Life after college being debt free is a dream for every African American college graduate could dream of.  Instead, majority of African American graduates across the United States stress about how they’re going to pay back their student loans. They miss important life milestones because of having to owe back money. Awareness has been brought to the attention of students that are not able to pay back their loans by having certain programs to help. President Barack Obama once said in a 2009 national address to students of color, “No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it.” An African American entering college have been told getting a college degree is to get out of poverty.

      Research shows one-third of African American graduate bachelor’s degree accumulate forty thousand or more in debt. According to “Brookings Colleagues,” four years after graduation the average black college graduate owes fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and twenty-six dollars. When only white students owe twenty-eight thousand dollars. People of color are more likely to borrow more than any other race because of their limited resources of their families. Students of color borrow large amounts of money for school, but when they graduate, they are less successful to pay their loans. By having limit resources black household students tend to save their post-college income to help take care of their families, instead of saving to pay back their student loans. Compared to white graduates they have the extended connections to help pay for their student loans. Black women alone that borrow loans owe ten percent more in student debt than black man. Debt levels depend on who has attended for-profit colleges then compared to a non-profit and public school. Peter G. Peterson foundation article says, “Partially due to higher enrollment rates at such schools, black borrowers also have a high default rate, at twenty-nine percent more than double the twelve percent default rate of white bowers.” Once again, the connection the white graduates can ask for their parents to either help on paying their student loan or helping with life milestone. On the other hand, black students coming from low income, they want to help back at home either with having sick parents, younger siblings they look out for and more. There is a big gap of what black students have deal with when it comes to student debt loans compared to a white student.

    African American students are more likely to have long-term stress caused by student loans. The anxiety of knowing they’re not going to make half of the money their job career makes. It creates a barrier between a white graduate who can make back their payment without any struggle, versus a black graduate not being able to pay their debt even 15 years after graduation. Not only can student loans cause stress but they also push back major life milestones to a black graduate. J Geiman article states “Even for those who make their monthly payments, many make sacrifices to do so, including staying in unsatisfactory job and delaying homeownership or starting a family.” Every black student wants to be successful and have the job or the life to show for it. Unfortunately, some are not able to do so with getting the degree they worked for. What college doesn’t talk about is working four years to get the degree and is not guaranteed to work in that profession. That’s why some African Americans must come up with a plan b and work below what their qualifications are. Some turn into managers at fast food or retail places to help try to pay back their student loans which can been very hard on a person.  Money that could be spent on brand new houses, cars, vacations, and luxury times is going to a det system that will never go away.

     Student aid has a program called “student loan forgiveness,” offering to have them three types of forgiveness plans for federal student loans. The three plans are Forgiveness, cancellation, and discharge which means either one that you qualify for you are no longer required to pay some or all your loan. The three forgiveness plans are similar but is used in different ways. Forgiveness and cancellation are having to no longer be required to pay your loans back due to your job. The discharge plan must be a total and permanent disability or closure of the school where you received your loans. Borrower defense to repayment that could help African Americans is being eligible for discharge if their school did something or failed to do something related to your loan. Also, if a person of color is employed by the government, then they can apply for the “public service loan forgiveness program,” also known as the PSLF. The PSLF forgives the remaining of their loans after you successfully made 120 qualifying monthly payments while working fulltime at that government job. When applying your application could either be approved which means you wouldn’t have to pay your loans anymore. Being denied which means you are still required pay back your loan.

     Student loan debt is not the easiest to get rid of for African American students due to coming from low-income households. We faced with struggles of having to find a job that best suits for degree but is turned down by the lack of job opportunities after college. We prove that we are worthily to be in high professions but are overlooked. Life is being missed out for students that are coming straight out of college who want to have a life planned out for them. Getting a car, house, credit score going down is hard to face when you see other people fulfill that dream. A special thanks to student aid seeing the difficulty in paying back student loans they came up with certain programs to help pay or get rid of them forever.

