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Hope Scholar, Miguel Hoyos, Reflects on How the Hope Scholarship Has Impacted Him:

Both my parents are high school teachers with three dependent children, so they made it clear from the start that paying for college would be fully my responsibility. 

I don't qualify for federal grants nor work study, so I took out federal loans for my first two years at ������Ƶ. Basically, the moment you take out a student loan, the interest starts accruing. You have to start paying the loan back six months after you graduate. That’s why I was so grateful when I heard I had gotten the Hope Scholarship. It was huge.

Hope feels like an equal opportunity scholarship because it is a last-dollar scholarship for all in-state students, regardless of their eligibility for financial aid. If it is not possible to lower the cost of higher education – which is a whole other conversation – more states should have similar programs, if they don't already.

I like the name “Hope.” Maybe it was named that way because this scholarship is not just the hope of students but the hope of those who created the scholarship to help students have an easier time of it, to help us find a way out of debt.

Learn more on the Hope Scholarship website.

Hear testimonials from other students: Jacqueline Carroll, Meghan LaFlamme, Olivia Lancellotta, Moses Nicolau, Marissa North, Ariel Polanco, Remi Salako and Tytain Sun.