PORTLAND — More than 100 babies are expected to attend a casting call today at the University of Southern Maine in a promotion of scholarship grants.

The event is to not only photograph Future Faces of Maine, but to help parents open so-called NextGen accounts for their babies.

Those accounts, administered through the Finance Authority of Maine, are needed in order to receive a $500 Harold Alfond College Challenge Grant.

To boost enrollments in the Alfond grant program, officials have launched casting calls, where parents can have their baby photographed to appear in the program’s marketing materials. It’s an opportunity for parents to start early in financing their young children’s college educations.