MONTPELIER, Vt. VSECU has awarded $15,000 in student loan debt repayment during the second year of its member award program, Student LIFT.
Student Loan Independence for Today (LIFT) is a program through which the credit union eases the burden of monthly student loan payments for three recipients of $5,000 each, totaling $15,000 in repayment awards. This year the Student LIFT program added a new category recognizing those who were the first in their family to attend college. 2013 applicants were able to apply for one of the following awards: Financial Literacy, Service to Vermonters or First Generation. Each category has different requirements, offering award opportunities for applicants with diverse interests and talents.
“The ability to make monthly student loan payments, coupled with the difficulty of finding a job, paying for other expenses or taking care of dependents, can be financially challenging for recent and not so recent graduates,” said Steve Post, VSECU’s chief executive officer. “With our Student LIFT program, VSECU makes the monthly student loan payment directly to the lender for the award recipients. For a person with a monthly student loan payment of $350, the $5,000 award will cover about a year of repayments. This year VSECU will be making a student loan payment for one of our award recipients for 38 consecutive months.”
