Ball State University will receive $1.5 million from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. to provide students more Indiana internships and incentives to keep them in the Hoosier state upon graduation.

The grant comes from the Endowment's "Initiative to Promote Opportunity Through Educational Collaborations" and will fund Ball State's "Business Fellows" program.

The university's program will link students, faculty members and area businesses to increase students' potential for employment in Indiana, provide them new professional experiences and increase the number of Ball State graduates who are employed in Indiana.

"This grant once again shows the Endowment's commitment to using its resources for the benefit of the entire state," said Ball State President Blaine A. Brownell. "We are particularly excited about the experiences this grant will provide for Ball State students, especially because working in real-world environments is a perfect extension of the university's focus on applied research, which finds solutions to everyday problems." 

Through the grant, Ball State is expected to provide internships for 600 students over the next five years. During the semester- or summer-long internship, the students, faculty members and partner businesses will carry out projects that will improve services, increase business, develop new job opportunities, improve quality or improve competitiveness.

Allowing students to transform academic knowledge into practical business solutions in an Indiana business setting will hopefully create lasting bonds to Indiana, said Beverley Pitts, Ball State provost and vice president for academic affairs.

"Exposing students to positive and challenging work environments will allow many to see that there are gratifying job opportunities to pursue in their home state," she said. "We are convinced that the Lilly Endowment grant will lead to outstanding and productive experiences for our students and the companies for which they intern, eventually providing positive benefits for the state's economy."

The Endowment awarded grants to 37 Indiana colleges and universities totaling $38.9 million. The individual grant amounts were based on the number of students at each school.

"We are most pleased with the imagination and creativity demonstrated by Indiana colleges and universities in their proposals for this initiative," said Sara B. Cobb, Endowment vice president for education. "Dozens of new relationships with alumni and others have been developed that will offer numerous internships and other experiential education opportunities for Indiana students."

(Note to Editors: For more information, contact Pitts at (765) 285-1333 or bpitts@bsu.edu.)