TOUGH TIMES
When she wasn’t in class, Courtney Bradley could usually be found at work: 40 hours a week at a retail store, 20 at a counseling office, and the rest of the time as a live-in babysitter.
Even with three jobs, the 22 year-old Germanna Community College student was only scraping by. Unable to qualify for financial aid due to paperwork issues, she paid the semester’s $600 tuition with the government stimulus check she received earlier this year.
Then, right before Halloween, she got laid off from the retail store. And her bills, totaling about $800 a month, were just about due.
“I’m working so hard,” Bradley said one afternoon in the school cafeteria. “I only had $10 to my name.”
Amid an economic recession and shrinking resources, more Virginia community college students, like Bradley, are seeking help. Preliminary figures show financial aid applications at Virginia community colleges have gone up 29 percent from last year, said Jeffrey Kraus, assistant vice chancellor of public relations for the Virginia Community College System.
Financial aid director Joan Zanders said the number of applications at Northern Virginia Community College reflected a similar increase, in addition to higher enrollment.
Halfway through the school year, the college has already received more financial aid applications than it did for all of 2007–2008.
At Germanna, student aid applications increased 45.2 percent between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30 compared to the same period last year. In August alone, 80 percent more applications were filed year-over-year.
Enrollment at community colleges usually rises during recessions, partly due to
professionals taking classes to update their skills. Germanna’s enrollment, 6,500 full-time and part-time students, rose a little more than 10 percent this year.
But as the demand for postsecondary education increases, budgets are getting tighter.
Michael Farris, Germanna’s coordinator of financial aid, said he does not expect to add to his staff of six.
His office has fielded more than 3,000 student-aid applications so far—nearly 50 percent of the college’s enrollment.
“Ultimately, in order to be able to do it, we have to really improve efficiencies,” said Farris, who has been on the job six months.
Kraus said community colleges will have to meet the need, regardless of the resources available.
“The bottom line is people are going to need skills to compete in this economy, and we can provide that for them,” he said.
For Bradley, a combination of luck and hard work has enabled her to pay bills on time.
Upon hearing of her struggles, members of her church group gave her nearly $600 in cash and gift cards.
Her financial aid eventually came through, she said, but she still has to buy books next semester. She hopes a third job she recently landed at a coffee shop will relieve that burden.
“Every little bit counts,” Bradley said.