Posted on February 23, 2012

Lilly Endowment Taps Indiana Educators for 2012 'Creativity Fellowships'

The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment has announced the selection of a hundred and twenty Indiana educators for its 2012 Teacher Creativity Fellowships.

Launched in 1987, the program enables K-12 teachers, principals, guidance counselors, and school librarians in Indiana to take time during the summer to pursue a personal interest, explore subjects that interest them, and reenergize before returning to the classroom in the fall. Since its inception, the program has awarded fellowships to more than twenty-four hundred Indiana educators.

Each recipient will receive $8,000 to use as they wish. Recipients in the past have used their fellowships to kayak and camp on the Antarctic Peninsula, bike from Nova Scotia to New York City, climb Mount Kilimanjaro and Machu Picchu, build a writing cottage, write a book of haikus for children, and compete in the Lake Placid Ironman event.

"Good teachers are highly motivated, energetic, and committed," said Sara B. Cobb, vice president for education at the endowment. "For many of them, teaching is not just what they do but who they are. They devote a tremendous amount of personal time and effort to give individual attention to students 'after hours', to direct extracurricular activities, buy supplies with their own money, and keep up with the most effective teaching technologies. This program allows them the time to explore their own curiosities and dreams, spend time in other parts of the world, enjoy different cultures and just get away."