Episode 15: Celebrating the 2026 Lilly Community Scholars of Morgan County

Transcription:

Kim Cole
Hi everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I’m Kim Cole, president of the Community Foundation Morgan County, and as many of you know, one of our many functions is to administer scholarships to Morgan County students. Included in that is the esteemed Lilly Community Scholarship, and with me today are our two winners for 2026, Aubrie Pearson and Selia Peters. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thanks for joining us today, ladies, and before we get into the deep dive on the interview, I just want to say, how does it feel? I’ll start with you, Aubrie.

 

Aubrie Pierson
It so feels so surreal, like when you guys came, I was in shock, and I am so, so thankful to have been, to have received this honor, and I’m just thankful for all the people that have helped me along the way and shaped me into who I am today, but it still doesn’t feel real, and I’ve just been over the moon excited about it since, and it’s an amazing feeling.

 

Kim Cole
I’m quite sure. For those of you who are watching, when she said when you all came, we surprised the students and their families at the school. They don’t know that we’re coming. They don’t know that we’ve, that they have won. They don’t know that they’ve been selected. These ladies were two of eight finalists out of 126 applicants, so it was a very big surprise. Selia, how do you feel?

 

Selia Peters
I mean, it’s still the same thing, surreal for me too, like when Kim came to my school, I was, I was pulled from lunch, and I was so nervous. I was like in trouble or something, and as soon as I found out, I just started crying. I was so relieved and just like happy, and I still have that feeling today, and I just think that like, even like just as I was being announced as a scholarship winner, like my doors were already being opened for different opportunities. Like I’ve had people reach out to me in the Lilly Network saying like, OMG, congratulations, like totally deserving and stuff like that, and it’s just so amazing to see like all the support that I’ve gained since then.

 

Kim Cole
Wow, instant, instant happening. That’s awesome. Well, I’m, I’m glad that you weren’t in trouble. I can’t imagine that you would call down to the office very often to get in trouble, Selia. So, one of the things that made you two unique, or something that we took notice of, was that you both have had personal experiences that have shaped what your goals are, and I’ll start with you, Aubrie. I know that you’ve had a very personal experience that had drawn you to want to be an optometrist, so can you tell us about that?

 

Aubrie Pierson
Yeah, so an optometrist, the local Lions Club actually came to our school when I was six years old, and said that there was something wrong with my eyes, so I was like, oh, okay, we’ll take you to the eye doctor, and when I went, they found out I had a cataract in my left eye, and that was like crazy uncommon, especially in young kids.

 

Kim Cole
Sure, a six-year-old.

 

Aubrie Pierson
Yeah, it’s not likely, but, um, so what they recommended to do was start patching my right eye, because my vision was significantly worse in that left eye due to the cataract, and so I did that process every night for about two years, and I made it fun, and even had, like, patches with unicorns and other things like that a six-year-old would love, so it was able to make it fun, which I really enjoyed, and then that wasn’t the only eye problem I encountered. I also, in fourth grade, began seeing double vision, and that got in the way of school and made certain things harder, so I was actually referred to an ophthalmologist at Riley Children’s Hospital, and I went through several appointments and trying to find out a solution, and that’s when they came up for me to use a prism where you almost, like, put it in front of your eye like this, and it automatically makes you see double vision, and you have to learn how to, like, pull it back together, and it trains those muscles in your eye to learn how to do it on its own, and it’s something that even when I see double vision occasionally now, I’ll be like, hey, I’m just gonna do my exercises tonight, and it helps me even now, and it’s been great to see it, like, come together, but I want to be an optometrist because I have those personal unique experiences, and I can relate to patients, and I know how important it is to have an optometrist who truly cares and is invested, and I think passion is such an important thing in a job, and that’s what I feel like I have with optometry, so yeah.

 

Kim Cole
Certainly passionate, and it sounds like you have been a self-disciplined young lady for a long, long time. I can’t imagine telling a six-year-old that they had to wear these patches, and a fourth grader that they had to look through this probably really confusing prism and do all of this, so did you have pushback with your parents? Did you resist that, or were you like, all right, we’re gonna do this?

 

Aubrie Pierson
Honestly, I didn’t think I had much pushback. I got a couple incentives, too, which was nice, like, I remember I’d get a little, like, stuffed, and one of my stuffed plushie thing, and one of my favorite things was that there was, like, this patch, like, almost picture thing that you could do, and each time you got a patch, it would make this, like, shape, so it would make, like, butterflies, and I loved that, and that was something I looked forward to, and I was like, I just have to wear three more patches, then I can put this cute little butterfly picture, so there were incentives that made it enjoyable, so yeah.

 

Kim Cole
So also, Selia, I know that you’ve had personal experience that have shaped your desire to study nursing, so tell us about that.

