Ruthie Brown Scholarship

It is my pleasure to introduce myself as Pepper, the single mother of five children ranging in age from 14, 11, 6, 2 and 7 months. The amount of income I earn each year is $62,000 based on the assumption that I work 40 hours a week. I also drive Uber and Lyft at night after my children are asleep and on the weekends. Currently, I am taking four classes to complete my undergraduate degree at Howard University on a full-time basis. I have taken out student loans for $62,000 and I have also been awarded PELL grants. Currently, I am a sophomore at Howard University and I am not eligible for student loans since I have reached my undergraduate loan limit. As a mother of five children, I am responsible for supporting myself and my children. Our apartment consists of two bedrooms and one bathroom. All I wish to accomplish is to continue my studies and obtain a promotion to provide for my family and myself. If I am dedicated and perform all tasks with passion in the future, I am confident I will achieve this goal. Hard work, as well as struggles, will be rewarded in life. Due to financial difficulties, I am currently struggling.  As a means of addressing my student debt or student loans, I will complete the following. First of all, I must continue my studies, pray, and ask God for guidance. He will not allow me to fail and will provide for all of my needs. I must continue to believe. As a second step, I would set up automatic payments and find alternative ways to pay my debts to avoid accruing interest. In the third step, I would apply for loan forgiveness. I may qualify for income-driven forgiveness; I may be able to have a portion of my student loans forgiven if I am on an income-driven repayment plan. Upon completion of the repayment period of 20 years or 25 years with these programs, any remaining balance will be forgiven. As a fourth step, ask for a discount. By asking lenders for discounts, I may be able to lower the interest rate. As a fourth step, I should inquire about repayment assistance from my employer. Lastly, I will continue to work to support my studies and the needs of my family.  Problems always have solutions, and I am capable of finding them. Those who are struggling with finances right now will soon experience overflowing prosperity and blessings. Keeping my goal in mind, finishing my studies as soon as possible, and achieving all my dreams for my family are my goals.

I am working/planning to address my current student loan debt by not applying for more student loans while in graduate school. When I was studying to obtain my undergraduate degree. I received 8 loans. Totaling 67,000 with interest. I have not been in default because I managed to pay toward my debt or was in a repayment status resulting in good standing for repayment. I am now pursing my master's degree and would like to pay for tuition with scholarships and grants. I have worked for a church during and after my undergraduate study. Once I graduate I would like to continue my career in ministry, with a concentration in Women's Ministry. I was made aware that forgiveness for my undergraduate loans is not possible because my ministry work was prior to 2007- when the Student Loan Forgiveness Act was signed. Even though this was disheartening to myself and I'm sure others in the same situation, I will continue to press forward knowing that God is working out all things for my highest good. Making great grades and keeping my GPA above 3.0 in graduate school allows me to apply for as many scholarships as I can with higher award amounts. Those higher awards will help me reduce my student loan debt even further because any amount awarded over my tuition balance I will apply to my student loan debt. I plan to continue this method throughout my graduate studies in order to address my student loan debt. I will not add to by debt with more student loans while in graduate school. I know that once I begin my ministry after graduating I will be able to contribute to reducing my student loan debt until my balance is zero or my student loans are forgiven. I am now working at a job that will reimburse me a percentage of my tuition. If my scholarships do not cover all of my tuition and I have to resort to paying out of pocket for tuition, it will still be less money than having to take out a graduate level student loan to pay tuition. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have been blessed with in order to pursue my master's degree totally debt free. As long as I put in the work it will take to maintain excellent grades, apply for scholarships and grants, and stick to my plan above, I will see and benefit from my student loan debt paid in full.