At the end of last semester, the fact that I had been an undergraduate for exactly four years without graduating became painfully clear to me.
It wouldn’t be a big deal at all, except that it meant that I would be losing the Hope Scholarship.
Because of this scholarship I have been able to pay for school, and without it I would be royally screwed.
I already work constantly while in school, and there aren’t exactly any higher paying jobs just knocking on my door. I am not one of those lucky students whose parents help them out.
It is not like this sad fate suddenly dawned on me upon ending the last semester, that is just when the panic set in.
I have known that the scholarship would be unfairly ripped away from me even though I have never had a GPA below 3.0.
I read in 2007 when they lowered the GPA requirement to 2.75 if you had reached 24 hours. I also read when the General Assembly debated what to do with the surplus scholarship money.
All the while I wondered how they could possibly merit letting freshmen keep their scholarship if they fell as low as a 2.75, but I was going to have mine taken from me even though my grades have never fallen.
I actually was able to corner Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey after he came to ETSU last semester. I was in Reporting Public Affairs class when he came to speak.
A few other students were asking him questions about the surplus in the Lottery Scholarship and what they plan on doing with it.
Of course he was using the typical politician vagueness, saying that it may be used to help non-traditional students, or they may lower the GPA requirement somewhere, yadda yadda yadda, when a friend of mine and I jumped in front and boldly asked why that would be considered if there are students going into their fifth year and losing the scholarship even though they have been keeping their grades up for the past four years.
Doesn’t that send the wrong message? Dosen’t it say, hey, if you want to double major or if you have to work full-time to be able to afford school and that renders you unable to graduate in four years, oh well, you should not be such and overachiever.
Ha ha, take that Mr. Politician. And of course, he stammered while saying, umm, that could be an option too.
Shortly after that question, Mr. Ron Ramsey said that he had to be going to catch his plane back to Nash Vegas, so we never really got our answer, or any peace for that matter. I certainly never expected anyone to heed our words.
This summer boiled down to an end, and severe panic set in. What the hell am I going to do to pay for school? I could work a street corner, but I’d really rather not.
My friend got her parents to help her out. I spent the entire summer filling out every single possible scholarship that I could find.
I searched Fastweb, the military.com scholarship site and many others just to find that you must search through thousands of scholarships to find a handful that you are eligible for.
If you are a rare ambidextrous, blond-haired American that had a Caribbean Island/European/Native American heritage then there is a scholarship for you. However, if you are a broke, caucasion, American female majoring in Spanish and journalism who is just not Cherokee or Irish enough, then sorry kid, no soup for you.
Weeks later, and still no word from the dozen or so scholarships that I happened to apply for, I received an e-mail from financial aid. The title so cheerfully read . Lottery Scholarship Changes.
I figured it would be a variation of the previous changes, except maybe a little more help for the non-traditional students or the freshmen whose GPA falls.
I almost birthed a horse when I read that the 120-attempted hour limit is gone in big, bold letters. I immediately printed it out and took it to the financial aid office where I waited in line for an hour and a half.
Normally that long of a wait would have irritated me, but I could have kissed the guy who looked me up on the computer and told me that for sure, I was to receive my Lottery Scholarship for one more year!
Instead of being irritated or kissing the poor fellow, I turned around and moonwalked out of the office of perpetual waiting chanting, “Jigga jigga yeah,” Mclovin style.