Episode Four: Meet the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program Scholars, Christina Li and Cody Martin

Transcription:

Episode Four: Meet the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program Scholars, Christina Li and Cody Martin 

Kim Cole

Hi everyone, I’m Kim Cole, President of the Community Foundation of Morgan County. Here with me on today’s podcast are our county’s Lilly Scholarship winners, Christina Li and Cody Martin. Thank you all for being here with me. I’m hoping that our viewers get a chance to know you guys a little bit better and hopefully our student viewers will be inspired. So, I do have to ask before we even get into this, how does it feel to be part of such an esteemed club? You will forever be known now as Lilly Scholars. How does that feel, Christina? 

Christina Li

Well, at first, I felt excited because no one at my school has ever done it before. No one really has tried that much to go to college or to do many scholarships. So, when I heard that I was going to be the first one at my school to win a Lilly, I was really, surprised and excited, especially when you guys came to our school. 

Kim Cole

Yes, and so Christina, you go to Tabernacle Christian Academy, correct? 

Christina Li

Yes, Tabernacle Christian School. 

Kim Cole

Okay, and are you the first recipient from the school? 

Christina Li

Yes, I am. 

Kim Cole

That is incredible. What an incredible honor. 

Christina Li

Thank you so much. 

Kim Cole

And so, your thoughts on this, Cody? 

Cody Martin

I mean, at first, I think for like, a week, I didn’t really think, I didn’t feel like it had happened. You know, I was kind of shocked, but yeah, I’m very, I just feel very blessed. I mean, I can’t, you know, I never thought it would happen when I applied, you know, I was like, well, we’ll go for it. And I’m just so incredibly thankful and it’s a great honor to be. So, especially with, you know, I don’t know many of the past ones, but the last one, Catherine Weimer, talking to her and others that have, you know, worked for or received it. It’s just a great honor to know them and to be able to, in the future, find out and know more. 

Kim Cole

Great, great. And I know from reading your applications and prior discussions with you, both of you talked about strong family relationships. So, tell us how your family, Christina, has influenced you to get to where you are.

Christina Li

Well, my parents both immigrated from China to America. They came here with nothing. My mom came through Mexico, my dad came through Canada. And it’s just really, really, really, really, really inspiring from them because they had nothing. And so, when they started the restaurant for me growing up, I was born here in Martinsville, Indiana. And then I was sent to China because my parents were so busy with the restaurant. And so, I was sent to China with my grandparents there before they immigrated. I was doing preschool in China for about a year for preschool. And then I came back because of some family situations that happened. And then I started at Tabernacle. And my parents were supportive of me getting a godly education to build a good character because they saw that a lot of people didn’t have good manners and things. So, they wanted to make sure that I had that foundation. So, I remember specifically being at Tabernacle and how all the teachers were really nice. And growing up, they always treated me like one of their kids, like their daughters and things. I have a lot of mother figures at the school, like my Spanish teacher. My math teacher, all the teachers growing up, they’ve all taught me different things. But all those different things have impacted me on who I am today. And my parents, they just wanted to make sure I was in a community like that. And then also, my parents worked hard at the restaurant, right? So, growing up, my second home was kind of like the school and the restaurant. 

Kim Cole

What restaurant did they own? 

Christina Li

We own the China Buffet in Martinsville.

Kim Cole

We went to the China Buffet in Martinsville. Fantastic. Yeah. Fantastic. It is. 

Christina Li

That’s great. And I guess just growing up, I guess helped a lot there, like wiping down tables, like got the cups for customers. I remember before we had the POS system, we had like an old 90s style electric cash register. We would bring up people on it and input the tax by ourselves before inflation. It was $7. 99, but now it’s not anymore. But the restaurant impacted me a lot in like a work ethic, like seeing my parents work hard. I just wanted to be like that. Sure. And especially for my younger sisters, I want to work hard so they can see that working hard does pay off. So, I just really want to inspire them like that.

Kim Cole

Very inspiring. Cody, tell us a little bit about your family and how they have inspired you to be the man that you are now. 

