Gladys A: “I feel powerless that we can’t do anything about these loans”

Gladys Acevedo is part of the Adjunct Faculty at Keene State College. She is a single mother with two children, who are now grown ups, who also went to school the same as she did. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to get the job and salary she was expecting when she finished school in order to pay back her loans. However, she always made sure to pay the minimum amount required and stay on track of her payments if she couldn’t afford the full amount due.

“I don’t know how my loans got out of control. I’m a detailed person that usually pays everything and can take care of everything, but I felt powerless before meeting Savi.”

For several years she didn’t do anything about these loans, but then she got an email from NEA about a webinar about student loans that she decided to attend. This is when she discovered Savi and how we could help with her process. As an immigrant and non-native English speaker there were some things she couldn’t understand well when it came to the complexities of student loans and the bureaucratic language surrounding them.

“It’s a lot of information when you go to the federal loan websites and the terms they use are hard to understand for everyone. So when I found Savi, especially with knowing this all when I tried to do this all myself and that they offered a year free, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. This is what I need. I wish we had this years ago because I would probably be done with paying my loans by now then.’”

Gladys signed up for Savi’s service right away and rated her experience ‘Excellent overall.’

“I think it’s important that more people and more teachers know about this because I’m sure many people feel like me: powerless. Powerless that we can’t do anything about these loans.”

When Gladys first started with Savi, she was only teaching part time because of a reduced class schedule due to COVID-19, and as a part-time worker her current payments didn’t qualify at that time. She already knows her plan, though, sharing that, “When I get to go back full time again I’ll have them starting to count again so I can keep going on the track for loan forgiveness.”

Gladys had been paying for years and years and the balance never went lower.

“It was always going up and up and up,” she explained, “That’s probably the story of many. Teachers who qualify for the program I’m sure would love to have Savi to help with the loan forgiveness. I’ve been teaching for 13 years and am glad Savi will help me eventually get that forgiveness that is long overdue.”

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 www.neamb.com/savi.