Citations:

https://hbr.org/2019/09/what-will-it-take-to-solve-the-student-loan-crisis

https://www.brookings.edu/research/student-loans-the-racial-wealth-divide-and-why-we-need-full-student-debt-cancellation/

https://www.networkforphl.org/news-insights/student-loan-debt-is-creating-a-physical-and-mental-health-crisis-for-millions-of-americans/

https://hbr.org/2019/09/what-will-it-take-to-solve-the-student-loan-crisis

   Winton-Salem  State  University  is  number  one  topped  ranked  HBCU  in  North  Carolina.  Presenting  the  “Rams,”  a  college  that  provides  many  under. grade  in  master’s  and  bachelor’s  degrees.  Accredited  by  the  “Southern  Association  of Colleges  and  Schools  Commission  on  College,”  along  with  10  other  accreditations.  One  hundred  and  seventeen  acres  of campus  brings  students  from  military  to0  upcoming  freshmen.  Their  students  are  trained  to  be  abled  to  handle  real world  obstacles  to  prepare  them  for  their  career.  For  years  they  have  built  an  empire  of  becoming  best  in  the  nation. Winston- Salem  focuses  on  making  sure  their  students  are  receiving  the  best  experience  at  the  HBCU,  knowing  the importance  in  their  history,  and  what  they  have  to  offer  to  their  students.     

      Winston-Salem  was  founded  on  September  twenty  eighth,  of  eighteen  nighty-two  by  Simon  Green  Atkins.  The  up brining  of  the  university  history  was  based  off  creating  challenges.  “Students  would  meet  the  challenges  of  the  day equipped  with  an  education  designed  to  intellectually  prepare  “head,  hand,  and  heart,”  a  saying  from  Winton-Salem (www.wssu.edu).  Opening  the  about  page  you  are  greeted  with  smiling  faces  of  5  students  on  bikes.  A  welcoming introduction  about  Winston-Salem  and  below  are  two  links  to  the  left  “points  of  pride”  and  to  the  right  “our  history.” They  started  off  with  only  twenty-five  students  with  one  instructor.  Shown  an  image  of  a  black  and  white  picture  of their  first  class.  We  get  the  chance  to  see  and  read  how  Winston-Salem  first  started  off  as  a  small  college.  Now  in today’s  time  one  instructor  and  twenty-five  students  is  one  single  class.  Every  college  has  a  history  to  be  proud  of  and Winston-Salem  shows  a  big  pride  no  other  college  could  relate.  The  about  us  page  goes  further  into  debt  about  how their  college  got  started  and  how  it  continued  to  grow.  Below  from  their  introduction  they  have  an  important  year  by year  of  information  you  could  be  interested  in.  The  webpage  includes  a  click  down  of  chief  administrators  that  are  and were  involved  with  the  school.  You  get  the  full  name  and  years  of  terms  that  they  serve,  this  will  help  your  research  of looking  into  what  these  people  did  for  Winston-Salem.  A  good  amount  of  knowledge  can  be  gain  from  reading  the fascinating  history  about  this  school.

