Tonya Miller

840 E 6th Street

Cushing, OK 74010

Joy Hofmeister
Oklahoma State Superintendent
Oliver Hodge Building
2500 N Lincoln Blvd
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

March 30, 2020

Superintendent Hofmeister,

I want to begin by applauding your diligence during this very difficult time. The current
situation caused by COVID-19 is not an easy one for anyone, but you and your staff have the
daunting task of re-establishing the school system in homes. Things are changing rapidly due to
COVID-19 and I believe this is time the to restructure the way high school students are
introduced to the idea of college and becoming an adult. For many students, the idea of stepping
into a mountain of debt to obtain a degree is very intimidating and for most unrealistic. The ideas
behind teaching are changing due to the current situation and I believe that this is the time to
reevaluate the current methods. I am reaching out to you requesting that you take time during
this pandemic to re-evaluate the methods of introducing the idea of college and adulthood to
students. Many of the current methods cause anxiety and stress within students that they would
rather ignore. Instead, if students are given an outlook that seems more approachable, I believe
that more high school graduates would feel at ease and would have a better understanding of the
world they are walking into.

When I was a junior in high school my heart was set on going to college, gaining my
degree and some personal freedom and becoming a successful adult. Sadly, when I started
looking into colleges, they were much more expensive than I had originally thought and being
the first in my family to want to go, my family had no understanding on how to apply for any
assistance. I was already working a part time job along with going to school, so my free time
consisted of homework and socializing. Being very shy also did not help with trying to find
assistance because the ability to approach an adult with questions was not one that I had. This all
being said, when I graduated my hopes of going to college were gone. The current goal was to
get a full-time job to help with bills and also start the process of living on my own. With more
information on ways to receive assistance, along with better information on how to live within
your means of being a college student, I believe that I could have started my college career well
before my thirties.

When considering my own stresses, they seem manageable considering I am an adult

who has lived on my own for several years. Thinking as a young adult with little to no
experience in the world, the stress of paying for college and living a life seems unbearable. In an
article on the Ohio State University website, Anne McDaniel stated that seventy percent of
students are concerned that they are not going to be able to take care of all their responsibilities.
McDaniel also stated that thirty-two percent of students declared that they had even neglected
their studies so they could work more. This kind of stress is avoidable if students are taught ways
to manage their money while still in high school. Some schools do explain how to manage
money when being an adult, but sadly when you mix in college along with new freedoms those
practices are often forgotten. McDaniel also worries in this article about how students will
borrow as much as they could from their student loans. By taking out the maximum they can,
they believe that they are going to have more funds in case of an emergency, when they are just
delaying the unavoidable. A study done by Inceptia in Financial Stress: An Everyday Reality for
College Students explained that the need to repay loans, cost of education, borrowing money for
college, finding a job after school, and academic challenge of courses were all equally stressful
for students. These are all things that every student will have to face. The fact that the stress of
classes is lumped in with everything is unacceptable. My belief is that students should focus on
the education and not the financial burden.

The hope to graduate is one that all college students have. The idea when pursuing
college is not to just attend, but to finish with a degree in hand. An unnamed researcher states in
a blog on the Scholarship America website that many students worry that they will not be able to
graduate due to financial issues. College students should be very proud to be accepted into
college and their accomplishments throughout their college career but instead, they are worried if
they will make it due to the financial burden. This is a difficult fact to swallow. Due to the
financial burdens that do occur, students tend to drop out or take a break to save money to return.
This, in turn, does not usually work out. By leaving school, students lose access to benefits that
are valuable to them. They may not see the benefits as necessary when they are first attending
college, but after leaving and trying to come back students will notice that things are much more
expensive. Scholarships may also not be available to them once they have dropped out from
college, even if they come back very quickly. This items should be addressed to students in a
way they can understand the underlying damage dropping out may have.

I understand that you are very busy now and the current pandemic causing schools to
close is not helping situations. Your decision to move forward with the school year with distance
learning is difficult for many, but the results are already proving positive. I appreciate your time
in reading my letter and taking my requests into consideration. This may be the perfect time to
adjust our methods of moving young students into a college mindset before letting them out on
their own. By restructuring how students are able to find resources without the looming sense of
doom we could change the outlook of going to college. Moving from the never-ending thought
of debt to an adventure that is attainable to everyone. Please let me know your thoughts by
contacting me by my mailing address at the beginning of this letter. Thank you again for your
input and I pray you and your family stay healthy.

Sincerely,

Tonya Miller
 Works Cited

McDaniel, Anna. “70 Percent of College Students are Stressed about Finances.” News.OSU.edu.
30 June 2015.

ScholarshipAmerica. “Financial Stress Prevents College Students from Graduating. What Can
We Do?” ScholarshipAmerican.org. October 2019.

Trombitas, Kate. “Financial Stress: An Everyday Reality for College Students.” Inceptia.org.
Inceptia. July 2012.