VSU helps out in tough times

ETTRICK -- Francesca Glascon was in the middle of her sophomore year at Virginia State University when the financial concerns began.

Toward the end of 2005, Glascon's parents were in a tough economic situation after her mother lost her job. Paying the out-of-state attendance cost of slightly more than $12,000 for VSU was a major concern because financial aid wasn't going to cover it all.

She was living in an off-campus apartment and bills were piling up. She worked as a paid intern in a campus office and her financial aid was increased slightly because she maintained good grades, but money was still tight the following spring.

At no time was leaving school a possibility.

"I knew I wasn't going to give up. My parents wouldn't allow me to give up," said Glascon, who is from Bowie, Md. "If it came down to it, we were going to have to find the money somehow, some way."

The solution came in a program Virginia State created in 2006 called Low Income Families with Talented Students.

Instead of taking out more student loans and increasing the amount of debt she faced after graduation, Glascon's final two years at VSU were completely covered, leaving her with only two years' worth of loans to pay off, about $13,000 to $14,000.

"I'll only have to pay back two years of loans for the rest of my life," she said. "I think that is good because that's not a lot compared to how much other people have to pay back."

Before enrolling in the LIFTS program, about 60 percent of her financial aid was in student loans, she said.

Candidates for the LIFTS program must maintain a 3.0 grade-point average and have a family income that is below twice the federal poverty level based on a sliding scale for family size.

The program limits student loan debt to 25 percent of Virginia State's in-state attendance cost, regardless of state residency. This leaves students with $10,000 to $11,000 of debt when they graduate, said VSU President Eddie N. Moore.

Since its inception, money from the LIFTS program has been awarded to 226 recipients, totaling $1.1 million, in the last three years. A student can qualify for multiple years. The program doesn't change the cost of attendance but provides assistance for a student to attend the university.

"Our goal was that no student in this program would leave Virginia State with more than one year of debt related to their college experience," Moore said.

Moore said about one-third of Virginia State's student body falls under the $10,210 threshold for poverty based on 2007 Health and Human Services guidelines.

The LIFTS program has the "potential to appeal to a lot of our students," he said.

Glascon graduated cum laude with a degree in accounting and now works in client financial services for Altria in Henrico County.

The extra money she's not putting toward paying off student debt is going to savings. She hopes to one day own a business, maybe an accounting firm or a studio for dance, which is a lifelong passion.

"Without the grades, I wouldn't have been able to get the scholarship," she said. "So it's important to keep good grades because you never know where you'll be in life."

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