New Legislation and Bergman School

First of all, big thanks to Mrs. Sharp and Mrs. Clouse for letting me use their classrooms for Talent Search. Another big thanks goes to Mrs. Hastings for her warm welcome at Bergman Middle School. I was happy to see that there are so many Talent Search students at one school! Seniors, I've started work on the UCA tour. Hopefully we will be taking that trip next month.

I attended ArkACRAO today at Arkansas Tech in Russellville. ArkACRAO is a gathering of local colleges and financial aid represenatives. They get together to update counselors on new information which their students will want to know. I did find a few schools that take the ACT "superscore" for those at Bergman who asked me about that. I will give details on my next visit.

One good thing to come out of the new legislation which recently cleared Congress is: federal student loans will begin decreasing in interest percentage gradually each year until the rate reaches 3.4%. That will make it lest costly to borrow money from the government for your education - great news! I just hope some of the negative things that have been predicted about the legislation don't happen. Click here if you are interested to know more details about the bill.

Scholarship Updates and Yellville-Summit

I was looking at the adhe website and I found a scholarship that was previously unknown to me [not hard to do because I'm new at this stuff :) ]. This one is for you high achievers. It's called the Governor's Scholars Program. It has high academic requirements, but offers up to $10,000 per year! That would get you into some schools including room, board, and books. Woah!

I enjoyed meeting the Talent Search students at Yellville-Summit School. I especially want to thank Mrs. Nowland who worked hard to get me set up with the right classrooms (if you read this, tell her I said so)! Students, bear with me as I try to remember all your names ;) I hope you are all using your planners! I will see you all on October 2^nd, unless you get to College Planning Day at Northark (which I hope you do).

Academic Challenge Scholarship

I want to remind students that are looking to get the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship to make sure they are taking the required courses. The complete list can be found here. Remember: 2 years of the same foreign language and 4 years of math (at least one beyond geometry and algebra II). Check with your counselor if you think you may not be meeting the requirements. This is a really great scholarship that will provide about $3000 per year for up to four years at a college or university.

On a casual note, try to stay positive with all this gloomy weather we've been having this last week. Things should clear up by mid next week :) Enjoy the weekend!

GO! Opportunities Grant

I just found out about a new state grant available to students who will or are attending an Arkansas college or university. It is called the Go! Opportunities Grant and it provides $1,000 per academic year for a total of up to $4,000. Here is the website if you want to apply, and here is a direct link for the information packet with all the details you crave. Definitely get the details before you apply. My recommendation? Apply as early as possible. Some grants have a finite pool of money to pull funds from. If you wait too long the pool may be empty and nobody likes diving into an empty pool (ouch) ;)