Two University of Arkansas at Little Rock students have a chance at winning the title of Construction Intern of the Year and a $10,000 scholarship after earning two spots in the students who earned the most online votes for the scholarship competition.

The Construction Intern Awards scholarship program is designed to recognize the strongest construction interns in the industry and the companies with the best construction internship programs in the country. They are awarding a total of $50,000 in scholarships.

Two civil and construction engineering students, Harrison Hayworth and Edyta Osieczko, have moved on to the semifinalist round of the competition after being a part of the top eight students who earned the most online votes. Both students completed internships at Austin Bridge and Road this summer.

“I would like to say thank you for supporting me through this contest,” Hayworth said. “It truly meant a lot. Other participants at bigger universities and bigger companies automatically had an upper edge on the candidates from smaller universities, but the support from UA Little Rock really made the difference.”

The eight candidates who received the most online votes as well as nine entrants selected by a committee will move on to the next round, where a panel of 12 judges will review the entries and recommendation letters and select the winners.

The Construction Intern of the Year and four finalists will be announced Nov. 14. The top winner will take home $10,000, while four finalists will earn a $4,000 scholarship. The rest of the 12 semifinalists will receive $2,000 scholarships.

Hayworth earned the second most online votes out of more than 120 contestants. While earning 11,525 votes, she trailed the intern with the most votes, Moath Mohammed, by just 81 votes.

“I feel excited to move on to the next round of judging and see what all can happen from here,” Hayworth said. “Being in the top 8 of popular voting out of all of the other candidates is really a neat opportunity.”

Osieczko had the fifth highest amount of online votes, finishing the competition with 8,928 votes.

“Winning for me is an honor and a privilege,” Osieczko said. “I did not expect it because I’m not a person who was ever popular. I am very appreciative and thankful to all the people who voted for me.”