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Kaitlyn Venta

Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: Hispanic Development Fund

October 13, 2022 by Kaitlyn Venta

As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end, MOCAN is highlighting a program doing great work with Hispanic and Latinx students in Missouri, the Hispanic Development Fund. The mission of the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Development Fund is to improve the quality of life of Latino families in Greater Kansas City by engaging the Latino community in Philanthropy to build stronger communities through grantmaking and scholarship support.

In 1983, the Hall Family Foundation approached leaders in Kansas City’s Hispanic community with an innovative idea for them to control philanthropic resources for their own community. The concept had never been attempted before: to give leaders in the Kansas City Latino community resources for them to decide philanthropic priorities in their own community. Through the leadership of Tony Salazar and others in the community, the group rose to the challenge of investing the initial funds contributed by the Hall Family Foundation. 

The Hispanic Development Fund, or HDF, soon proved the concept could become a reality. In 1986, the Hall Family Foundation made a pledge to further support the fund by helping create an endowment. Over the ensuing years the HDF leadership through hard work and perseverance continued to raise more endowment funds, many from within the Latino community. In 2006, HDF, as a result of its growth and success, became a regional affiliate of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

In 2022, HDF awarded scholarships to 415 scholars, totaling $900,000 in awards. Their Family College Prep Program annually serves more than 1,000 students through college campus visits, family college night, FAFSA/scholarship workshops, and one-on-one college advising.

What started as an initial investment of $100 going towards 100 students in 1984, has grown to one of the country’s largest Latino focused scholarship funds. With nearly 5,000 alumni across the globe and over $7 million in direct scholarship support provided, the HDF Scholarship Program continues to impact the lives of our students and their families.

John Kearney, Executive Director of HDF, shared a few reasons why supporting Hispanic students with scholarships is important:

  1. Hispanics are the fast growing demographic in the United States and contribute to our economy and communities in so many valuable ways.
  2. Although Hispanic students have made significant increases in college-going rates over the past decade, there is still work to be done in supporting Hispanic students in college completion, especially bachelor degree attainment.
  3. 77% of our 2022 HDF Scholars are first-generation college students who need financial and college-going support.
  4. 15% of our 2022 HDF Scholars are undocumented and in a state like Missouri, need significant financial aid to overcome the barriers to post-secondary education put in place by our state’s legislature.

To learn more about the Hispanic Development Fund, you can visit their website and read their annual report.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

September 16, 2022 by Kaitlyn Venta

One year ago, the federal government issued a waiver for many of the requirements for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. These changes expanded the number of borrowers eligible for forgiveness, but are only available until October 31, 2022. Click the image below to take a short eligibility quiz, and keep reading for more information from Federal Student Aid.

What is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program?

PSLF is a loan forgiveness program for borrowers who meet certain criteria including working full time for a qualifying employer (government or non-profit), making 120 qualifying payments, having direct loans, and using an income-driven repayment plan.  Borrowers who meet the qualifications can have the remaining balance of their loans forgiven.

What PSLF requirements are different under the current waiver?

Changes until October 31 include credit for Perkins Loans and FFEL Loans, repayment under any plan, repayment before consolidation, late payments, Teacher Loan Forgiveness counting toward PSLF, and you do not have to currently be working for an eligible employer. Click here to see all changes under the current waiver.

How do I know if my employer qualifies?

Government work at any level (federal, state, local, or tribal) and most non-profit work qualifies.  This includes public school teachers, those that work at public colleges and universities, and government employees. Serving in AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and the military may also qualify. Use this tool from Federal Student Aid to look up your employer.

What loans can be forgiven?

Federal, direct loans qualify for PSLF.  Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Federal Perkins Loans do NOT qualify for PSLF. However, you can consolidate those loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan to become eligible.  Private loans and Parent PLUS loans do NOT qualify for PSLF.  To find out what type of loans you have, log in to Federal Student Aid.

How many payments do I need to make?

You must make 120 monthly payments to qualify for PSLF. Under the current waiver, payments that would not have previously counted towards the 120 payments may now count. The suspended payments through COVID-19 also count toward the 120 required payments.

Is this different than the $10,000-$20,000 loan forgiveness recently announced by President Biden?

YES! PSLF is a program with specific requirements and you must apply to receive the benefits.

I think I qualify, what should I do next?

You can use the PSLF Help Tool from Federal Student Aid to confirm your eligibility and complete and submit the PSLF form.

Act now to take advantage of the expanded eligibility under the waiver that expires October 31, 2022.

Filed Under: Affordability, Did You Know?

Federal Student Loan Forgiveness

August 25, 2022 by Kaitlyn Venta

UPDATE 11/29/22 – From Federal Student Aid “Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program. As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders. If you’ve already applied, we’ll hold your application. Subscribe and check back here for updates. We will post information as soon as further updates are available.”


On Wednesday August 24, the Biden administration announced student loan forgiveness for more than 40 million borrowers. Pell recipients can have up to $20,000 in loans forgiven, and other borrowers up to $10,000.  Borrowers must have annual incomes below $125,000 if single or $250,000 if married to qualify.  The Department of Education will have an application for borrowers in the coming weeks. Sign up for email updates from the department at ed.gov/subscriptions.

Image by Elly from Pixabay

The department also announced that student loan repayment will resume in January 2023.  A new income-based repayment plan has been proposed that would cap payments at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income.  Borrowers should contact their loan servicer to see if they qualify for this program.

Borrowers need to be aware of scams around loan forgiveness. Do not share personal information over the phone, do not pay someone to complete a loan forgiveness application, and only apply through the official government application which has not been released. Learn more about how to avoid these scams.

Additionally, there are limited time changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program that expire October 31, 2022. Learn more about the PSLF waiver here.

For more information see the links below:

Federal Student Aid

Frequently Asked Questions from Federal Student Aid

U.S. Department of Education

National College Attainment Network

The Education Trust

Filed Under: Affordability

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