Honolulu, HI -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/19/2013 -- Alejandra Lalama, 25-year-old college graduate, has paid over $30,000 in student loan payments since 2008, but the student debt she owes has only gone down a few thousand dollars to $66,000. Like so many other student loan borrowers, she is caught in a debt trap between capitalized interest and interest on the principal balance. In addition to these problems, Hurricane Sandy stormed through her home town in New Jersey and destroyed her car. To get a leg up out of her financial mess, Alejandra started a CrowdFundEDU" href="http://bit.ly/11ygkoN">fundraiser on CrowdFundEDU, a site where people can crowd fund for anything related to education, including student loan debt.
This isn’t a story of living beyond her means, not being responsible or not making payments. Alejandra has never been late on a payment or taken forbearance, even when she was laid off, because she knew how much her interest would pile up. She works full-time and lives at home with her mother but her salary, less than 30K, goes mostly to her private student loans with Sallie Mae and federal government student loans. After losing her Ford Explorer to the wrath of Sandy, she had to buy another car and is now struggling to make car payments and insurance in addition to the student loan payments.
Alejandra maintains a positive outlook, but wishes she had understood more about what she was getting herself into when she applied for financial aid at the young, idealistic age of an 18-year-old college freshman. Student loans are the only types of loans in the United States that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
The Fallen American Dream is a documentary film about U.S. students' struggles with the high cost of college education and student loans. Produced by the Student Body of America Association (SBAA), this film examines how the $1 trillion student debt epidemic is affecting the pursuit of the American Dream.
Always in search for viable solutions to help students, SBAA believes crowdfunding has enormous potential to help student loan borrowers dig themselves out of debt, or at least get ahead of capitalized interest and start paying down their principal balance. If student loan borrowers crowdfund to get ahead on their payments (or even pay them off), it could significantly lower the capitalized interest and total amount they would pay to lenders.
About Student Body of America Association
Student Body of America Association, (http://www.studentbodyofamerica.org), based in Honolulu, HI, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization operated exclusively for educational purposes. Our mission is to provide easily accessible information and resources to educate and support students nationwide in achieving an education, and to guide individuals to apply their knowledge and skills to make the best decisions on an individual and societal basis.
Student Body of America Association Press Page: http://bit.ly/15zBNmm
CrowdFundEDU Fundraiser: http://bit.ly/11ygkoN