Scholarships & Grants
Scholarship & Grant Administration
Realizing the Dream
Realizing the Dream is a program that acknowledges first-generation college students for outstanding achievement in their freshman year and are now in their sophomore year. It has been funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. since 1989. The program was conceived and developed by three individuals who had themselves been first-generation college students—Dr. William C. Bonifield, then Vice-President for Education, Lilly Endowment, and now retired Director of McDermond Center for Management and Entrepreneurship, Depauw University; Mr. William DuBois Jr., then President of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Indiana, and now retired Executive Assistant for Public Relations, Ivy Tech Community College; and Dr. Louis C. Gatto, then the retiring President of Marian College (University), and the former Executive Director of the Indiana Educational Facilities Authority.
Each selected student receives a $4,000 scholarship and they are asked to name a secondary teacher that most influenced their decision to attend college. The nominated teacher receives a $1,000 Professional Development Grant.
Ball Venture Fund Grant
The Ball Venture Fund was created in 1998 to enable the Ball Brothers Foundation to take an active role in encouraging and supporting creative efforts at Indiana’s independent colleges and universities. The program, administered by the Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI), provides seed money for innovative start-up programs at ICI member institutions. The maximum possible single grant award will be $25,000. Grantees are selected through a competitive proposal process.
Only ICI member institutions are eligible to participate. ICI Institutions may submit multiple proposals. Collaboration between ICI member institutions is encouraged.
CIC/UPS Scholarships Grant
Each year, State Councils receive grants from CIC to provide CIC/UPS Scholarships for use at every four-year private college and university in the State Councils network. The scholarships are given in the name of UPS, whose financial support was the basis for the CIC/UPS Educational Endowment. Since 1985, approximately $56 million has been awarded in scholarship grants to CIC State Councils to assist more than 20,000 first-generation, low-income, minority, or new American students at independent colleges across the country. This year, ICI was awarded $90,000 which allows for one scholarship per institution in the amount of $3,000.