On Wednesday, Sept. 13, some members of Hays High School’s senior class took a test called the Dane G. Hansen scholarship qualifying test, which covers the history of Kansas and the country and is about three hours long and timed.

The Dane G. Hansen Foundation was created with the mission of strengthening communities, increasing economic opportunities and creating environments for growth and improvement. The foundation’s scholarship program is available to 26 counties in northwestern Kansas, and it has awarded more than $35 million in scholarships to about 7,000 students from all different schools in the region. These scholarships can be for students who are going to a four-year university, community college or technical school. They give out about 200 new scholarships every year.

Seniors who took the scholarship test left the school during the first hour of the day on Sept. 13 and then returned to the school around noon.

“The test was very difficult in my opinion, and the essay questions were hard, but I got through them,” senior Brenlynn Albers said. “I had enough time for all the questions, but most of them were very random, and I felt like I did not know any of them.”

Students will see if they are able to move on to the next step in the scholarship process about two weeks before Winter Break. Then, students who do qualify to move on will have an interview in February, and finally find out if they got a scholarship around the time of Spring Break.

24jwente@usd489.com