On April 13th, I went to a Local School Council meeting for my old high school (GO
HARLAN FALCONS!!!!). Just before the meeting two of the council members had a talk about a student. One of them was a parent of the student and the other I believe was a counselor. This counselor had approached me about participating in a career day but currently I still have no "Morehouse man job".
The gist of the convo is that the young lady wanted to go to
Spelman College. It seems as if her heart was set for Spelman but then came the financial aid award from them. And then disappointment set in!
The award from what I got from the convo was heavy on loans and unless I'm mistaken I heard nothing about grants. Even with that in mind they still had to come up with some cash to finish off the balance. It's safe to say momma wasn't going for Spelman College this trip and she referred to this award as a "racket".
The young girl was upset but after some reflection decided to focus her energies onto
Howard University. Apparently Howard had offered her a better deal with a scholarship and let me not be dismissive of Howard it's still a great school. But this story made me wish that well I had some contacts at Spelman to help this young lady out a bit.
Also this leads to other questions. I would like to be this bold but without getting into anyone's business although I already did that by tuning into the conversation.
The counselor seems to have predicted that Spelman wasn't going to give this young lady any money. It makes me wonder how she decided that. The mother noted that the counselor was beaming when she heard the young lady was considering Howard University. Though perhaps beaming as if she knew that this was going to happen.
During my time at
Morehouse College I had to learn the financial aid game. I never turned in applications on time but I knew the "high-touch" paying a visit to financial aid advisers could make a different. Well at least in the time before my return to Morehouse after one disastrous semester.
It's understandable that momma may not have wanted to go for it looking at the award. Of course if one was determined to go to the school of their choice there is a way. Of course, that might mean trying to eke out more money so that they can go to school figuring out how to pay for it after a year is entirely another. Then again I wasn't a senior in high school like this young lady is currently trying to figure this out. Though it does make me wonder what is the difference between Spelman College and Howard University. In fact this gives me an interesting idea.
It does give me one idea that's been in my head for quite a while. If there was one thing I do wish I could do for students at Harlan High School it would be to help provide scholarships so that they can attend the university of their choice. Although if I could my goal would be to start small and hopefully help some young Harlanite who wanted to go to Morehouse get a decent scholarship to be able to attend that prestigious Atlanta, Georgia institution. That may also mean that Morehouse needs to add one more place to recruit!
