Eskenazi Health and Eskenazi Health Foundation announced a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health. The Fehribach Center provides internships for college students with physical disabilities, helping reverse the inequities that make employment percentages for college students with disabilities less than half of those for students without them.

“Eskenazi Health Foundation’s vision is to create a sustainable, equitable workforce in Indianapolis. Through the Gregory S. Fehribach Center, that vision can become a reality not just in this city, but throughout Indiana, and become a model for the rest of the country,” said Ernest Vargo II, CFRE, president and chief executive officer of the Eskenazi Health Foundation. “We are so grateful to Lilly Endowment for helping make the center’s continued growth and expanded reach possible.”

Lilly Endowment’s grant includes a $2 million match, which would bring the total support for the program to $12 million. For every new dollar raised by Eskenazi Health Foundation for the Fehribach Center, Lilly Endowment will match it up to $2 million. Eskenazi Health Foundation will work to attract additional support for Fehribach Center to meet this incredible matching opportunity.

Since its inception in 2013, the Fehribach Center has provided 228 college and university students with life-changing opportunities. Beginning with one Ball State University intern placed at Eskenazi Health, the program has expanded to include students from 42 colleges and universities in Indiana and surrounding states. It has now provided 468 internships, not only at Eskenazi Health, but at 46 additional partner organizations across Central Indiana. While Central Indiana continues to be the backbone for the center, a research advisory board of 15 scholars has been established to work with higher education institutions and employers to advance accessible internship and job placement practices throughout Indiana and the country. The center’s research was recently featured in a special issue of the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, the peer-reviewed journal of the Association on Higher Education and Disability.

The Fehribach Center was selected for the prestigious Chevron Innovation Award this spring, which recognizes outstanding achievements of programs driving impact in the college career services field. The center was selected from among nearly every college and university and many leading employers in the country by the National Association of Colleges and Employers for this honor. The percentage of Fehribach Center interns entering the job market who have found equitable employment (91%) is almost triple the 31.3% average for college graduates with disabilities nationwide.

“We have something special in Indianapolis, and thanks to Lilly Endowment’s generosity, we can help employers, colleges and universities and other organizations across the state and country begin to practice our groundbreaking model,” said Larry Markle, the center’s director. “At the Fehribach Center, we have the privilege of witnessing Eskenazi Health and our other Indianapolis partners giving this city’s leaders the tools to build a richer, more diverse workforce. We can now help other communities do the same.”

Students are recruited from Indiana and nearby Midwestern colleges and universities for 8-12-week internships through the Fehribach Center. Many professional development opportunities are available once they enter the program, including weekly lunch-and-learn sessions, networking events, social activities and one-on-one mentoring with previous interns and volunteer board members. In addition, obstacles are eliminated to ensure all qualified students who are admitted can participate: Accessible housing and transportation are provided at no cost to the interns who need them, and the center also provides interns with workplace accommodations, such as assistive technology.

“This support from Lilly Endowment is a gamechanger for the Fehribach Center and ensures that the program will sustain and thrive for many years to come,” said Hud Pfeiffer, J.D., advisory board chair of the Gregory S. Fehribach Center at Eskenazi Health. “It also allows for the program to shine nationally as a proven model, providing young people with physical disabilities with a chance to gain practical real-world work experience.”

Christia Hicks, chief human resources officer at Eskenazi Health, has been a long-time supporter of the program.

“Every summer the Fehribach Center interns make an indelible impact on so many departments at Eskenazi Health and at our partner organizations across Central Indiana,” she said. “We have the same expectations of our interns as we would for any employee, and they repeatedly rise to the challenge. Many have returned for second and third internships. We’ve also hired interns for full-time positions. We are excited that Lilly Endowment is investing in the advancement of this incredible program and in its gifted participants.”

“We are committed at Eskenazi Health to providing a welcoming environment and training ground for students who have so much promise but are often disadvantaged in the hiring process due to bias and inequitable conditions,” said Lisa Harris, M.D., CEO of Eskenazi Health. “With Lilly Endowment’s support, the Fehribach Center will now have the resources to continue to expand and to set the standard for the future of accessibility in the workforce. We are grateful to be a partner in this important work.”

Gregory Fehribach, the far-sighted principal of the Fehribach Group who founded the program and remains its active advisor, envisions Fehribach Center interns continuing to support one another throughout their careers.

“The interns’ successes will continue to create a ripple effect, benefiting the generations of interns who follow them,” he said. “We want what we started in Indianapolis to spread throughout Indiana and the rest of the country, demonstrating what’s possible when you give these talented students the means to not only succeed themselves, but to advocate for their peers. I am deeply thankful to Lilly Endowment for recognizing not only what this program has already achieved, but what it can become.”

That process is already beginning. Emily Earle, a clinical education program coordinator at Eskenazi Health and former Fehribach Center intern, was recently named a CAREERS & the disABLED magazine employee of the year for creating a scholarship for the internship program that has meant so much to her.

Students from colleges and universities in five states are coming to the Fehribach Center. Plans for the support and expansion of the reach of the center include continuing to strategically grow current successful initiatives, with an emphasis on the internship program and the center’s research agenda; developing new initiatives that align with its mission; assisting others from across the United States in creating internship opportunities for college students with disabilities; and increasing the endowment of the program to ensure the long-term sustainability of the center.