Borrower Stories – Jess

Helping Dreams Come True with an Education Loan

Jess came to HFLSD after hearing about the program from her local Chabad. She was looking for funding to help cover the cost of a PhD program in Clinical Psychology. Jess is going straight to graduate school after completing her BA from Cal State San Marcos in Psychology so did not have lots of money saved. Jess was determined to pay for her advanced degree herself, but had “never taken out loans, let alone huge, high-interest student loans, in my life; it was really scary and overwhelming. The federal loans were my only option because they don’t charge you during school. I knew it was what I had to do to achieve my ultimate goals. But with HFLSD, having the opportunity to lower my interest rate and take out less money from the expensive federal loans helped to get through those feelings that might have made me second guess going”  This loan will enable Jess to fulfill her dream of being a clinical psychologist and spend her life “helping people during my 9-5, instead of doing something that wasn’t really contributing to making the world better for people.”