 

Selia Peters
Yeah, so it’s always kind of been nursing for me, like, I’ve never really had any other, like, career path in mind, but it started with my cousin who has a rare genetic disorder, and it’s, like, near degenerative, so meaning it progressively gets worse, and there’s no cure for it, and so me as a fourth grader, I, obviously, there wasn’t any sort of research or things that I could do to physically help her condition, so what I decided to do was I was gonna tell my classmates, I was gonna do every project in school over her disorder, and also other rare diseases like her to just, like, spread awareness, so I started in third grade, fourth grade, doing presentations for my passion projects, for informative speeches, and sort of just, like, telling my classmates everything that I could. I would hand out purple awareness bracelets for her condition, and it was just something small that I could do, and I realized that, like, that was something I was very passionate for, was just, like, helping in any way that I could, so as I got older, I was able to contact, like, her disease called PECAN, so PECAN researchers, and really learn more about the disease, and as I learned more, I just wanted to do, like, more, so I decided I was gonna start volunteering at my local hospital, Johnson Memorial, and I volunteer in the emergency room department, and that’s where I really, like, fell in love with nursing, especially emergency room nursing, and so I go every Wednesday, and I really enjoy it. I just offer, provide care for patients there, so if they need a warm blanket, someone to talk to, we’re right across from the Johnson County Jail, so we see a lot of people from there, so it really helps my, like, understanding of people’s lives better as well, like, I get to see, like, okay, these are people just like me, like, breaking down those walls, and, like, connecting with patients, I feel like, and so that’s why I want to continue nursing, and it’s just been a passion for me for so long, just like, Aubrie, like, with that personal story, and just, like, applying it to my life in any way that I could.

 

Kim Cole
Well, certainly, to be in nursing or any kind of health care, you have to, you have to be compassionate. It sounds like you have that. Let’s shift gears to your schools.

So, Aubrie, you are from Monrovia High School, and I know that you had shared with me that many people there had shaped your academic experience, and so tell us about those experiences, and how they helped you and encouraged you when you decided that you wanted to apply for the Lillie.

 

Aubrie Pierson
Okay, yeah, Monrovia is a small town, so there’s some, there’s a beauty in that, because there’s so many connections, and it’s so easy to make these connections. The first thing that really impacted me in my high school journey into becoming a Lillie Scholar was, I was actually at the Monrovia Festival, and my eighth grade, or my middle school social studies teacher came up.

 

Kim Cole
And how old were you?

 

 Aubrie Pierson
I was a freshman. Okay, sorry. Yeah. But I, at that time, she came in and talked to me, and they saw potential for me, and they said, why don’t you get plugged in with volunteering? I think that would be a good thing for you to get started, and they truly helped me get connected, and they got me connected with the Warren County Public Library, and I worked with Cassie Jones, who’s been involved here, and I love her. And so I’ve been able to volunteer there weekly since the middle of my freshman year, and with helping there, it’s just culminated this love of volunteering, and I’ve helped with different events. I helped out like a Shalom House, where I was able to pass out food to families in need. I’ve helped out little things at our school, like a daddy-daughter dance, and that’s one of my, so cute, they get to see. But that has truly shaped me and helped create this love for volunteering, and another person who’s really helped me is Mr. James. I talked about him being involved, and he’s helped me step out of my comfort zone by being in media programs. I’m in our bi-weekly MHS Happenings, and I really like that, and it helps make situations, even like this podcast, more easier for me, because I’ve done it for years, and I know how to be confident and things like that, and it really helped me in my interview, because I was okay with being in a group of people that I didn’t know, because I’m doing it with 100 viewers, or a lot of viewers that see it online. So, and just having that close-knit community has really shaped me into who I am today, because everybody truly cares about you, and all our teachers see us as more than just a student. They see us as a person and see us as more than just that grade. They see, they want to check in on how you’re doing, and it’s, it’s an amazing feeling knowing that all these people from Monrovia care for me, and it was really sweet when they all congratulated me for winning the Lilly, and it’s cool to get to see a community show up when this big honor happens, so I’ve really enjoyed it.

 

Kim Cole
You can definitely tell that they’re pretty proud of you over there.

 

Aubrie Pierson
Thank you.

 

Kim Cole
As they should be. Thank you. And Selia, so you have been, you’ve, you live in Morgan County, you live in Martinsville, in Green Township specific, and your mother’s family has been there for generations and generations, as the proud Cregan family is, so tell us about your experience at Center Grove High School, and I know there are probably many, many people there that have shaped your experience. Tell us about that.