Cody Martin

Yeah. So, when I was growing up, I would go to both sides of my family, my dad’s and my mom’s. My mom’s side, we’d always go out to my grandparents’ farm. Down in, around Gosport, Indiana, really, you know, small area, out in the middle of nowhere. But we’d go out there and we’d hang out, all that side of the family, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. We’d all get together all the time, you know, every month a lot of times. And that really built a lot. And I, from that side of the family, especially, I just learned more of like a conflict resolution type relationship amongst all of us. You know, nobody wanted to be in conflict. And so, we all, we all learned how to get along. And there was barely any conflict I’ve ever had with any of my family. It’s been a very peaceful family, very loving family, and very generous family as well. And that’s really taught me a lot on how to treat not only just family, but friends and, you know, employers, whoever it is. And on my dad’s side, I’ve also visited my family a lot. It’s a lot smaller, but they live down in Bloomington area. And it’s just inspired me a lot to be more of a loving, kind person. And one of the things I’ve loved about both sides of my family, but also my mom specifically, is my grandfather, especially, throughout my childhood, that we’d be in Bloomington or what’s called Ellesmere, Gosport, any of those areas. And, you know, and they’d recognize my mom. They’d be like, ‘You know, his daughter,’ you know, ‘his daughter,’ you know, and they’d be like, ‘Oh, his grandson would be like yeah.’ And they say, ‘He’s a great man,’ you know, ‘and it’s just that kind of culture that has always been built.’ Partiality, just because you know, of their own values, but also religious values that held them up and have taught them what they know today. And that’s passed on to me. 

Kim Cole

So, no doubt you both come from very, very good families. 

So, tell me and tell our viewers what you plan to do with your scholarship money. What schools have you applied to? Have you made any decisions? Christina?

Christina Li

Well, currently, I haven’t made exactly a firm decision. Yet I’m still waiting for accepts, but I hope to go to IU Bloomington because I really like the language program there and hopefully to study abroad a lot through IU Bloomington, not Ivy Tech, sorry, through IU Bloomington. 

Kim Cole

Okay. And what sort of degree are you, are you hoping to get? 

Christina Li

I hope to study international studies and then through the international studies program, I know you can study a lot of different languages. So, I hope to master my Mandarin, Chinese, and my Spanish skills, and then possibly pick up a few more languages because I can learn languages faster and easier if I know more. So, I want to build on vocabulary and interpreting and translation. And then what do you want to do with that? I want to go into like international business. I know a lot of law offices need interpreters or like the medical field needs it as well. Different aspects of international business need it, and I really want to tap into like the aspect of going international, seeing like where immigrants come from, how to connect them together with people in different groups of people. 

Kim Cole

Sure, sure. That sounds very exciting and worthwhile. How about you, Cody? 

So, I have already made a decision the same day that, well, first of all, I should start off. I wanted to do mechanical engineering for at least all of high school for the most part, and I kept up that. And the same day that I found out that I wanted to do this, I was like, okay, here’s the thing. Found out about the Lilly Scholarship, when everyone came to the school, I got accepted to Rose-Hulman about three hours later. So, the same day. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

Kim Cole

What a great day. 

Cody Martin

Yeah, really, it was, it was. And so, you know, I felt like at that point there wasn’t much of a, you know, a choice or that was the most logical choice. And so I’m very excited to go over there and I already have family in Terre Haute. I have a church over there that I know I can go to. And I have a couple of friends that are already going to Rose-Hulman and so that really made the decision for me. That’s fantastic. Especially with the small campus, which is something I’ve found that I think will really benefit me more than anything. So, but yeah, that’s my plan. 

Kim Cole

So, you want to study mechanical engineering and what do you see yourself doing with that? I know there’s lots of choices, but what are you thinking right now you would do with it? 

