How the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship affected my life:
It provided me a means to attend a school which I otherwise would not have been able to attend. That was sort of the springboard for everything I was able to accomplish because St. Mary’s provided me an excellent education that I was able to translate into getting accepted into law school, and then becoming an attorney, which is what I ultimately chose to do for my career.

Best piece of advice for current Lilly Scholars:
I originally was going to be a journalist, and I changed my mind the spring of my junior year of college. So my advice is keep an open mind, and try new things even if you believe that you know exactly what you want. My experience was that I thought I had a plan, and I thought I had it set in stone. Then, I took a mass communication law class, and I fell in love with that. That changed the entire course of my life.

Best piece of professional advice I’ve ever received:
You’re always a professional. In every interaction you have with other people, even if you go to Walmart and you bump into someone, you are still a professional and need to be polite.

​Current issue I’m most passionate about:
One thing that I’m really passionate about is shopping local. I live in Frankfort, Ind. which is a smaller community; we have all of these local businesses that provide a variety of services or goods. I think it’s really important to support the people who are in your community. I know that when I go shopping the dollars that I spend in the local markets are actually going toward people that I know, or people that are somehow intertwined in my community.

First posted 11/11/2020