Lilly awarded

Clare Dirksen thought she was being beckoned to be part of a promotional video for dual-credit classes.

She walked away with her college education fully funded.

Dirksen was announced Thursday as The Portland Foundation’s 2019 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar.

The ruse about the promotional video was used to get Dirksen to the TV studio at Jay County High School where her family, school officials and representatives from The Portland Foundation were waiting to surprise her.

“When I walked in and saw all the people in here, I was shocked,” said Dirksen. “Speechless.”

Being named the Lilly Foundation Community Scholar, one of 142 statewide, provides Dirksen with tuition to the Indiana college of her choice — Purdue University — and a $900 yearly stipend for books and equipment.

She was selected from a group of 41 Jay County High School seniors who applied for the scholarship, which requires a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5. The foundation considers academic excellence, financial need, school/community activities and an essay in narrowing down the field. Finalists are brought in for an in-person interview.

Dirksen said she prayed a lot before meeting with the scholarship committee.

“All the other candidates were great people. They were all super accomplished,” she said of fellow finalists Dillon Muhlenkamp, Kaitlyn Dow and Daniel Bracy. “I was like, ‘I have no chance, so I might as well do my best.’”

She said she was asked questions about school safety, her future plans and potential challenges during college.

There was also a question about social media.

Her response: “Uh, I have a flip phone.”

It was that interview, in part, that lifted Dirksen, who is ranked third in her class with a 4.222 GPA, to the top of the group.

“It was really a very tight group of finalists that we had,” said Rob Penrod, co-chair of The Portland Foundation’s scholarship committee. “The interview portion is where she really stood out. She was articulate. There was no hesitation … she gave good answers. But they were all excellent finalists.”

Dirksen is heavily involved in activities, including student council, National Honor Society and FFA. She is also a member of the JCHS girls basketball team.

Outside of school, she serves as president of CYO and is active at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.

As part of CYO, she has helped lead fundraisers for Pregnancy Care Center and Jay County Humane Society. This summer, the group hosted a youth Bible school. 

“It’s putting what Jesus told us to do into action,” she said.

Dirksen and her sister, Audrey, also visit religion classes once a month to sing with the students in order to encourage them to be more active during Mass.

She has played organ at Immaculate Conception twice each weekend since her freshman year. She also serves as co-music minister.

As she heads to West Lafayette in the fall, she plans to study food science. She had originally expected to pursue that major at Wright State University’s Lake Campus in Celina, Ohio, but the program there was dropped.

Purdue was the next option to be able to pursue her career goals close to home.

“And Purdue has such a great ag program anyway,” said Dirksen. “It’s the best place to go.”

Agriculture is at the heart of Dirksen’s chosen career path, as her parents Dan and Tina work together to run their family farm. She enjoys growing food, and also said she’s learned well from her mom’s abilities in the kitchen.

The combination of those two things has Dirksen focused on a long-term goal of returning to Jay County and starting her own business that is focused on nutrition. She’d like to offer classes about cooking and food preservation while also providing healthy, homemade meals to the community.

“My ultimate goal — I believe that people need to nourish their bodies in order to live life to their fullest ability,” she said. “So that’s what I plan helping achieve.”