PEOPLE - 96 SOPHOMORE AMBER MAYS STOCKS her cleaning cart Nov. 11 in the Heritage building. MaY' worked every weekd ay from 6to 8:30 a.m. to make extra money for school expenses.• A. BEENE College tuition worth the financial sacrifice, some say n a room filled with building blocks, coloring books and dolls, senior Kristen Stumpf prepares for another afternoon at work. In addition to a full load of classes, working part time at a local day care became part of Stumpf's daily routine. Stumpf's paychecks were not enough to cover all of her expenses, so she took out loans to cover the re$t. "I'D have to take out loans for the entire time thatI'm [at Harding]," Stumpf said. ''I'm also working now, and r ve worked every semester, every summer and every break in between." Stumpf was not alone in her sacrifices to be a college student. Of the total number of graduate and undergraduate students at Harding, 3,049 of them received some fann of federal financial aid, including loans, Pell grants, SEOG grants, and Federal Work Study, according to the student financial services office. Junior Julie Burkert said she also had to juggle college finances. ''I'm using Stafford, my parents have taken out a Parent Plus Loan, and I have a small academic scholarship to help out," Burkert said. "My parents are paying the rest of the costs while I'm in school, but I'm going to payoff the loans when 1 get out of schoo\." Burkert also worked the desk as a receptionist for Searcy Hall as part of the Federal Work Study program. Although some students complained about the cost of an education at Hardi ng, others were aware of why they chose to make tha t sacrifice. Sophomore Amber Mays worked for ServiceMaster every weekday from 6 to 8:30 a.m. in the Heritage building. Mays said the early morning hours were worth her education. "Some mornings it is really hard to get up:' Mays said. "But I want to be here at Harding, and U<now I have to find a way to pay for it. That motivates me to get out of bed." Junior Grant Dasher also said he thought his choice to come to Harding and deal with future loan payments was validated by what he received inretum. "I decided to come for the Christian atmosphere and the people," Dasher said. "It's obviously not the town or anything else that drew me here - it's the people." Dasher said after graduation he would owe more than $40,000 in loan debt. Junior Sarah Gregg - who took out Sallie Mae loans, Stafford loans, and searched continually for scholarships to help sUpjXlrt her while in school- said although paying for Harding was a large expense, Harding offered more than any other university she could have chosen to attend. "Other schools have less people and less to offer, yet some are even more expensive than Harding," Gregg said. "Harding has a higher enrollment and seems to provide me with so much more than other universities would. "My entire family went to Harding, and the familiarity of it drew me in. Harding has a way of doing that." -ERIN COOK
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