St. Richard’s Episcopal School, Indianapolis, has received a $200,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Marion County K-12 Private Schools Initiative. This is one of 36 implementation grants being awarded through phase 2 of the initiative, which is designed to help strengthen the academic achievement of students in Indianapolis and improve their prospects for success after high school.
With the grant, St. Richard’s will launch the Experiential Pathways Initiative to improve students’ academic achievement and post-secondary success using a two-pronged approach: addressing the changing needs of students and improving faculty recruitment and retention. The initiative will enable St. Richard’s to enhance its educational model, building on experiential learning practices that include project-based learning, service learning, and field experiences, with competency-based feedback and evaluation. This methodology inspires students to be active agents in their learning, accommodates diverse learning styles, connects education to real-world experiences, and fosters critical 21st-century skills such as problem-solving and collaboration that will help prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Faculty support is essential to the successful implementation of this model. Key elements for faculty support include hiring a Director of Teaching and Learning Innovation to lead and execute the Experiential Pathways Initiative, updating curriculum and teaching practices, providing intensive faculty professional development, collecting and analyzing data to measure the impact of the work, and completing a facilities assessment to understand the space needs and requirements for expanding the initiative.
St. Richard’s Head of School, Dr. Leslie Hosey, is enthusiastic about the grant’s possibilities: “St. Richard’s has a long history of developing graduates with knowledge and values for a lifetime. This grant enables us to adapt to students’ changing needs and provide a strong foundation for their future success. At the core of this evolution is elevating teaching and learning from the simple attainment of knowledge to the application of higher-order thinking skills, particularly important in this age of Artificial Intelligence. The simple acquisition of knowledge is an artifact of an age when school’s primary purpose was to instill facts. Knowledge across disciplines will always be necessary, but students now need to master a range of competencies to ensure success in high school, in college, and in society.”
For 65 years, St. Richard’s Episcopal School has maintained a tradition of academic success in its Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 program, developing global citizens in an intentionally diverse community. Its 350 students come from diverse racial and economic backgrounds: 36% identify as people of color (19% Black, 8% multiracial, 2% Asian, 2% Hispanic, 0.33% Native American, and 5% non-identified), and 28% are from economically disadvantaged families. This is somewhat representative of Marion County as a whole, where 52.1% of residents identify as people of color (29.9% African American, 3.4% multiracial, 4.3% Asian, 13.9% Hispanic, 0.6% Indigenous populations) and 15.6% of people live in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau).
Lilly Endowment is making grants to public schools in Indianapolis through a separate, complementary initiative.
About Lilly Endowment
Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion. The Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, and maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.
About St. Richard’s
Founded in 1960 as one of the first racially integrated independent schools in Indianapolis, St. Richard’s Episcopal School (sresdragons.org) continues its mission to instill knowledge and values for a lifetime. St. Richard’s, the only Episcopal school in Indiana, provides a timeless, challenging curriculum that embraces diversity while developing global citizens socially, emotionally, physically, spiritually, and intellectually through the implementation of our Five Pillars for Success: Civic Responsibility, Classic Curriculum, Faith, Global Readiness, and Leadership. Located at 33rd and Meridian Streets, St. Richard’s offers unique partnerships throughout the city that bring learning to life, a rigorous academic curriculum, three world languages, public speaking and leadership opportunities, a strong fine arts program, and organized athletics for continued lifetime success.