TO THE EDITOR:
Many Morehead-Cain scholars are incredible individuals very deserving of this prestigious full scholarship. However, I was disappointed to read Friday’s article highlighting some of the struggles these scholars are facing due to the recession.
In my time at Carolina, I’ve met a student who is no longer here because she couldn’t afford tuition, a local high school student who pays his own rent and will probably never make it to college, and countless students who have skipped meals to save money.
This is what it means to struggle from recession. Not getting to take a gap year is not quite the same as what most of us are going through.
So to the current scholars: we get it, you worked really hard in high school and you totally deserve to be rewarded by the Morehead-Cain meritocracy. However, I implore you and any Carolina student who has ever had the privilege of having his or her tuition, basic needs and extra luxuries paid for by someone else to be sensitive to the fact that a lot of members of the student body at this University don’t have that same privilege.
We’re sorry that “the Foundation” couldn’t afford that gap year you were expecting, but we welcome you to our everyday reality of struggling financially. If you really want it, why don’t you do what any non-privileged student would do and pick up another job, fill out tons of grant applications and earn the money for it yourself?
Allison Sarfati ’12
Biology
