Paying for college can sometimes be a difficult prospect for students, and one Adel-DeSoto-Minburn senior worked very hard to earn a very competitive scholarship that will ease the pressure on her wallet.

Carli Hansen was named as one of around 1,000 recipients of a four-year Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, that will pay for over $72,000 of her college education. She was one of more than 10,000 students across the country to apply for the program, undertaking a process that tested her academic, athletic, and leadership capabilities. She will use the scholarship to attend the University of Iowa this fall, where she will study pre-med and take part in the campus ROTC program.

Tony Wolf is the Recruiting Operations Officer for U of I’s ROTC, and he told Raccoon Valley Radio that earning the scholarship is no small fete, and Hansen had to beat out other graduates attending Ivy League-quality schools to count herself in the top 10% of applicants. “This young lady needs to be extremely proud of her accomplishments, because she has competed against some very, very strong applicants going to schools with quite a bit of notoriety. I think she’s an excellent catch for the program, and I think she’ll come in and do outstanding. She’s got, certainly, the academic prowess to be an excellent student at the University of Iowa.”

Wolf says the scholarship will pay for everything Hansen will need to attend college, including a weekly stipend of spending money, but not including room and board. She will be a part of ROTC for all four years of college, and after she graduates she’ll have a commitment to at least four years of active military service.