Tempestt Hazel graduated from Columbia College with $25,000 in student loans and a keen awareness that she was going to need to start paying them off if she didn’t head straight to graduate school.
So the Bronzeville resident put herself on Lilyslist.com, an online student loan registry.
“I see it as a kick-starter, an online resource for people to get creative process funding,” said Hazel, who studied art history and visual arts management and is currently working on a nonprofit startup archiving local contemporary art projects. “You get people to come and donate different amounts toward your cause.”
She said she has received a few small anonymous donations toward her loans, which she said was “shocking, though it could have very well been family members.”
Lily’s List is an Internet startup designed by a group of suburban Riverside moms to provide debt-laden graduates a way to get help paying off their debt. The Project on Student Debt estimated in 2008 the average student loan load for graduating seniors was $23,200.
At lilyslist.com, family and friends — or even a generous anonymous benefactor — can direct gifts toward debt instead of writing a check or buying a sweater for birthdays or graduation.
Read the full story at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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