Going to college just got a little easier for dozens of Lexington students today.

$10,000 scholarships were given to 18 high school seniors who want to study ways of addressing the root causes of gun violence.

Another 12 students who have been affected by violence were also awarded scholarships for career and technical education, and the scholarships were awarded as part of the Building Bridges to Opportunity program launched by one Lexington in 2020.

We saw a bunch of our young people utilizing social media impact in the of protest and about the change that they wanted to see, and we we all fought it.

But are you also going to go out and be the change that you want to see in these systems, in your community?

And that is what 18 of these young people will be doing moving forward.

The scholarships were funded by half $1 million from Kentucky's Everybody Counts initiative, launched three years ago.

The program works to give high school seniors a pathway to a job or college education.