 

Selia Peters
Yeah, so I do go to Center Grove, but I do live in Morgan County. I started at Center Grove because when I was younger, my mom and dad both worked a lot. My dad worked out of town in Louisville and Evansville in construction, so they were both working a lot, and it was very convenient that my grandparents lived directly across the street from Center Grove, so it was just easiest to send us there, easy for us to walk to school even, so just easy conveniency, things like that, but Morgan County has been my home for years. I mean, I call it my home. I volunteer at the Lemon Shake Up Stand. I do love it here, but some teachers and more in general, just like people that have shaped my path, I would definitely say my grandpa, Kenny Cregan, has shaped my path. He’s like the one person that I truly believe has just instilled in me my determination and drive. He always used to say to us at any sort of family dinner or anything like that, if you had any sort of problem and you came to grandpa, he would say, aim high, and those are just the two words he always said, plain and simple, and I just think that I apply that to any situation in my life, so if it’s what to do on a weekend, if it’s what to do in school, what classes to take, or what school to attend, like anything like that, I just like take those words with me, but more in school, I would say my seventh grade social studies teacher, Mr. Robinson, who has unfortunately passed away, he was the sole person that believed in me, I feel like. I was never, when I was younger, I wasn’t much, I was smart in school, but I didn’t really care for it as much. I didn’t have a passion for something yet. I mean, I had a passion for Amelia, my cousin, and her disease, but I didn’t really have that drive in school, and he instilled that in me from day one. He saw what I could do, and he always had this famous phrase that’s known around Center Grove, and it’s, there’s more to the world than Center Grove, and I just think that that’s such a powerful line that I’ve sort of taken with me, that it’s more than anything, being more than myself and putting myself out there in different ways, so I really just love all of Center Grove support, but specifically Mr. Robinson has shaped my path, definitely, but other teachers at Center Grove have definitely shaped my path. I’m lucky enough to be in the early college program, which means when I graduate high school, I’ll have enough credits to graduate with my associate’s degree, and that’s like a tight-knit community. Like, it is like, every teacher knows everyone by name, even though, like, it’s a, like, they all have large classes, you can meet with tutors, it’s the best program, and I just think that they have been so supportive of me and my journey with Lilly and also just throughout high school.

 

Kim Cole
Wow, that’s, that’s fantastic. I love the AIM high, and the world is bigger than where you go to school. That is, those are, those are great life lessons there. Something that you said, Aubrie, that now, that sparks a question, so as a freshman, you were aware of the Lilly scholarship, is that correct?

 

Aubrie Pierson
Yes.

 

Kim Cole
Okay, so did it predate high school, or my next, so my question is, when did you learn about the Lilly scholarship?

 

Aubrie Pierson
So, I actually learned about it at that moment, when they talked to me, my, or Mr. Reader, it was the Reader family, and Mr. Reader emailed my mom and was like, hey, I’d like to get a plug doing volunteering because of this scholarship, and we’re like, okay, let’s just try it, because me and my mom and my family, we didn’t exactly know when to start volunteering, and I’m so glad I started freshman year, but, so this really helped me boost it, because I learned about the scholarship, and I didn’t know about it before, and it was really cool to get to learn about, like, how life-changing the scholarship is, and how, what an honor it is to receive it, so it was really cool getting to learn about it from such a young age, and I think learning it from my freshman year dictated how I approached high school, like, I wanted to do those volunteer events, whether if it’s with my church, whether if it’s my school, or with my community, I was able to get involved, and knowing that really helped me, and gave me something to really look forward to, so yeah.

 

Kim Cole
How about you, Selia, when did you hear about the Lilly scholarship?

 

Selia Peters
So, I kind of heard word about it through Center Grove, there was a past, previous winner from a couple years ago, I also knew about it, I had a friend that, from two years ago, that had won in Johnson County, and she had talked to me about, like, I would have been a sophomore at this time, about, like, the scholarship in the network, specifically, that it put her within, and, like, the community that she had, the connections that she had through it, and I knew about it through that, but mostly through you, when I, when I talked to you about it, and you encouraged me to apply, I really just took that as an initiative to, like, look into it more, and see, like, what it was about, and everything I needed to do, and all that stuff, and I was just so happy that I did, because not only, like, is the scholarship an amazing opportunity, but also the connections, and also just the process as a whole, like, I have learned so much through making my application, the interview process, that was such a big learning moment for me, to kind of learn about my own personal skills, and, like, take a breath, and be able to speak, and I haven’t really done that, especially in high school, like, you don’t get very many opportunities to do things like that, and so just the opportunities that the application and interview process alone have given me are outstanding.

 

Kim Cole
Yes, well, you two were outstanding, although I will say, and I’ve written about this, and I’ve talked about this a lot, our finalists this year were all incredible, so you two, your interviews were flawless, it puts you, that was just the edge, that we needed your fantastic, fantastic candidates, and you were in very competitive, you were in a very competitive year, so you should be extra proud of yourselves.

 

Aubrie Pierson / Selia Peters
Thank you.

 

Kim Cole
And you both have, well, Selia mostly has touched on the network, so you will forever be able to be recognized as Lilly Scholars, and that will bring with you onto your university and college campuses a network that gets together and beyond, and you will be in job interviews, and you’ll be able to talk about this, so this is just the beginning of talking about being a Lilly Scholars, so congratulations to you both, very, very happy for you, and we’ll see you again in February when we honor you and your families and the other finalists at a dinner. Thanks, everyone