McCormick, S.C. – Krista Smith and Carmela Jacobs of Williamsburg County were among thirty-eight rising high school juniors and seniors from across South Carolina who recently participated in the South
MATC cancels more than $170k in debt for 122 students
Manhattan Area Technical College’s front entrance (Brandon Peoples/KMAN)
Imagine having your student debt wiped clean.
It happened for 122 students at Manhattan Area Technical College. President Jim Genandt tells KMAN the college used funds from COVID-19 relief to pay off student debt incurred between Spring 2020 and 2021.
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This was done for students who had entered college but couldn’t keep going because of the pandemic, due to whatever interruptions that were pandemic related.
Administrators announced the move last Friday, cancelling more than $170,000 in debt. Genandt says students who owe the college money, typically receive a hold on their accounts until the debt is paid off.
Strict tradition
After that, it was sent to other family members â from Florida to California to Montana â and remains a family tradition today.
The card is an off-white postcard with red trim. A man with a white beard and Scottish garb stands on the right side of the card with a crooked cane and his hand in the air.
It comes in a Ziploc bag with a handful of guidelines and old newspaper clippings about the card.
The strict guidelines include that it must be kept in a safe deposit box. The package includes a typed spreadsheet that details who sent and received the card each year, the towns and states theyâre from, the years family members died and how many miles the card traveled each year. Itâs traveled more than 24,000 miles over the years.