Abigail S: Loan forgiveness gives teachers more freedom of choices in their life

Abigail Spence is a high school math teacher in Meridian, Mississippi. She pursued a master’s degree in the midst of dealing with a divorce that led her to take out several loans to pay for her courses.

She knew there was a loan forgiveness program but didn’t really understand how it worked, or if it even applied to her. After she joined the Mississippi Educators Union, an affiliate of the NEA, she found out about Savi through a webinar.

“They just made everything so easy. Honestly, I could not have done it better myself; there’s no way that I would have known all the different things to do. And Savi was great about having professional forums; they were great about keeping communication between me and whoever I wanted to get to; they completely navigated that whole process. And I really appreciated that. I always felt like I was treated with the utmost respect.”

Abigail was very pleased with the process despite hearing many “horror stories of other people that have tried.” She explains how an ELA teacher at school went through the process, was denied multiple times and was nervous to begin her process. However, “they [Savi] just made it so easy. They really delegated all the work and took care of it, and took it into their hands, and just told me what pieces I needed to play.”

“They were looking at an angle of success for me all along, and I really appreciated that.”

Abigail had about $11-$13k she planned on paying back. Fortunately, she was granted forgiveness and does not have to worry about student loan debt anymore.

“It has opened the door for me to realize, now that that’s been forgiven, that I have the freedom if I want to now start saving or start paying for a class that I am interested in, and now I can pursue a specialist degree, because I don’t have the weight of the other loans on top of me.”

She advises other borrowers to “definitely make sure that you know where to look and see what the qualifications are. You really need to do the paperwork and make sure you’re looking at federal student loans.”

That can be a daunting task and she recommends others take advantage of Savi’s tool.

“Join a great family [Savi] that’s willing to do work. I didn’t have the frustration of going through it, I have friends that have gone through it struggling with loans. So I suggested Savi and said, ‘see if they can solve your problem, they are a huge help.’”

Educators that are members of the National Education Association (NEA) can also take advantage of Savi as a member benefit available to them by visiting neamb.com/savi.