October 30, 2013- Albany, Ga. from WALB-- Two years ago, HOPE, the lottery funded program that helps students attend technical college, changed their GPA requirements from a 2.0 to a 3.0 in order to conserve funds for the following year. This forced over 11,000 students across the state to lose their grant, making school officials concerned about enrollment. But not all colleges took the big hit.
"We were affected but maybe not to the extent that some others were affected because our students were not in HOPE depended programs," Albany Tech President Dr. Anthony Parker said.
Those at Albany Tech encourage students to take part in longer degree programs which allows them to receive more funds from several different providers, that includes pell, federal funding and loans. So, even though many students use HOPE they were not heavily dependent on it. And student Jackie Martin is an example of that, she made sure she maintained a high GPA through out her 2 years to avoid loosing her funds.
"For someone that it had fallen down on I think it could be really hard for them especially if they didn't have the finances, because I was a little concerned about it because you never know what's going to happen," Martin said.
Albany Tech President Dr. Parker says the requirement being brought back down will help students doing well but fall short of a 3.0 will still have the resources to continue and graduate. For Hope recipient Sabrina Lumpkin, she agrees.
"I feel like its giving them the opportunity to come back to school and keep trying instead of giving up," Lumpkin said.
This fall more than half are now receiving the grant.
See the original story @ WALB