Student loan forgiveness for volunteer work may sound like a dream for every student with debts. Before moving to the ways of forgiveness, let’s look at the scenario. Being a student is hard: having a lot of assignments, deadlines, exams, financial problems, so on and so forth that are enough to be stressed. To put aside academic difficulties, almost all students coming from middle-income encounter financial deficits and need help. Of course, there are some ways to deal with financial problems; and one of them is a student loan. Today we are focusing on student loan forgiveness for volunteer work.
How does it work?
The student loan is intended to help students of post-secondary education with tuition fee, books, living expenses and, etc. In terms of interest rate which is lower than any other loans, can be different for every country; additionally, the student loan system and regulation can be distinctive in every state. Moreover, if you do not know how much your student loan discretionary income, there are some easy ways to calculate it. The term student loan discretionary income indicates how and how much money a student should pay for his/her debt. Furthermore, there are some types of student loans, and the most used are federal and private ones. Before making a choice, students should consider if they are qualified for loans or not; there are easy ways to find and to choose the right program for a student.
Facts about student debts
Here is some valuable information about student loans. Firstly, student loans have reached its highest rate: according to the statistics, the U.S has given $1.34 trillion to students. Findings show that student loans currently more consumed than a credit card and car debts. Moreover, every borrower student who is between the age of 18-49 has an average debt of $34.000. From the age range, we can see that students who finished their education still have an obligation. As a result, it makes it necessary to have debt relief, in other words, student loan forgiveness.
Student loan relief options
Under certain circumstances some programs help people with their debts; that is discharged or forgiven. Many organizations and programs offer countless different options for student loan forgiveness:
- Income-Based Repayment;
- Pay as You Earn;
- Income Contingent Repayment;
- Loan Forgiveness for Volunteer Work, so on and so forth.
By the help of the loan forgiveness program, you participate in public works and get your loans forgiven: it is like get rewarded by participating in community works.
Loan Forgiveness for Volunteer Work
Many organizations offer loan forgiveness with this option, students or graduated students can reduce or eliminate their debts in exchange their time in volunteering works. It is a win-win situation: while graduated college students volunteer for non-profit organizations, those organizations get their job done.
As it is mentioned above, loan forgiveness for volunteering work depends on the circumstance: it depends on a students’ degrees or work occupations. Therefore, it is better to consult with someone to get an assessment, to know what qualifications are needed for volunteering. In its most straightforward way, it is required to be a minimum of 18 years old.
According to statistics, students with a bachelor degree are provided with professional assistance or tutoring works while people with less education are placed in general labor such as beverage preparing food. Moreover, it is found that people who participate in loan forgiveness for volunteer work tend to be at the age of 18-54. Therefore, do not hesitate to take part in public works because of your age.
Organizations that offer loan forgiveness for volunteer work
To begin with, by volunteering in AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) students can have up to %70 of their student loan debts forgiven. For instance, for each year or volunteering for the Peace Corps, %15 of a student’s debt is forgiven.
Or take AmeriCorps as an example, it is a government and non-profit organization that gives people at the age between 18-24 positions including teaching, social works, military service disability assistance, emergency management and, etc. It offers 10 years for student loan payments which enough time to eliminate student loan debts. Moreover, it usually takes only a couple of hours to spend in a week which is not consecutive.
Teach for America is founded in teach in the inner-city or rural areas where children strive for education. By voluntarily teaching in economically disadvantaged areas, while people achieve their student loan forgiveness, they contribute to the better future of the children in need.
The National Health Service Corps offers another way of student loan forgiveness. This volunteer program is for medical school students’ loans. Its main purpose is to bring health to the underserved places where it needs basic health care. What makes the National Health Service Corps different is that it requires volunteers to have a primary level of one of the medicine, dentistry and behavioral health knowledge. Besides, 2 years of a person’s commitment to work is required.
The benefits
Unfortunately, it is a reality that in today’s job market a lot of graduated college students stay unemployed, or accept jobs for a lower salary for which they are overqualified to pay their student loans and make a living. Also, many jobs require work experience from people who are just graduated.
Participating in loan forgiveness for volunteer work gives an advantage for people to add experience in their CV resume besides loan forgiveness. People who voluntarily work in social works and get experience while they also pay for their student loans. Besides that, people get to a new network, make a change, and necessarily gain new social skills which will be beneficial for their further works. Therefore, it is recommended to take into consideration job opportunities while applying loan forgiveness options.
Conclusion
In the U.S without doubt, a lot of people have student loans and try to pay with a lot of options which are “Income-Based payments,” “Pay as You Earn,” etc. Loan forgiveness for volunteer work is one of the options that people choose: by giving up their time-a couple hours in a week, they have student loans forgiven. Furthermore, according to psychology, working voluntarily makes people happier while they have their student loans forgiven. So, it would be enough to choose volunteer work: besides helping and serving people in need will make you feel good, by volunteering you will acquire social skills including communication and working with people. All in all, you have non-monetary benefit from volunteering program meanwhile you will have your student loans forgiven.
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