School encourages carpooling

Like most community colleges, Walters State is a commuter college. A program on the college's website is helping students connect and save money by carpooling.

Students sign in and find students in their area who want to carpool to class.

"It's saving me right around $80 a month," said student Jonathan Barrett.

" I usually save about $20 every two weeks," said student Thomas Pennington.

Students at Walters State are cashing in on carpooling. Nursing students Ronette Burns and Deborah Hurd carpool from Northeast Tennessee together to clinicals and classes.

"Especially driving the distance, 160 miles round trip, it would definitely put a strain on us," said Burns.

The school decided to add the carpooling program to their website to make it easier for students to connect.

"From the beginning of the gas crisis, the college as an initiative has tried to help our students in terms of the energy crisis," said Dr. R. Foster Chason, the Vice President for Student Affairs.

Some students have found additional benefits too.

"You can talk about the test that's coming up, and you can be reading what you're supposed to be working on, and you can get to know people better, so it's got a lot of great advantages," said Pennington.

The school is also helping students save on gas by offering more online courses.