Students receive more than $700k in scholarships

The Health Resources and Services Administration recently awarded 90 scholarships to full-time students within the College of Health & Public Affairs through its Scholarship for Disadvantaged Students program.

According to COHPA Assistant Director of Graduate Services Ranetta Guinn, who is in charge of disbursing the funds, more than $700,000 of federal scholarship money was awarded to the COHPA in August.

The awards are granted to students whose parents have incomes below federal poverty guidelines. Disbursement varies according to major, but undergraduates majoring in communication sciences and graduate students majoring in social work and communication sciences and disorders who received the award will have their 2009-2010 academic year tuition paid for, Guinn said.

"This is a really neat award because it says that if you are low in income and you really have an economic need, we can provide you with a way of coming in and getting your degree and going out and working in underserved areas," said Michael Frumkin, dean of the College of Health & Public Affairs.

Regardless of age, marital or dependency status, students are eligible for the award if their parents' 2008 income meets the criteria, although exceptions can be made due to extenuating circumstances such as death.

According to Guinn, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the funds to the COHPA based on the number of students in financial need within the eligible degrees — master's degrees in social work, sciences in health services administration, communication sciences and disorders and bachelor's degrees in radiological sciences and communication sciences. The funds were also allocated to the college because of its location in a medically underserved county and due to the shortage of health professionals in the area, according to the department's Web site.

According to data collected in 2008 by the Health Resources and Services Administration, parts of Orange County  have a shortage of health professionals to meet the needs of low-income populations.

"The more students we can attract, the more students we can support; the more we can put them into the workforce, the more it's going to help people get their health care," Frumkin said.

Lauren Rees has learned that pursuing a graduate degree in speech pathology demands sacrifice. She has been struggling to make ends meet and to keep up with her classes.
Attempting to ease her financial burden, Rees applied and was awarded  the scholarship.

She is still waiting to find out how much she received.

COHPA Research Coordinator Barbara Howell, who wrote the grant's application, said, based on 2007 FAFSA reports, there were a total of 148 full-time students who were considered disadvantaged within the college and eligible for the scholarship.

This is the first year COHPA administrators have applied for the grant and also the year for which the college has received the most scholarship money, Frumkin said.

Junior Keissy Sanchez, who is pursuing a bachelor's in communication sciences, said the scholarship fuels her ambition to continue her goal to help kids who are unable to communicate.

 "It's a motivation for me, also, to keep going on in the major," Sanchez said. "I see progress in this major. The way I see it is if they're giving out scholarships for it, it must be something that the school wants us to keep going on for and it's pretty good."

Guinn said she will accept applications from students pursuing master's degrees in social work or communicative sciences and disorders, as well as bachelor's degrees in communication sciences until all the funds are allocated or until the grant's deadline, June 30.

Isaly Morgan, a social work graduate student, applied for the scholarship hoping her parents' income would be considered, even though her father died two weeks before she submitted the application. Both her parents are deceased. She was skeptical of receiving aid because her current income might not meet the federal poverty guidelines.

Morgan said even if she doesn't qualify, she fits the label as a disadvantaged student. In high school, she lived without a permanent residence because her father didn't have a stable job. She had to pay for school through loans and estimates she now owes $60,000.

"This semester I would really like to be able not to work considering the level of difficulty in my master's degree," Morgan said. "So I am behind in all my classes, staying up late to finish my papers, just because I only really have one day dedicated to homework. Every other day is classes, internship and work."

Even though Morgan works part time and her husband works full time, she said she lives on a tight budget and is considering withdrawing next semester.