| A long-kept Md. secret: interest-free college loans
Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible. There's no age limit. Recipients range from age 17 to 61. To qualify for a loan, you must apply for federal financial aid. You need to have a grade-point average of at least 2.0 on a scale of 4. And you must have a co-signer for the loan so that if you don't repay it, the co-signer would be on the hook. Central Scholarship will begin accepting applications for the 2008-2009 academic year in January. The deadline is May 31. For more details check out the nonprofit's Web site at www.centralsb.org. .
Contractor loses La. scholarship account data dating back to 1998
BATON ROUGE, La. -- A Boston-based contractor hired to store and safeguard state scholarship and college savings account data lost most of those records _ including bank account numbers and student and parent Social Security numbers _ during a move, officials say. "We certainly don't want to create any panic. But people should be aware and take the necessary steps," said Melanie Amrhein, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance. "This is backup data off of a mainframe that contains sensitive personal information." Special equipment and software and "sophisticated computer skills" would be needed to get the compressed records from the TOPS scholarship program, START Saving Program, and Free Application for Federal Student Aid, according to a notice posted on the Internet.
School has a Means to lead
Means' daily charges are more than 2,100 students in 10th through 12th grades who attend classes at the district's central campus. The sheer number of youths under his supervision makes establishing personal relationships, or even having face-to-face interaction, diffi cult.
Part of it is just being present, Means said.
"It's a challenge. I try to be out in the hallway" when students are changing classes, he said.
He also does lunch duty at least two or three times a week.
"And it's going to various activities, whether that's the school musical or athletic events," he said.
Often, parents tell Means that they hope their children have never been in his office. But the truth is, it probably is a good thing if they have.
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