The deadline is rapidly approaching for Arkansas high school seniors to apply for the Academic Challenge Scholarship; all applications must be submitted by June 1.

Recipients may earn up to $12,000 over four years toward their education at any Arkansas college or university if they meet the requirements.

“The Academic Challenge Scholarship is one of the most accessible scholarships for high school seniors and their families,” Dr. Linda Beene, Director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, said.

“About seventy percent of Arkansas families could qualify financially for the scholarship, and family income limits have been raised this year from $60,000 to $65,000 for a family with one child making even more families eligible. I want to encourage every qualified graduating senior in Arkansas to apply immediately for this scholarship.”

Complete requirements for the scholarship including grade point average, ACT test score requirements and family income requirements are detailed at www.arkansaschallenge.com. An online application is also available at the site.

ADHE continued its public information campaign this year to generate interest in the scholarship. The statewide campaign was first rolled out in 2006 and was designed to educate students in grades 7-12 and their families about the scholarship. The campaign features television commercials starring the two-time national champion Central High School cheerleaders. This year the campaign urged students to take the ACT in April and to apply by the June 1 deadline.

“We’ve learned through research that many qualifying students do not obtain this scholarship because they simply have not heard about it,” Dr. Beene said. “We can’t afford to let these students miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s crucial to our students and to Arkansas’s economic future that we inform these students and their families that they can obtain a quality education in Arkansas and get the help they need to do it.”

Since the scholarship was first offered in 1991, $220 million has been awarded to Arkansas students. More than 5,600 students have applied for the scholarship so far in 2007 and that number is expected to rise substantially as the June 1 deadline approaches.

For more information about the Academic Challenge Scholarship, visit www.arkansaschallenge.com.7

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: College, Education, Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.