By John Rohlf, The Message assistant editor
One Diocese of Evansville educator was recently approved for a grant through the Lilly Endowment.
Maggie Arabia, a teacher at Holy Rosary School in Evansville for the past 22 years and in the Diocese of Evansville for 30 years, was recently announced as a recipient of a grant through the Lilly Endowment’s 2026 Teacher Creativity Fellowship Program. The program supports K-12 educators throughout Indiana by providing resources for them to take time for meaningful renewal.
Arabia’s project is “Rediscovering Overlooked Women Scientists: A Journey to Inspire and Reinvigorate Myself.” The renewal project includes trips to the Rosalind Franklin sites in London, England; to Mary Anning Sites in Lyme Regis, UK; to Marie Curie sites in Paris, France; and to Lise Meitner sites in Vienna, Austria. The sites include several museums and a guided fossil walk in Lyme Regis, among other stops.
“After decades of caregiving through illness and loss, I seek to be renewed by following in the footsteps of women scientists like Franklin, Curie, Anning and Meitner,” Arabia said in the grant proposal. “Their resilience reflects my own. This journey will restore my spirit, celebrate health and transform how I inspire students.”
Arabia said in the past several years of the grant cycle, it “became more obvious that teachers in the diocese were getting these grants.” In the past two grant cycles, seven Diocese of Evansville educators were awarded grants through the Lilly Endowment.
“I have a lot of background things going on right now with my family,” Arabia said. “I tend to be very involved in everything at the school and I tend to put a lot of other things first. I put my kids first, my husband first, my family first, my students first. And I was kind of just getting myself worn down a little bit … I don’t want to put myself first. It feels very selfish. But then on the other hand, I thought maybe I do need (this renewal).”
Joining Arabia on the trip will be her husband, who currently has stage four colon cancer. In her application, Arabia said this trip funded through the Lilly Endowment would allow them to reconnect outside of hospital rooms, share moments of joy and create lasting memories, which would strengthen her personally and the way she teaches and connects with her students.
“We expect that we’re going to be able to always keep the cancer at bay, and that we’re going to use this whack a mole method where we’re going to take care of it and that kind of thing,” Arabia said. “But why wait to experience life outside of a hospital room, which we’ve spent a lot of time in a hospital room … We’ve been married over 30 years, and we’ve been best friends. And I want to spend time with my husband in quality ways …”
In her application, Arabia said the project, at its core, is “a long-overdue commitment” to herself.
“It is a chance to step away from a life of constant crisis, to reclaim joy and to fill my cup in ways that will restore me personally and professionally,” Arabia said in the application. “Just as these women overcame adversity to leave their mark on history, I too seek renewal — a celebration of health, strength and resilience that I can carry forward into my teaching and my life.”
Arabia hopes sharing her experience after her trip will hopefully spark the interest in other educators to consider a creativity grant through the Lilly Endowment. To go on a trip to Europe and visit all these different countries and do all these things, that is not financially in the resources of a Catholic educator usually, she said.
“I don’t really want a lot of attention, but I do want to share my story,” Arabia said. “I want other teachers to have this experience and be able to get out there and do that … I don’t think I’m special. I don’t think I have any kind of unique sparkle or anything to get this. I think all teachers deserve it. Teaching is not an easy job. We’re competing against technology. We’re competing against everything else. And if that’s something I can do, I want to share that story too.”