Work for free, pay off your loan? You better believe it!
There are quite a few ideas bandied about in regards to students paying off their school loans without actually paying it off. I’m partial to the idea of students serving a few years in the military and at the end of the individual’s hitch, most if not all of the school debt will be vanquished.
The Peace Corp and Americorps also have similar programs. But a new school debt-repayment program that I’m hoping is embraced by investors and policy-makers in a big way is called Sponsorchange.org.
Not your typical work program
SponsorChange.org is not your typical work-for-hire program although it might seem like that on the surface. According to an article on tuition.io, there are three components to the program reflected by their motto: You Serve. They Sponsor. Change Happens.
They point out that, “Student loan debtors volunteer at service organizations, private groups and individuals sponsor you by pledging money to the volunteer organization that will be used to help pay your student loans. Non-profits host debtor volunteers and either they or sponsors (or a combination of the two) give money to help the volunteer pay their student loans.”
All about the money (not)
SponsorChange.org works like this: The volunteer engagements are typically project based rather than being open ended and volunteers give 8-10 hours per month, but this can vary. This means you could do this in addition to a part or full-time job to generate extra funds for your student debt. Volunteer gigs pay $10-$20 per volunteer hour. Once the volunteer organization has verified your hours, SponsorChange pays the funds directly to your loan servicer to apply to your loans.
Considering that college grads now owe in the neighborhood of $29,000-30,000 or more upon graduation (and plenty of industry experts still feel that number is on the low end) a program like SponsorChange is exciting.
That said; if there is a downside it’s that you must live in Pittsburgh, D.C. or Chicago to participate in SponsorChange. Hopefully in the future that may change. Another aspect of the program is that it encourages student involvement to find sponsors to provide “funding.” But on the plus side, this project-based payback program let’s students gain job and leadership experience while giving back to their respective community.
Sign up at SponsorChange.org and make a change in the amount of school debt you are currently shouldering.
