Yesterday, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education announced that it has awarded 10,454 Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships to students who have recently graduated from high school. The DHE notified winning students by email.

Yesterday's awards represent merely the first wave of scholarships to be handed out by the program this year. The deadline to apply for the Challenge Scholarship is June 1. DHE Interim Director Shane Broadway says he hopes to hand out all scholarships for graduating high schoolers by July 1, and all scholarships for other students by July 31.

Last year, the DHE awarded 31,000 Challenge scholarships, out of approximately 91,000 applicants. This year, Broadway says the state anticipates receiving 60,000-70,000 applicants.

The Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship is funded by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. The first scholarships in the program were handed out prior to the fall semester last year. This year's scholarship amounts are $4,500 per year for students at four-year universities and $2,250 per year for students at two-year colleges. Those amounts were lowered by this year's General Assembly from the original award amounts of $5,000 and $2,500, respectively.

For information on scholarship eligibility, click here.

Information for this article was taken from a John Lyon article in the Arkansas News Bureau.