Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

From the Counselor's Desk

by Donald Crane, PHS Counselor

It's comforting to know that computers and scanners are non-discriminatory.

You may recall, last week I mentioned that Hope High's computer went down and prevented them from scanning student registration forms.

Well, this week I received a newsletter concerning the Federal Financial Aid Program. It seems they anticipated a greater number of students applying for federal aid this year and purchased new scanning equipment to handle the increased load. Theirs went down, too!

It seems that as of April 15, they were backlogged 1.5 million applications, but they were very encouraging. They were contacting colleges and universities, asking them to extend their financial aid deadlines.

And, in typical U.S. Government fashion, they had hired additional personnel to speed up form processing and were confident that the situation would be quickly corrected and no eligible student would be denied. After all, this is an election year.

I have already received calls from some who applied early and were wondering why they haven't heard anything. I guess we know now. For those who are still applying, it would be wise to contact the financial aid office of your college and see if they will process the forms for you. Some, such as Red River Technical College, will -- others won't.

Currently, I am doing a final survey of our seniors to determine last-minute changes in their plans. I am encouraging all who are even close to meeting the requirements to apply for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship.

A student can apply only during their graduation year.

Things are slowly coming together for final senior activities. As of this writing, definite times and dates have not been set for some of the activities but should be soon.

The fire has put us behind and created some problems with facilities where these final senior events can be held.

There is one major announcement I have been forgetting, and I usually mention it in this column. Kelly Whitmarsh, daughter of Glenn and Linda Whitmarsh, is this year's recipient of the Arkansas Governor's Scholarship. Congratulations Kelly!

Something just occurred to me. Those additional people the government hired to handle the backlog of student aid forms -- I wonder if they will lose their jobs when the situation is corrected? I really wonder.