants totaling more than $505 million, the release added. The LaGrange County Community Foundation has awarded the scholarship to 42 LaGrange County students since the program's inception.

The primary purposes of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program are: 1) to help raise the level of educational attainment in Indiana; 2) to increase awareness of the beneficial roles Indiana community foundations can play in their communities; and 3) to encourage and support the efforts of current and past Lilly Endowment Community Scholars to engage with each other and with Indiana business, governmental, educational, nonprofit and civic leaders to improve the quality of life in Indiana generally and in local communities throughout the state.

To learn more, visit www.lccf.net.