A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student came in second in a national competition to win a $10,000 scholarship and the title of Construction Intern of the Year. 

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 awarded a total of $50,000 in scholarships to 17 students.

As one of four finalists, Harrison Hayworth, junior civil and construction engineering student, earned a $4,000 scholarship.

“I feel like I ran quite the gutsy campaign throughout this whole contest,” Hayworth said. “I wrote and rewrote my entry, I reached out to countless connections across the globe, and was relentless at reminding and reaching out to even more people.”

A second UA Little Rock student, Edyta Osieczko, a civil and construction engineering major, was a semifinalist in the competition and earned a $2,000 scholarship.

“I feel so proud and happy to get that scholarship,” Osieczko said. “I would like to thank all who voted and supported me. I have really never won a scholarship before, so it means something very special to me. I feel happy, proud, and honored for having so many amazing people around me.”

Both students completed internships at Austin Bridge and Road this summer. They were both selected as semifinalists in the Construction Intern of the Year competition after being two of the top eight candidates who received the most online votes. Hayworth earned the second most online votes out of more than 120 contestants with 11,525 votes, while Osieczko had the fifth highest amount of online votes, finishing the competition with 8,928 votes.

Harrison also thanked everyone who voted in the online contest that helped her reach the semifinalist round of the competition.

“The contest was decided by a panel of judges, and the voting played a part of the overall outcome,” Harrison said. “I appreciate the support tremendously. Without the voting, I could have been in a completely different situation.”