Featured Student Loan Forgiveness Member - Help my friend, Jennifer!

Yelena's amazing blog - Ivy Leagued and Unemployed - features posts of her friends who are looking for work. I asked Yelena if I could use her idea and apply it to interviews with supporters of the FSLDM. With her blessings, I will feature a supporter each week (thanks, Yelena, for letting me steal your brilliant model!). Our first respondent is named Jennifer.

C: Where did you go to school?

J: The Art Institute of Las Vegas (start Nov. 2006- got kicked out for having bad credit, NO 2nd chance)

C: Why did you pursue the degree(s) you have now or will soon have? 

J: A bachelor of Science in Graphic Design to become an Art Director.  It's what I love . . . it's my dream. . . my passion.  Art comes so naturally to me. . . I cannot finish my degree until I fix my credit.

C: What is your day-to-day life like as a result of your student loan debt?

J: I never knew what it was like to have anxiety attacks until now.  It is not good on your health having a whopping $100,000+ loan out and no degree to back it up.  I am a lead graphic designer making $10 an hour.  With a year left of learning, I could be making $65,000 starting as an art director, and I know this because I have looked around. . . I just do not qualify for these positions yet.  I live paycheck to paycheck and my student loans are the last thing I want to pay.  My student loans are in forbearance and will continue to be for a while.  I can barley live with $400 a month for rent.

C: Do you regret going to school?

J: No, I have no regrets. However, the school should have been there to help me not get into a financial mess. More or less they should have [given] me a second chance. . . I am a 3.5 GPA student and a fast learner. Why could no one just inform me about things?  Not too much to ask for, is it?  I was so new to this world. I just had to grow up a lot faster.

C: What do you have to offer an organization, and why should they hire you?

J: I am very creative, positive, self-motivated, fun and to the point.  I can bring ideas to the table and am very open-minded.  Anything is possible!

C: If you could meet with President Obama, what would you tell him about your current situation and your student loan debts?

J: I would tell him that our education as a whole is lacking financial awareness for the real world.  That no one should get stuck with a $100,000 and no hope. Why should I continue to live my life buried in debt, when the world is still spinning all around me?  I have heard people tell me that I need to deal with my own problems and grow up. My problems? Well, they have become my problems, but I am not being naive about them.  I am in a situation that is going to take YEARS to dig myself out of with a promise from my school that everything is going to be O.K. . . . One of my favorite things in the entire world is knowledge, and I have been kicked out because I have bad credit. If that is what is holding me back, what does that say about us as a country, Mr. Obama?  Now there is the topic of scholarships... well first the number one site for scholarships has over $1,000,000 and 10,000,000 users... GOOD LUCK!  Grants do help, but do not cover all the expenses of a higher education when your parents make more money, but cannot even help you.  I have no one to help me.  I have no more dreams of [owning] a house.  I have no dreams of [owning] a car.  I have no dream of a family... thanks for taking my dreams.  Welcome to America... home of the lost dreams.