Files
Abstract
The Georgia Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE) Scholarship is a merit-based award for Georgia high school students who wish to continue their education beyond graduation. This scholarship is fully funded by the lottery-playing citizens of the state of Georgia. The lottery funded program, as of 2015, raised over $7 billion (GA College 411, 2014) to support Georgia students. These funds have gone to support over 1.75 million Hope Scholarship award winners since 1993 (GA College 411, 2014). This qualitative multiple case study examined how access to the Georgia HOPE Scholarship looked at the high school level, by focusing on six local school guidance counselors, across a single-metro district. The purpose of this research is to best examine how local school counselors share knowledge of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship to the students and families they service. Specifically, the questions that were addressed included: 1) To what extend does the local school guidance counselor have knowledge of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship and/or the ability to gain information about this merit-based award? 2) How do local school guidance counselors present (i.e.: parent night or local school websites) the Georgia HOPE Scholarship to students and their families? 3) From the perspective of the local school guidance counselor, how do students utilize or seek information regarding the Georgia HOPE Scholarship? In order to answer the research questions for the study, a postmodern approach with a focus on social capital was used to examine and understand how local school counselors, at the high school level, gain knowledge, present this merit-based award, and how these counselors perspective students utilizing and seeking information about the Georgia HOPE Scholarship. Findings from this study shed light on the nature of knowledge of the local school guidance counselor and how these counselors present the award to the students in their building and across their community.