~ Omnes voc em habent
| @®
-Vol. 4 Issue 4-
By Julia Ritchey
Associate Editor
Since 1972, The Four Diamonds
Fund has helped over 2,000 families
monetarily and spiritually. The
Four Diamonds Fund was created
in memory of Christopher Millard,
a boy who suffered from cancer
and received treatment at Milton
Hershey’s Medical Center.
The name of the fund represents
figuratively the traits that Millard
believed could help him beat
cancer. Millard wrote a story about
the diamonds for an English
assignment just before his death
at age 14.
The story is a noble tale of a
knight that defeats a villain by
collecting four diamonds during his
challenges. The traits he describes
in his story are courage, wisdom,
honesty, and strength. The tale
inspired the fund’s name and gives
hope to the children today fighting
cancer.
Penn State Mont Alto is highly
involved in helping The Four
Diamonds Fund. Since the
beginning of the Fall 2007
semester, members of THON have
been raising money for this year’s
dance marathon.
THON is the largest student-
run philanthropy because of the
many Penn Staters that keep
raising money for the organization.
million.
The money brought in by Penn
State students and high school
students that-do mini-THONSs
goes toward a number of crucial
supports. The three main
components of the fund are the
medical expenses and treatment
support for the families, medical
team support, and research
With last year's efforts raising over
Milton Hershey Medical
Center focuses on the needs of the
patients in a unique way with the
help of The Four Diamonds Fund
and Children’s Miracle Network.
With a medical team of pediatric
see THON page 2
By Tim Kaufmann
Staff Writer
According to the Penn
State Tuition Cost Calculator,
tuition cost for a Pennsylvania
resident freshman with an
undeclared major at Mont Alto is
$5,503 this semester. A student who
lives on campus will have to pay
up to $9,957 for tuition and room
and board. The next presidential
election is less than a year away,
and many younger voters who are
starting their college educations are
particularly interested in how each
candidate plans to address the cost
of education.
Several of the presidential
candidates have promised to
increase financial aid for college
students, but few have a solid
implementation plan or any
projections for how much aid their
plans will provide. Republican
candidate Mike Huckabee favors
awarding extra aid based on military
or volunteer service, while Mitt
Romney is devising a plan that
bases financial aid on the type of
career a student plans to pursue
after graduation.
Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama, however, have attempted
to develop in-depth plans for
increasing the amount of
government aid awarded to college
students and have provided
projections about the amount of
money their plans will be able to
bring to students.
Clinton’s proposed
changes to college financing
include doubling tax credit for
students from $1,650 to $3,500, as
well as increasing the amount of
money awarded by the Pell Grant
and creating a graduation fund to
assist students in four-year
programs. Her plan also includes
investing $500 million into job
training and apprenticeship
programs. In addition, students
who are an active AmeriCorps
volunteers will receive up to
$10,000 in tuition assistance, which
is more than twice its current award
of $4,725 for full-time student.
In addition, Clinton also
plans to eliminate yearly FAFSA
paperwork by allowing students to
apply for financial aid through their
income tax return forms.
Obama proposes a similar
plan. His plan calls for the creation
of an American Opportunity Tax
see Tuition page 2