The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the nation's largest provider of need-based scholarships, will award more than $11 million in college scholarships to students this school year.

The organization will double its national scholarship to $20,000 per recipient, and 106 students will be selected for the 2007 academic year.

The deadline for scholarship applications is Oct. 30. More information is on the organization's Web site at www.horatioalger.org.

Recipients are chosen based on their perseverance in overcoming adversity. Additional consideration is given to financial need, academic record, commitment to pursue a college education and desire to contribute to society.

DISABLED-STUDENT HELPER TURNS 40

The KOKUA program, which provides a wide range of academic support to disabled students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

The program was sponsored in 1966 as one of the nation's first university offices for disabled students. Today KOKUA serves 40 times as many students as it did when it first began.

Students are in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and surmount the challenges of many learning, psychiatric and physical disabilities.