Pilot project geared toward HOPE scholars

First-year HOPE scholars enrolled in selected English 1010 classes in fall 2006 got a reminder to keep their grades up. Those enrolled in 27 sections of the course this semester will also be contacted, thanks to a student success coordinator involved in the First College Year project.

These efforts are part of the College’s ongoing Foundations of Excellence program. Pellissippi State was selected in June 2005 by the Policy Center on the First Year of College as one of 10 Founding Institutions to participate in the development of a national model for excellence for two-year colleges.

HOPE scholars are students who have been awarded tuition money because of their achievements during high school. Class of 2007 awardees must have an overall “unweighted” 3.0 grade point average or a score of 21 on their ACT (or 980 on the SAT) in order to receive the scholarship. HOPE scholarships are part of the Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship program.

Sydney Gingrow, student success coordinator and associate professor of English, began the pilot project by gaining the cooperation of selected English 1010 faculty members and April Morgan, Financial Aid coordinator, and then obtaining a report determining which students in those classes were HOPE scholars. She then sent a letter to each of the students.

The letter congratulated them on earning the scholarship and included a reminder detailing what they had to do to keep it. The course instructors agreed to issue midterm grades to targeted students. Later, those students with less than a “B” were sent another letter—this time a warning.

In order to keep their scholarships, lottery recipients must first maintain a 2.75 GPA after 24 attempted semester hours. Then, they must keep a “B” average after 48, 72, 96 and 120 attempted semester hours, but unfortunately many across Tennessee lose their awards because of low grades.

“The second letter warned them to bring up their grade to a ‘B’ average and provided details about tutoring options for them,” said Gingrow.

“We decided to target lottery scholarship recipients because we can, in many cases, consider those students as high-achieving or honor students. The FOE task force recommended that this group, among others, should be targeted with special programs to improve the students’ chances for success.

“The goal with this pilot project is to support our lottery scholarship recipients,” said Gingrow.

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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