Cody Martin

So, I’ve kind of generally thought to go into the automotive field in some manner. I’ve considered a lot of different things, but it’s kind of hard when you can’t really experience it firsthand. I’ve not really been able to have a lot of firsthand experience of like seeing automotive engineering, like what exactly it is. So, I’ll say right now that that’s what I want to do, but I know that in two, three, four years, it can change once I have experience with it. And then I also would like to continue after college and in college, hopefully supporting organizations outside of my work or creating one if I have to, of the health, special needs, special needs children or adults. And there are a lot of programs across the country that utilize engineers to help special needs, whether it be, you know, cars for toddlers or children or different devices for adults. I mean, there’s so many different things that need help that you can do with that. So, I don’t know what that is exactly right now, but we’ll find out one day when I can have the opportunity to do that. 

Kim Cole

Sure, sure. So, both of you obviously have great plans and will go on to do great things. One of the things that the Lilly Endowment has done to create this scholarship is to hope that they educate their scholars, and they come back to their communities to do something for the community. So, have you given any thought to what you might do to give back? Christina? 

Christina Li

Well, I know for sure I do want to give back to my school. I said it at the interview, but I know my school, it’s so small, and we don’t have as many resources as the public school, and I just want to give specifically back to the teachers and to, like, our language program, because our language program is only one language right now. It’s only Spanish, run by our Spanish teacher, who is also the choir director and the drama director and everything else, and she works so hard. I want to be able to, like, go back to my school, support them in some way. I’m not exactly sure what way, but I just want to go back to my school. 

Kim Cole

Sure. That’s understandable, and you will forever be an inspiration to them regardless of what you do for them. And how about for you, Cody? 

Cody Martin

So, I plan on hopefully moving back around this area once I’m out of college and have a job. You know, that depends on whether I’m able to work, but if we’re close enough to Indy, I can work, you know, pretty much anywhere around there and live in this area. So, I’d love to come back to Mooresville or the surrounding areas, and I would love to possibly work with them. If it’s at the school, and whether it be school board or in some capacity, even just volunteering, you know, at the school to help teach children, help, you know, move on to Lily’s mission, really. And like I said before, most importantly, I’d love to work with, obviously, I guess will be my alma mater at that point, Rose Holman, to bring programs like the ones I’m talking about to Morgan County, because we don’t really have a lot of those, and we don’t really have any local colleges other than ones in Indianapolis, Or Bloomington, you know, and so I’d love to work for something like that. And, I’ve you know I’ve been to one Kiwanis meeting before, and I would love to be a part of that as well if I could. I’d love to be a part of that club really just to, you know, financially help and as well as come up with great ideas and support others who have great ideas, as well. 

Kim Cole

That’s sounds like very meaningful work. I have no doubt you two will both give back and honor the Lilly legacy so to speak. So, what parting advice can you give to any student viewers that are watching this and being inspired by you, Christina? What can you tell them to get them to work hard and get to where you are?

Christina Li

Well like you said we have to work hard, right? First, you just take the opportunities you have and then just expand them. Find opportunities, make opportunities, use the opportunities like God’s given us to have, and just keep on going. It’s like a little step at a time sometimes it’s really hard to just keep going and sometimes just really hard. To even start, but if you just start, if you try, if you just try, you never really know the possibilities are endless.

Kim Cole

Very good advice, very good advice. So, we’re talking about advice to someone, Cody?

Cody Martin

Can you repeat the question a little bit? 

Kim Cole

Sorry, yeah, For the student viewers that we have that might be listening to this and thinking about their own futures, can you give them a little bit of advice that maybe helped you along the way? 

Cody Martin

Yeah, right. I would say just never let failure stop you because I mean that’s it’s a really cliche one, but it really has worked, and it you know will always be true. You know it doesn’t matter if you fail a test, if you even if you fail a class, if you’re focused on something and if you’re motivated to accomplish something, whether it’s for yourself or others for the community, you can accomplish it. And there’s always going to be people around you that can help, and just you got to look for those people. You know, if they don’t come to you, there’s always going to be somebody that you can connect with, especially around here like a more so there’s plenty of people. And just look for those connections and always be motivated. 

Kim Cole

Thank you very much, you both have inspired and motivated me, and I’m sure our viewers too. Thank you again.