Teenagers in Maryland who get the COVID vaccine have a shot at a college scholarship through a new VaxU Scholarship Promotion, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday.

Any Maryland resident 12 to 17-years-old who has already been vaccinated or gets the COVID vaccine before Labor Day is automatically entered to win a $50,000 scholarship. Beginning next Monday and continuing until Labor Day, the state’s health department and the Maryland Higher Education Commission will draw two winners each week, and on Labor Day four winners will be announced. To qualify, the young people must be within the age range, live in Maryland and get vaccinated in the state.

The prize covers current tuition and fees for public in-state schools. Scholarships will be awarded in the form of a 529 Prepaid College Trust contract, which locks in today’s tuition rates for the future. Recipients can also transfer the scholarship to a non-state university of their choice. The $1 million VaxU scholarship fund is being paid for with federal COVID relief funding.

“If you’ve not yet been vaccinated, the sooner you do the more scholarship drawings you’ll be eligible for,” Hogan said. “Promotions like this are just one more way we are reinforcing the importance of getting every single Marylander that we can vaccinated against COVID-19.”

As of July 4, a little over 75% of the state’s adult population have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and just over 56% of state residents are fully vaccinated.

Hogan says unvaccinated Marylanders remain at risk for contracting the virus, especially the highly contagious Delta variant. All of 93 people who died of COVID-19 in the state in June were unvaccinated. Jinlene Chan, the state’s acting deputy health secretary, says the state health department has confirmed 64 cases of the Delta variant so far, but and only a handful of people have been hospitalized. However, not all COVID samples are tested for the variant.

This is the second statewide incentive program aimed at getting more residents vaccinated. In May, Hogan announced a $2 million lottery in which 40 people won $400,000 each for getting the vaccine.