Educational debt and vocations

[Swami Mommy]

http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/spiritual-costs-debt

[Spem in alium]

Debt is definitely a problem. When I applied to enter, I had about $40,000 in student loans. Here it's only mandatory to begin paying the loan off if you earn over a certain amount, but the loans do increase every year due to interest rates. I was able to enter as an aspirant and postulant even though I had debt, but I needed to work to pay it off before novitiate. I was able to pay off all my debt at the beginning of this year: I put regular payments from my scholarship stipend (I'm still doing postgrad study at university) onto my debt for about a year and a half. My sisters were also so helpful; typically, aspirants give a fortnightly donation to the community to cover expenses, but in my situation this was waived - sisters told me to put the money I would give them straight on my loan.

[CountrySteve21]

Thank you for the article. I will have to bookmark it.