The hard-working students who have obtained and kept their Hope Scholarships are denied the option of using that money for summer school. “I guess it’s frustrating because you work hard throughout the semester to keep your grades up to keep the scholarship, but you can’t even use it towards summer school in order to graduate faster,” said Erika Turner, a junior on ETSU’s dance team.

Turner is one of the many students facing this problem. Lyndsay Adkins-Whetsell, a sophomore, feels a financial burden on herself and family due to the lack of scholarship money for summer.

“I am hoping to take summer school, but … it all depends on aid,” said Adkins-Whetsell.

The Lottery Scholarship is offered to incoming students who have graduated from an eligible Tennessee high school and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher or an ACT of at least 21 (910 for the SAT). The students must have at least a 2.75 overall GPA for up to 48 attempted hours and a term GPA of 3.0 to keep the scholarship.

The students still receiving the scholarship who have reached 72 hours or more have maintained those high grades throughout their time at East Tennessee State University and other in-state colleges.

Students wonder why they cannot use the Lottery Scholarship for summer school. Although the opportunity to apply for financial aid is available, students face the same dilemma: whether their parents make too much money for the student to obtain any financial aid.

That leads to the issue of having to pay for the courses out of pocket or taking out dreaded student loans.

Aside from what some people may believe, ETSU is not in charge of determining who can use what money at what time.

According to Kathy Feagins, the scholarship office director at ETSU, the Tennessee General Assembly approved the scholarship, but the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation determines guidelines. The TSAC has ruled that summer school is an invalid time to use the scholarship.

Feagins said she suspects the idea is that “students could take 15 hours each fall and spring term and graduate in four years (eight semesters).

“And I’m sure it has to do with funding,” she said.

Since each student receives $4,000 per academic year, it would be an extra $2,000 per student if they could use the lottery towards summer school – meaning each student would receive $6,000 each year. The funds are just not available to provide that much more money for every student wanting to take summer school.

Ashley Worthington is a senior nutrition major dealing with this issue.

“If the lottery was available for summer courses,” Worthington said, “then I believe more students would take up the opportunity to take summer classes which would result in more people graduating on time.”

Editor’s note: Students whose grades drop can get the scholarship back. These students must attend full-time and have at least a 2.75 cumulative GPA and a term GPA of 3.0 to earn the scholarship for the next semester.

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