THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509240063
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
A California teenager who wrote a newspaper column lamenting her inability to pay for college wound up getting $12,000 from sympathetic readers.
Monita Johnson, an 18-year-old from Oakland, Calif., fell in love with Hampton University during a summer program and was determined to return.
She worked three jobs last year and applied for scholarships and loans, but still found herself $8,000 short of the $14,000 she needed to pay for a year at Hampton, a private, liberal arts school. She traveled to Hampton at the end of August anyway, hoping to scrape together enough money for one semester.
``I talked to the financial aid people, but they said they couldn't give me any more money,'' she said. ``I didn't know what I was going to do.''
That all changed with a phone call from Mary Ganz, who worked with Johnson and other students on a series of articles for the San Francisco Examiner.
Ganz had received more than 200 letters and calls about an Examiner article Johnson had written in August about her goals and her struggle to pay for college.
``I haven't collected the full tuition for the fall and spring semesters yet, but I'm getting on the plane at the end of this month to go back to Hampton,'' Johnson wrote. ``I am not giving up on myself or my education. Right now, they are the only things I have.''
Most of the letters responding to the article came with checks, some for $100 or more. The total was about $12,000.
``I can't describe how I felt,'' Johnson said. ``I was just kind of numb. I still can't believe it.''
Some writers lauded Johnson for her resolve. Others said they, too, had dreamed of going to a predominantly black college such as Hampton.
``Like you, I had to get to college on my own and support myself,'' one woman wrote. ``And the message I want to send to you is this: You can do it. You will do it. You must do it.''
A few people accused Johnson of looking for an undeserved handout, said Stephen Cook, an assistant managing editor at the Examiner. Cook, who had worked with Johnson on her articles, tacked a paragraph onto the end of Johnson's last article telling readers how they could contribute to her college fund.
``I wanted people to help her,'' Cook said. ``Monita has every chance now to get the college education she deserves. She had this dream and these goals, and she went for it.''
Johnson plans to stay at Hampton for five years and earn a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in teaching. She also wants to go to graduate school in journalism so she can write for a living.
Johnson, who was a mediocre student in high school but loves to read and write, said she's determined to succeed at Hampton.
``I'm studying hard because a lot of people are counting on me,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Monita Johnson plans to attend Hampton University for five
years.
by CNB