ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010105
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
To get ahead, sometimes you have to take a chance.
That's just what Gregory Roberts did five years ago when he quit his $35,000-a-year commercial roofing job and went back to school.
"I wasn't happy with what I was doing and no amount of money could have made it any better," said Roberts, a 33-year-old computer engineering student.
But that doesn't mean it's easy to give up the security of a paycheck for the world of student loans. Roberts and nine others got a break from their bills this week when Tech awarded them Hokie Spirit Scholarships, paid for by all the alumni out there whose cars sport Hokie license plates.
The plates cost $25 each. Once a school sells 1,000, it starts earning $15 per plate from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, said DMV spokeswoman Jeannie Chenault. Tech boasts the best-selling of 68 college plates available (only in-state colleges get money back) since the DMV launched the program in 1989.
It took awhile for Tech's license plate kitty to build up, but this year the scholarship fund hit $115,692 and Tech awarded its first Hokie Spirit scholarships, said Matt Winston, who runs the program for Tech.
Unlike many others, these scholarships are awarded to students based both on their financial need and their academic accomplishment. Some students get full tuition and fees; others get funding to help them over a rough spot.
Take Roberts, for instance. He won $1,000, which will just about cover his $1,200 costs for two classes he's taking this summer.
He said he was "going nowhere" back when he decided to quit his job, enroll in J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond, and pursue his fascination with things electronic.
"One thing led to another and I decided to go and get the technology degree," he said. "I decided to get involved in computer repair; the more I got involved in that curriculum, I got interested in the [computer's] internal workings, and that sort of led me here."
Giving up a weekly paycheck's been the hardest part of his new life.
"You're so used to providing for yourself and making this money. You're going basically from riches to rags. I can't go out to a movie every weekend. You have to really be very budget-oriented and take every expenditure into account," he said.
Competition for merit-based scholarships is stiff, and that makes it tough for students who not only do well in school, but really need the money, said Kemie Alexander, a Tech junior who wants to be a psychiatrist. That's the beauty of these scholarships, she said.
"Since [my] sophomore year, I've been responsible for my own schooling," said Shannon Millett, who won $1,500 that will help her pay off her last year of college.
"I want to be a chiropractor, and that requires four more years," she said. "I'm going to have more loans."
For now, though, she can thank the 3,500 or more Hokies driving around with school spirit on their license plates to make her last undergraduate year a little easier to finance.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB