Nathaniel Hall (he/him)

third-year English and creative writing major 

Hall recently applied for student loan forgiveness.

“It definitely made me feel pretty excited. As an English major, there’re a lot of fears on whether you’re going to get a good job opportunity or not. I don’t personally care in the sense that I don’t need to make a bunch of money when I grow up, but I also don’t want to be shackled up with a bunch of debt that I can’t pay off. The idea of student loan forgiveness is very freeing in allowing me to pursue the education that I want.”

Andrea Christian (she/her)

second-year human development and family sciences major

Andrea doesn’t plan to apply for student loan forgiveness.

“I know that I’m really fortunate and I’m not going to have to deal with loans. But I know that a lot of students — the majority of students — do. 

“[Student loan forgiveness] really opens up the opportunity for the students to focus more on other things, not just paying for school, but actually focusing on school.”

“I think for others it’s going to, again, take that stress away. I have a lot of friends who are paying for school fully by themselves. And I just honestly can’t imagine doing that myself. It’s really just such a big stress to put on somebody so young. So I think that this will just really ease that stress”

Jason Lien (he/him)

second-year computer science major

Lien plans to apply for loan forgiveness. 

“It would change my life a lot financially. I think because of student loan forgiveness, I would be able to live life without debt. I’d be debt-free for the most part, and currently, it relieves some stress because I have in the back of my mind that I will be able to afford college.”

Ferila Vele (she/her)

first-year accountancy major

Vele doesn’t plan to apply for loan forgiveness. 

“I’m not originally from Oregon. So I pay out-of-state tuition. So it’s much higher than the in-state tuition.”

“[Student loan forgiveness] can help lessen the burdens someone might have. Because it’s not only tuition we have to worry about in college, as many of the college fees we have to pay after college.”

Loch Gholson (he/him)

second-year electrical engineering major

Gholson hasn’t considered applying for loan forgiveness. 

“I don’t know if it will ever affect me, but I don’t know too much about it. But at least for the short term, I think it’s a really good idea. Especially with the high cost of college, risk versus reward depending on what degree you’re getting.”

Kaley Peterson (she/her)

second-year environmental science major

Peterson plans to apply for loan forgiveness in the future. 

“[Student loan forgiveness is] my saving grace. I’m not paying for college, but my parents are putting three kids through college. So I can only imagine the financial burden that that has. So yes, it would be a blessing from God.”

“It would open up any travel plans that I have with environmental science. I really want to study marine biology. And there’s a lot of cool places. I mean, Oregon is one of them, but a lot of places that I would like to go to study.”

“If I had any medical bills or any car accident or anything like that… just financial comfort, I suppose. Which is a great thing to have. And many of us don’t.”

Nina Souther (she/her)

second-year business marketing manager major

Souther hasn’t applied for loan forgiveness, but would love to in the future. 

“I feel like it means the government’s able to finally give back to the students who worked so hard to go through college and get their education.”

“It’ll definitely be beneficial because obviously I won’t be paying as much as I should be paying and I can use that money towards other things I need in my life.”

Tory Kapple (he/him)

fourth year graphic design major

Kapple has not applied for loan forgiveness but says he should in the future. 

“[Student loan forgiveness] means a potential future. Being able to, you know, not live constantly in debt, have freedom in any capacity of the word.”

“The potential to buy a house would be great. Not living month to month, that kind of stuff.”