By: Mevish Jaffer
A lot of students get help financing their college education through parents/guardians, athletic/academic scholarships, or other types of merit-based awards. However, not everyone has the advantage of having these forms of financial support available to them. If you are someone who has had to rely solely on student loans in order to pay for college, then you’re not alone.
The great thing about college loans is that they really help you to get an education when you have no other means of financial support. However, as we are all well aware, every type of loan you take out has a repayment time frame that must be adhered to and student loans are no exception.
Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
Although we all hope to become successful professionals with a fabulous salary in our selected fields of study, it’s hard to really make an accurate prediction of what your financial status will be upon graduation. For this particular reason, you may not necessarily have the financial means to be able to pay back all of your student loans when you are obligated to do so. Fortunately, there are certain school financial aid alternatives that are available to you through student loan forgiveness programs. The general purpose of student loan forgiveness programs is to provide students with certain financial incentives in exchange for a specific work commitment.
Types of Programs You May Qualify for
Charitable Volunteers Program: By spreading kindness and goodwill, organizations such as VISTA, The Peace Corps, and Americorps will pay off a percentage of your student loans.
- VISTA offers volunteers $4,725 after completing 1700 hours worth of service. VISTA tackles issues such as world hunger, illiteracy, poverty, and homelessness.
- The Peace Corps offers repaying 15% of a volunteer’s qualified student loans for each year of service he/she provides until 70% of the initial balance is repaid.
- A branch of The Peace Corps, Americorps offers volunteers $4,725 after completing 1 year of service.
Head Start Staff Program: This program helps children from lower-income families attain the skills necessary to enter kindergarten. If you choose to become a volunteer in an effort to reach this goal, you are rewarded by receiving a generous student loan forgiveness plan. The way it works is that the state government repays your student loan at a rate of 15% per year until the entire loan is paid off.
There are also some specific student loan forgiveness programs geared towards medical professionals who typically work in areas or fields that are lacking in quality professionals.
Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program: This program repays up to 60% of your remaining student loan balance. Eligibility requirements include professionals who have worked for two years or more in critical shortage facilities.
National Health Service Corps: This program awards qualified candidates with up to $35,000 in student loan repayment per year of service rendered.
Providers of Intervention Services for the Disabled: If you offer full time services to infants and toddlers with physical, social, adaptive, cognitive etc. disabilities, you can qualify for full repayment of your Perkins Loan.
There are plenty of student loan forgiveness programs out there that cater to specific areas of study. You just have to your research and you can always contact local volunteer associations in your community and inquire about any student loan forgiveness programs they may know of.
