Lincoln County’s Mississippi Scholars program is continuing aphenomenal run of success – both in terms of participants andsupport.

Program officials said 210 students are in line to graduate thisyear as Mississippi Scholars, a significant increase over lastyear’s 163 graduates who chose to purse a more rigorous educationalcurriculum. This year’s total represents 41 percent for the overallanticipated graduating classes at city and county schools.

On the support front, due largely to assistance fromMississippi’s four-year universities and colleges, the localScholars program has seen a major bump in scholarship funding from$37,500 in 2008 to $123,500 this year. That amount is slated tofund 62 scholarships this year as compared to the less than 30 lastyear.

The Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce has embracedthe Mississippi Scholars program, a project of the MississippiEconomic Council, and established it as the role model for otherprograms across the state to follow. The local program’s 2009success is further evidence that Lincoln County continues to setthe bar when it comes to cultivating Mississippi Scholars and inproviding funds to help them pursue their education at the nextlevel.