PINEVILLE, LA. - Cleco Corporation awarded scholarships to two students who attended the ADVANCE Program for Young Scholars at Northwestern State University held in June.

Andrew Bennett of Slidell and Kyle McCall of Boyce were selected to receive scholarships. Bennett is the son of Gary and Melissa Bennett. He completed Games, Puzzles and Logic, a college-level course, at ADVANCE and is entering the ninth grade at Northshore High School.

McCall is the son of Donald and Michelle McCall.  He studied geometry at ADVANCE and is entering the ninth grade at Bolton High School.

The ADVANCE program is one of five collaborative efforts with Duke University’s Talent Identification Program (TIP) and was started in 1989. During the three-week program, students are challenged to complete an in-depth study of a subject and cover an entire year’s worth of high school material or a semester of college level material.

The program at Northwestern is the only Duke collaborative program in Louisiana.

The courses cover a broad range of subjects from algebra to journalism to computer science and are offered to rising eighth through 12th-grade students in the state and region. Cleco has supported the ADVANCE program with donations each year for the past 15 years. Donated funds are used to help students from Cleco’s service territory attend the educational program.

For further information regarding ADVANCE, please call 318-357-4500 or visit  www.advanceprogram.org.