Jen P: “My student loan debt is a second mortgage”

Jen Peel went to school in D.C. at American University where her mom was able to help pay for school and she had only accumulated what she now sees as a small amount of debt.

“I had about $11,000 [in debt] and it felt gigantic but it wasn’t bad.”

Jen then went to NYU for a film program. She had to fund her entire Master’s degree with student loans while living in Manhattan, a very expensive part of New York City.

“I call it my second mortgage… hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt with the earning potential to pay it off successfully.”

She moved back to Seattle in between undergrad and graduate school, however the film community there wasn’t like LA or NY and she couldn’t find work in her field of interest while still being able to pay back student loans. This caused her to transition her career into marketing when she started working with production departments for agencies.

“It’s allowed me to pay my minimum balance or slightly more. I’ve had some unemployment during economic downturns and I’ve been able to pay my minimum from savings and wasn’t super worried about it.”

She has just started her new job and got involved with student loan activism through signing petitions and attending town halls with the Student Debt Crisis Center when she soon suffered a layoff from her job early in 2020 due to the Covid-19 economic crisis.

“I lost my job. While it wasn’t surprising because I was working in marketing for a hospitality entity (attraction), it did make me realize I should now save all the money I have since we don’t know how long we will be in this situation.”

Jen joined Savi’s Town Hall with Student Debt Crisis Center (SDCC) to hear options and understand how COVID-19 may change my payments or interest.

“They gave me information, made it easy to apply, and were ready during this incredibly unusual and hard time. The Savi user experience was amazing — and that’s what I used to do for a living so this is coming from not just a student loan borrower, but also a web dev/app dev professional.”

Any student loan borrower seeking information about ongoing student loan changes can attend an online workshop by signing up for free here and access over 100 questions and answers about student loan debt here.