According to EducationData.org, a website that collects and organizes data about the United States education system, more than 44 million Americans had student loans in 2019.
A deeper dive into this statistic revealed that, on average, each of these students had debts of over $37,000. Graduating college with this weight on your shoulders is burdensome and discouraging and, as an unfortunate result of the coronavirus pandemic, more people than ever are having to apply for loans that come with heavy interest rates as a part of their pursuit for higher education.
The Jewish Educational Loan Fund is on a mission to help reduce the financial burden of students taking out loans so that they can pursue their higher education with full force. By offering interest-free loans, JELF serves as a last resort for students in desperate need of financial assistance to pay for crucial living and medical expenses, books, supplies, transportation, and all of the other costs associated with higher education.
The weight these loans hold in the eyes of recipients cannot be overstated and Eliana Colman, a JELF recipient, would agree. Colman, a senior at the University of Florida, recently got admitted to Touro College’s physician assistant program. However, she explains that without her JELF loan, she isn’t sure she would’ve been able to meet the requirements necessary to get in. “At one point I realized that I needed a car to get a job,” she explains. “You have to be able to get hours [at work] in order to get into PA school, but I couldn’t get experience without a car. Honestly, without it, I’m not sure I would’ve ever been able to do the things I needed to do to get into PA school.”
After using a portion of her JELF loan to get a car, she was able to land a job at Omega Women’s Care as a medical assistant. Of that role, she says, “I love it. It’s definitely really hard work but I get to learn a lot and the doctors are really amazing.”
Colman is just one of more than 2400 Jewish students JELF has provided interest-free loans to since 1961. Due to financial complications resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, many families are struggling to find the money needed to support their children through school. In 2020, JELF saw a record number of loan applications - 66% more than the previous year - and responded by providing a record 394 loans to students in need. This year’s student loan recipients are estimated to collectively save nearly $1 million in interest payments over the life of their loans.
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The interest-free nature of these loans is huge for Colman, a graduate of Donna Klein Jewish Academy. She explains, “I see my friends getting into really bad financial situations because I think people [my age] don’t really understand how money and loans work.” Thanks to JELF, this is not a burden she’ll have to face.
Sarah Fine, a graduate of Olympic Heights High School and master’s student at Suffolk University, tells a similar story. Having been raised by a single mother, Fine says, “It was definitely difficult trying to figure out how to pay for things growing up, and then going to college made it more difficult. My mom wanted me to dream big, but the problem is that her ability to provide the financial part just was not there.”
Having been working since she was 14, Fine appreciates every dollar JELF was able to loan her and recognizes the impact that this money has had on her life. After completing a health science, society and policy program at Brandeis University, Fine began her master’s in criminal justice at Suffolk University. A self-described jack-of-all-trades, she is using her higher education to get her feet wet in all types of things. Though one of her goals is to be a police officer, she says, “I don’t know what’s going to change. I could decide when I attempt to be a police officer and go to the academy that I don’t want to be an officer and I might actually want to be a paramedic or lawyer instead. The criminal justice master’s was essentially a way for me to recognize while I’m still young that what I want to do might change, and this is a way to give myself the knowledge I’ll eventually need to figure out where I fit in the field.”
In this process, she says JELF has been instrumental. “JELF really made it possible and allowed me to not have to think as much about money so I could focus on trying to figure out where I wanted to go with my career. I don’t think I would be the person I am today if I didn’t have the ability to go to college and pursue what I thought I wanted, and then be led down the path that I actually belonged on.”
JELF’s interest-free loans truly bridge the gap for students in need and have opened countless doors for its recipients. For Fine, the loan prevented putting her mother in further debt. Before having received the loan, her mother told her, “You’ve been deprived of so much in your life that I don’t want to deprive you of something that could do all or more for you and open more doors.” Just as she was about to put herself in greater debt to provide for her daughter, JELF was able to step in and prevent further debt from accumulating.
Each JELF recipient has an equally incredible story to tell. Contextualized in the frame of all 2400 of these students, it’s hard to overstate the massive impact JELF has had on the lives of Jewish students across the region.
For more information, visit jelf.org.