    There  are  more  than  forty  undergraduate  programs  in  majors  and  ten  graduate  programs  that  is  offered.  Many programs  specializing  in  liberal  arts,  business,  education,  nursing  and  social  work.  On  the  main  page  shows  our  audience  colorful  buttons  to  click  through  for  each  major.  Their  academic  page,  “Areas  of  Study”  you  can  click  through the  slides  with  pictures  to  match  with  that  major.  This  technique  will  grab  a  visitor  of  the  page  attention  to  investigate more  about  that  major  by  seeing  one  picture.  To  continue  with  the  Ram  theme,  the  academic  page  shows  the  different varieties  of  majors  and  minors  that  you  can  choose  from  in  bold  red.  Click  on  the  link  that  best  suits  you  for  more information  for  any  questions  that  you  have.  As  we  explore  more  of  the  academic  page,  Winston-Salem  once  said,  the college  promise  is  to  “Enter  to  learn,  depart  to  serve”  (www.wssu.edu).  They  believe  that  statement  is  audacious, challenging,  and  demanding  to  the  students  that  decide  to  further  their  education  with  them.  The  school  is  preparing students  to  make  a  difference  in  the  world  with  preparing  for  todays  in  demand  jobs.  Putting  this  quote  on  the  page can  give  a  sense  of  what  the  college  expects  for  their  students  or  for  anyone  thinking  about  applying.  You  can  find departments  that  is  linked  in  with  the  college  campus.  Academic  resources  and  student  programs  can  be  located  on  this page  for  extra  support.  This  page  layout  makes  everything  that  you  are  looking  for  easy  to  find  without  having  to  scatter  around  different  pages  to  find  what  you  need.

     Being  loud  and  proud  of  their  accomplishments  throughout  their  entire  page. We  can  find  “points  of  Pride,”  about  of the  about  WSSU  page  to  see  the  breakdown  of  how  many  accomplishments  they  received  over  the  years.  At  the  top  of the  screen  in  Winston-Salem  students  showing  school  pride  in  their  shirts  as  well  as  holding  up  a  “W.”  If  that  doesn’t show  school  pride,  I  don’t  know  what  does.  It  gives  a  comforting  feeling  to  the  visitor  in  the  page  to  be  happy  and proud  that  you  are  part  of  the  Ram  family.  Here  are  some  of  WSSU  achievements  coming  from  the  points  of  pride  page (www.wssu.edu) . Winston-Salem  is  number  two  in  U.S.  for  value  (Money  magazine).  Top  ten  best-value  college  in N.C.  (SmartAssest.com),  top  ten  HBCUs  changing  the  world  (college  magazine),  top   ten  military  friendly,  top  twenty-five best  HBCU  in  the  U.S.  (College  Raptor).  A  lot  of  social  accomplishments  that  has  gotten  the  word  out  on  Winston-Salem.  Not  jus t social  media  is  giving  the  word  out,  but  the  academic  charts  as  well.  They  made  number  one  for Historically  black  nursing  school  in  the  nation (NursingProcess.org),  number  one  for  HBCU  in  N.C.  for  psychology (psychology  degree  guide),  best  “A”  elementary  education  programs  in  the  nations.   Each  of  their  ranks  and  programs can  be  clicked  on  to  show  you  more  information  about  that  award,  pictures  so  some  of  the  awards.  They  have  a  short list  called  “Facts  at  a  glance,”  to  sum  up  what  year  they  were  established,  student  enrollment,  motto  and  more.  This page  is  great  for  showing  us  how  has  the  school  has  to  offer  to  their  students.  It  gives  you  a  chance  to  learned  about how  they  earned  the  award,  when  they  earned  that  award  and  what  the  award  is  about.  A  school  that  wins  a  lot  of awards  is  a  school  you  should  be  looking  into.  They  sectioned  out  the  award  page  to  brag  on  how  their  school  is  the best  in  the  North  Carolina  region.  Winston-Salem  has  a  history  of  competing  to  be  the  best  and  they  are  setting  the ranks  very  high  on  national  list  that  no  other  college  in  their  area  can  reach.

     Great  opportunities  can  be  fulfilled  at  this  outstanding  HBCU.  If  you  need  to  read  upon  anything  about  them  the webpage  is  the  way  to  go.  It’s  organized  by  every  link  you  could  be  interested  in  to  give  you  an  easier  search  then having  to  search  it  anywhere  else.  They  look  forward  into  bringing  new  talented  students  that  are   ready  to  learn  into their  school.  They  want  you  to  be  the  next.  Once  said  from  Winston-Salem  (www.wssu.edu),   “Ignite  your  passion, discover  your  strength,  and  prepare  to  make  difference  in  the  world.”